# When your group is the butt of the joke **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 17, 2015, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-group-is-the-butt-of-the-joke/712932 "2015-02-17T17:57:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-group-is-the-butt-of-the-joke/712932/21 "2015-02-18T01:17:52Z")
> [@Sauron](#): > > What miniseries was it that Patrick Swayze played a Confederate soldier from the deep South? That was one of the worst Southern accents I’ve ever heard in the media. North & South ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-group-is-the-butt-of-the-joke/712932/22 "2015-02-18T02:11:00Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > I can’t think of any particularly insulting Chicago area jokes. I mean, stuff like “The Superfans” gets more of a “Ha ha, boy I know guys like that”. Closest I can think of is some New York guys I know online playing the “You guys have terrible pizza” game but that’s hardly anything to take to personally. > > I’m sure Wisconsin and Indiana people have some choice jokes but they’re in WI and IN so who cares? 😉 Are you not familiar with the mocking of your accent, a la SNL’s “Da Bearss” skit?😛 Also, your state’s unofficial moniker is the “Second City”. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-group-is-the-butt-of-the-joke/712932/23 "2015-02-18T03:24:32Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > Are you not familiar with the mocking of your accent, a la SNL’s “Da Bearss” skit?😛 I already mentioned the Superfans skit. I don’t know of anyone who didn’t enjoy them. As for the accent, heck, we’ve got a radio station here that [does movie reviews doing the same thing](http://wxrt.cbslocal.com/2015/02/10/enjoy-jupiter-ascending-for-what-it-is-and-find-out-what-it-is-from-the-regular-guy/). > [@](#): > > Also, **your state’s** unofficial moniker is the “Second City”. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. (Bolding mine) Now THAT’s a good way to rile up some downstate folks 😛 ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-group-is-the-butt-of-the-joke/712932/24 "2015-02-18T03:29:49Z")
As long as there is that grain of truth, or perceived truth, have at it. Lord knows I’ve probably “picked” on everyone and every group at least once in my life. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-group-is-the-butt-of-the-joke/712932/25 "2015-02-18T03:42:18Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > I already mentioned the Superfans skit. I don’t know of anyone who didn’t enjoy them. As for the accent, heck, we’ve got a radio station here that [does movie reviews doing the same thing](http://wxrt.cbslocal.com/2015/02/10/enjoy-jupiter-ascending-for-what-it-is-and-find-out-what-it-is-from-the-regular-guy/). > > (Bolding mine) Now THAT’s a good way to rile up some downstate folks 😛 Whoops! Of course I was refering to Chicago with the Second City crack. As an aside, I and my best, lifelong girlfriend actively worked at losing our ( and still actively mock) Southern Califonia accents and now she has the thickest Chicago accent I’ve ever heard. Every time she givea me an update on her Maaaahm, I internally crack up. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-group-is-the-butt-of-the-joke/712932/26 "2015-02-18T04:17:43Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > As long as there is that grain of truth, or perceived truth, have at it. Lord knows I’ve probably “picked” on everyone and every group at least once in my life. I think one of the reasons for so many in-group or almost-in-group jokes is that someone is a lot more likely to know stereotypes and embarrasing truths for his own group and neighboring ones than for someone in the other end of the world. I’ve often been part of kidding sessions which left “outsiders” not so much outside the kidding team as punted out of the solar system, they had no idea what was going on. To me it also depends on delivery, and on whether it’s actually mean-ness disguised as humor or actual humor which may or may not match mine. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-group-is-the-butt-of-the-joke/712932/27 "2015-02-18T05:46:17Z")
I’m Jewish, with a dark complexion, a big nose, a Jewfro, and a New York accent (albeit a faded one from years in the mid-West). I don’t mind jokes with a grain of truth, but the moment someone says we’re cheap, or that the “old” testament is awful and bloodthirsty compared to the kind and gentle “new” one, I cry foul. Most non-Jews have not read the whole of the Jewish scriptures, nor even the entire Torah, and there are certainly lots of awful things in the gospels (there’s that whole nasty crucifixion bit) and the book called Revelation, which is scary and stomach-turning. I could cherry-pick some things from the epistles and Acts if I wanted to as well. On the whole, I love Jewish jokes, though. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-group-is-the-butt-of-the-joke/712932/28 "2015-02-18T06:20:38Z")
I love lawyer jokes, as they are really just accurate reports on events with the names obscured to avoid lawsuits. As a life-long native of California, and having lived in both the Southland and the SF Bay Area, _The Californians_ is very much a Los Angeles, Ventura and Orange County thing. The “funny” part is that 20 million people use the same interstate freeways like a dozen streets in a rural small town burb, making the place seem smaller. Damn it is geographically huge for somewhere outside of Asia. The accents are all wrong, and nobody lives a soap opera like that (I hope). ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-group-is-the-butt-of-the-joke/712932/29 "2015-02-18T06:36:22Z")
I laugh at Jeff Foxworthy’s “You might be a redneck” humor but get real annoyed if some New York liberal tries to do the same. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-group-is-the-butt-of-the-joke/712932/30 "2015-02-18T06:55:21Z")
I want to meet whoever that one person was from southern Appalachia who convinced Hollywood we say “anythin’,” because we don’t. Now, we do say “nothin’.” And we do say “somethin’.” But anybody with a drop of Scotch-Irish blood knows it’s always pronounced “anything” heard as “anythang”, seein’s how we retain the “g” wherever it feels right and even add one on when it feels better, as in “mounting” for mountain. But otherwise I’m okay with the hillbilly thing and can usually do you one better if we’re cracking jokes about it. It is distinctive and probably recognized in other countries whereas a mid-western accent wouldn’t be. We all generalize and stereotype to get the drift quicker. But it wouldn’t hurt Hollywood to hire voice coaches who are actually from the hills. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-group-is-the-butt-of-the-joke/712932/31 "2015-02-18T13:19:32Z")
In the last year or two, a lot of comedians have gone really hard on the whole “Florida is batshit crazy” angle, and I can really do is sigh and agree. Hard to be mad when the jokes are spot-on accurate. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-group-is-the-butt-of-the-joke/712932/32 "2015-02-18T13:30:04Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > In the last year or two, a lot of comedians have gone really hard on the whole “Florida is batshit crazy” angle, and I can really do is sigh and agree. > > Hard to be mad when the jokes are spot-on accurate. True story, **Johnny**. :o My mother used to ask me regularly “what the hell kind of state are you living in?” . That was, of course until California elected The Governator. Then she didn’t have much room to talk. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-group-is-the-butt-of-the-joke/712932/33 "2015-02-18T13:45:16Z")
As a Texan, I look skeptically on those who point out how batshit our Republicans are. This is not news to me. The Late Great Molly Ivins tried to warn the country about W but far too many non-Texans voted for him. Following her lead, the _Texas Observer_ gathered its evidence against Ricky Perry, should he get the presidential nomination. Not needed–& no doubt he’ll shoot himself in the foot again. Yet another Aggie Joke. (And I know some A&M graduates who actually have brains.) I live in the country’s most diverse city, with a lesbian mayor; I don’t know anyone who admits to voting Republican. However, I am quite aware that Texas has more than its share of rabidly fundamentalist racist xenophobic gun nuts; it’s a big state. (All of them do not check \*all \*those boxes. And some of my friends own guns–they just don’t go to bed with them.) Let Ray Wiley Hubbard (actually an Oklahoman) explain how [the problem with irony is that not everybody gets it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-cFtSPIF4Q)… [A bit of reminiscence,](http://bigbendnow.com/2011/08/fort-davis-house-party-recalls-vintage-austin-vibes/) featuring Ray Wiiley’s first infamous “hit”: > [@](#): > > When we lived in Washington, D.C. we always attended the Texas State Society’s Black Tie and Boots Inaugural Ball, held every four years. It was the best of all the inaugural balls, strictly non-partisan, with superb entertainment direct from Texas. > > The 1989 ball honored George H.W. Bush, and we arrived to find about 3,000 people crammed into one of four adjoining ballrooms at the Washington Hilton, awaiting the arrival of the new president and his wife. > > The first person we saw was Molly Ivins, who said, “Let’s get out of here. Jerry Jeff Walker is playing his heart out to about 20 people in the next room.” > > We followed Molly into the next room, and sure enough there was Jerry Jeff, surrounded by a very small group of Texans, including a sextet of bejeweled and beautifully coifed Midland matrons in evening gowns. They had Petroleum Club Republican written all over them, but when Jerry Jeff broke into “Up Against the Wall” they joined right in. > > My wife, who had never lived in Texas, was open-mouth astonished. > > “They know all the words,” she said. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-group-is-the-butt-of-the-joke/712932/34 "2015-02-18T14:27:43Z")
Wow, the accents were horrid. You don’t get on 405 North. You get on _the_ 405 North. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-group-is-the-butt-of-the-joke/712932/35 "2015-02-18T15:05:19Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > I can’t think of any particularly insulting Chicago area jokes. Cubs. One word says it all. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-group-is-the-butt-of-the-joke/712932/36 "2015-02-18T15:07:24Z")
> [@teela\_brown](#): > > I’m blonde. I try to tolerate with a smile the blonde jokes, but sometimes it’s hard. … My brother’s wife is a natural blonde. Well she’s gray now but that’s OK; she’s earned it. Anyhow, for years she had a bumper sticker which said “Dumb blondes have dark roots”. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-group-is-the-butt-of-the-joke/712932/37 "2015-02-18T15:09:21Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Cubs. > > One word says it all. See, there is crying in baseball. If you are a Cubs fan. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-group-is-the-butt-of-the-joke/712932/38 "2015-02-18T16:04:19Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Cubs. > > One word says it all. But, again, I don’t know of anyone who’d get upset by that. More of a meek agreement. I’ll admit I’m speaking for myself and my circle. Maybe there’s someone out there legitimately offended or indignant by Cubs jokes. Or accent jokes. Or jokes about all our governors going to prison. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-group-is-the-butt-of-the-joke/712932/39 "2015-02-18T16:27:04Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Cubs. > > One word says it all. The proud few wear our pain as a badge of honor. Some days it takes real balls to walk out the front door in a Cubs cap. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-group-is-the-butt-of-the-joke/712932/40 "2015-02-18T17:55:55Z")
Heck, I’m the one telling jokes about my own groups half the time. I still like the joke about Italian cars with flat tires: Dago wop-wop-wop. Or Polish submarines with screen doors. And Seattle? Seriously, we deserve every joke that’s ever been made about Seattle. PEMCO’s commercial about “socks and sandals guy” is priceless. I really am of the opinion that if you can’t take the joke and run with it, you need to lighten up in general. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-group-is-the-butt-of-the-joke/712932.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-group-is-the-butt-of-the-joke/712932.md?page=3)