There are just so many different kinds of jokes. Some are liable to offend someone. So the teller should be aware of his audience. Some dark humor is funny exactly because it is so horrible: dead baby jokes; what do you call a man with no arms and legs…, leper jokes… And even some jokes that make fun of race/gender/religion/sexual preference.
Of course, I’m the kid w/ the last name ending in “ski” who grew up knowing every Polack joke there was.
For me the humor is mainly in the wordplay, and the unexpected punchline. Yeah, maybe the punchline is unexpected - and thereby humorous - because it is so awful. And, of course, context matters. Is the teller TRYING to be mean, or saying something they think clever and amusing?
My favorites are clean “dad” jokes. “What is orange and sounds like a parrot?” But I can enjoy both clean and blue comics. I don’t get it when folk claim certain types of jokes are not funny because of the subject. They might be in poor taste. Or offensive. Or rude. But if you don’t find it funny, don’t laugh. And if you are offended, feel free to say so.
Heck, I doubt we would all even agree entirely on a definition of “rape”.
Argue all you want about how no one has a sense of humor any more because you can’t make lightbulb jokes or worse. I think it’s an interesting debate to talk about how societal mores have changed. However, they have in fact changed, and that impacts humor just like everything else.
Don’t tell “blue” jokes on this message board. Don’t tell jokes about women (or men) and questionable consent. Don’t tell Pollack jokes. Don’t tell Black jokes. Don’t tell Blonde jokes. Don’t tell Jewish jokes. Don’t tell jokes about people with different genders than yours. Don’t tell jokes about people with different religions than yours. Don’t make jokes about the disabled.
Don’t tell jokes that you think might be offensive. If you are unsure of the line, stick with dad jokes.
If you cannot determine how to tell a joke without being a jerk then do not tell jokes.
When does a joke become a dad joke?
When it’s a parent.
I don’t have a problem with blond jokes. Hair color doesn’t seem to me to be on the same level as race or gender. I’m also cool with professional jokes like lawyer jokes.
What’s wrong with blonde jokes? In the US, that would be a group that is about 95% a voluntary fashion choice. Could we substitute women who wear leggings for blondes? How about guys that wear mom jeans?
I don’t think you meant to use that word. I tell Pollack jokes all the time. Great fish out of water stories.
A blond man is in the bathroom and his wife shouts: “Did you find the shampoo?”
He answers, “Yes, but I’m not sure what to do… it’s for dry hair, and I’ve already wet mine.”
A blond man sees a letter lying on his doormat. It says on the envelope “DO NOT BEND.”
He spends the next two hours trying to figure out how to pick it up.
A blond man shouts frantically into the phone, “My wife is pregnant and her contractions are only two minutes apart.”
“Is this her first child?” asks the doctor.
“No,” he shouts. “This is her husband.”
A tourist asks a blond man: “Why do scuba divers always fall backwards off their boats?”
The blond man replies: “Duh, if they fell forward, they’d still be in the boat.”
A friend told the blond man: “Christmas is on a Friday this year.”
The blond man then said, “Let’s hope it’s not the 13th.”
Two blond men find three grenades, and they decide to take them to a police station.
One asked: “What if one explodes before we get there?”
The other says: “We’ll lie and say we only found two.”
A woman phoned her blond male neighbor and said: “Close your curtains the next time you and your wife are intimate. The whole street was watching and laughing at you yesterday.”
To which the blond man replied, “Well the joke’s on all of you because I wasn’t even at home yesterday.”
A blond man goes to the vet with his goldfish. “I think it’s got epilepsy,” he tells the vet.
The vet takes a look and says, “It seems calm enough to me.”
The blond man says, “Wait, I haven ‘t taken it out of the bowl yet.”
A blond man was driving home, drunk as a skunk. Suddenly he has to swerve to avoid a tree, then another, then another. A cop car pulls him over, so he tells the cop about all the trees in the road.
The cop says, “That ‘s your air freshener swinging about.”
A blond man ‘s dog goes missing and he is frantic. His wife says “Why don’t you put an ad in the paper?”
He does, but two weeks later the dog is still missing.
“What did you put in the paper?” his wife asks.
“Here boy!” he replies.
Or, you know, you are totally overreacting. According to your standards, we can’t tell a joke about, nerds, jocks, lawyers, doctors, gamers, or Karens. From now on all jokes will start out A, B and C walked into a bar and the D asked…
Conversely, maybe it’s instructive and a little telling about a blind spot of the board culture in and of itself that given two polls, one of which has less than a third of respondents saying “I don’t think it’s offensive” and the other of which is currently running 11:1 for women saying they find it offensive, one’s takeaway might be “welp, gosh, can’t tell a joke without offending someone I guess, what can you do?” What can you do?
I’d agree that the punk rockers redefined the word from its original prison usage. The word for the punk’s predator/pimp was “jocker,” which is entirely dead usage.
I still take issue with the casual use of “jerk.” Considering that a lot of bad male sexual activity: assault, coercion, trafficking, etc. would be lessened if guys didn’t receive the message clear and early “only losers can’t get laid.”
They don’t need to poke at any group. You can take the blondness out of them entirely, and you don’t need to substitute some other specific batch to be sneered at; they can all be aimed at yourself, or at nobody in particular.
Somebody’s in the bathroom and his spouse shouts: “Did you find the shampoo?”
They answer, “Yes, but I’m not sure what to do… it’s for dry hair, and I’ve already wet mine.”
I found a letter lying on the doormat. It said on the envelope “DO NOT BEND.”
I spent the next two hours trying to figure out how to pick it up.
A frantic spouse shouts into the phone, “My wife is pregnant and her contractions are only two minutes apart.”
“Is this her first child?” asks the doctor.
“No,” comes the reply. “This is her husband.”
A tourist asks another: “Why do scuba divers always fall backwards off their boats?”
The reply: “Duh, if they fell forward, they’d still be in the boat.”
One friend to another: “Christmas is on a Friday this year.”
Second friend: “Let’s hope it’s not the 13th.”
Two people walking down the street find three grenades, and they decide to take them to a police station.
One asked: “What if one explodes before we get there?”
The other says: “We’ll lie and say we only found two.”
One neighbor phoned another and said: [etc.]
A customer came in to the vet with a goldfish [etc]
A drunkard was driving home [etc]
A dog went missing, and the owner was frantic [etc]
– they’re the exact same jokes, and they’re equally funny or not funny. There’s nothing about them that requires aiming them at any group other than humans in general.
Unless, of course, what’s found funny about them is the opportunity to aim them at somebody: that is, unless the meanness is the point.
The original meaning’s probably rotten wood, for what that’s worth.
I, like puzzlegal, didn’t know the sense you’re using.
Neither of which really has as much to do with the current issue as the question of whether your meanings are the ones that significant numbers of people think of when they hear the words used as the common insults. I don’t associate either one of them that way; but if that is a common association, then I’ll quit using them – not that I used either of them much anyway. I’d tend to use “ass”, which while rather unfair to an essential body part does have the advantage that everybody’s got one.
Interesting. Whenever I’ve heard/seen “dumb blonde” jokes, they’ve always been aimed at women. Maybe that’s just my particular experience.
Let’s see, somebody already did a poll in this thread, didn’t they? Maybe I can too. Pick one, please:
All or almost all the “dumb blonde” jokes I’ve heard or seen were aimed at a woman.
All or almost all the “dumb blond” jokes I’ve heard or seen were aimed at a man.
I’ve heard or seen about equal “dumb blond/e” jokes aimed at both men and women…
Most of the “dumb blond/e” jokes I’ve heard or seen didn’t specify the gender of the person/s they were aimed at.