In England we have the jokes that begin :- There was an Englishman, an Irishman, and a Scotsman… and the Irishman is the joke.
In America I believe the Polish are the butt of these jokes. Why? Who is the third memeber in the group? And who is the butt of the joke in other countries?
I have to leave you with a joke I suppose. One I’m sure you’ve all heard…
An Englishman, an Irishman, and a Scotsman get arrested urinating into a fountain on holiday in Spain. They get arrested and put in prison for a year. Before their cell doors are closed, not to be opened for 12 months (jeez these Spaniards are tough aren’t they?), each of them is given one wish.
The Englishman asks for a grand piano. ‘I’ve always wanted to learn a musical instrument and this seems like the perfect opportunity’.
The Scotsman asks for 2 dozen crates of Whiskey.
The Irishman asks for 365 packets of cigarettes.
A year passes. As the guard approaches the Englishman’s cell he hears Rakmaninov being played beautifully. The Englishman is freed. Opening the Scotsmans door and the smell is overpowering. The Scotsman pushes past him, bleery eyed, and is freed. The door to the Irishmans cell is now opened. The Irishman is stood at the door with a cigarette in his mouth. He asks - ‘Got a light?’
The third member of the group is the “set up” who does or says something that bridges between the first person and the idiot.
Some of the common buts of jokes here in the U.S. include, New Yorkers, Texans and Southerners.
In the northern Midwest you can hear jokes about an Iowan, Minnesotan and Wisconsoner walking into a Lutheran church social, but you really have to be familiar with the stereotypes.
Maybe it’s because the British are uncomfortable with the obvious cultural superiority of the Gael… heh…
An Englishman, a Scotsman, and an Irishman walk into a pub, sit at the bar, and order a pint each. As they’re sitting their, three flies simultaneously land in their pints.
The Englishman gets a sick look on his face, pushes his pint away, and orders another.
The Scotsman fishes the fly out, flicks it away, and nonchalantly continues drinking.
The Irishman fishes the fly out, holds it by the wings, and shouts “Spit it out, ya bastard!!!”
Polish jokes are pretty 70’s.
Nowadays, we in the States are far too Politically Correct to have an official butt of jokes. Which makes for great diversity. Any nationality, race, sexually orientaion, religious faction etc, can be the butt of any joke, depending entirely on who you want to piss off.
In a prison, a Scotsman, an Irishman, and an Englishman are all sentenced to be flogged. The warden tells them that each can request something to blunt the pain.
The Scotsman says: “I’ll have a quart of Scots whisky.”
The Irishman says: “I’ll have a quart of Irish whiskey.”
The Englishman says: “I’ll have the Irishman tied onto my back.”
Stimpy, what, precisely, is the General Question here? I don’t want another thread full of ethnic jokes in this forum and there is no shortage of threads discussing the history of them.
Please take some time to do a thorough archive search and come back if there remains a General Question.
i apologise, i should have simplified the question. i merely wanted to know why the polish (although i now hear from Jack that this was a 70’s thing - but it was going strong when i visited Kentucky 3 years back!) were the butt of our version of the englishman, irishman, scotsman jokes.
Well, why stereotype anyone? For the Polish, the stereotype is big and dumb (though I’ve learned that they can also be fast, earning them a few Olympic medals).
That’s just for jokes that rely on the butt being dumb.
For angry drunks, you can use Irish or Scots. For pansies you can go with Brits or the French. To make fun of a Canadian, we always make them say “aboot”.
Mmmm, but what do Polish people have to do with America? Are there pockets of Polish people… oh wait… The Deer Hunter, were THEY Polish? I remember one of them was quite big with a beard and said ‘Fuck It’ a lot.
Well, I was going to wait for the thread to be moved somewhere, but I guess I won’t. I present this joke as an indication that Americans in general are capable of making fun of anyone, there is no preferred butt of our jokes. Those that keep with only one target are frowned upon, either as racists or at least as lacking imagination.
An Englishman, a Frenchman, and an American crash their plane on an island inhabited by cannibals. They are captured, and the chief explains that their culture will not allow outsiders to live. However, they allow the captives to choose the manner of their deaths. If the tribe considers it an honorable and courageous death, they will respect the deceased’s own customs, and bury the body. If, however, they feel the person has died a cowardly death, they will make stew from their flesh and canoes from their tanned hide.
The Englishman steps forward, and asks for a sword. He is given one, and promtly falls upon it. The crowd appreciates the way he met his end, and the chief orders the body buried.
The Frenchman asks for his pistol. He shoots himself with out so much as flinching. The chief orders the body buried.
The American steps up, and asks for a dinner fork. The tribe is confused, but gives it to him. The American begins to stab himself with the fork, shouting, “Here’s your f$%*ing canoe!”
Saltire, I think you missed the point there. manhattan wasn’t saying that the thread was likely to get moved, he was saying that it’s likely to get closed, as it really isn’t a good thing for this message board to have that sort of thing floating about. Many of our members might not care about PC, but there’s plenty of lawyers that do.
I realize that there is a General Question here (why are various groups traditionally the butt of jokes, and what group fills that role in various countries), but it looks like that question has approximately zero chance of getting answered, so I’m closing this.