# Where's the little girl? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 27, 2017, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-the-little-girl/789988 "2017-06-27T13:24:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2017, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-the-little-girl/789988/141 "2017-07-02T10:40:53Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Really? People say you’re oversensitive for not rubbing a child’s death in the aggrieved parents’ faces? > > I have a pretty dark sense of humor, but Jesus. I’ve been known to tell “blonde jokes”, but no; too soon. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2017, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-the-little-girl/789988/142 "2017-07-02T12:25:38Z")
> [@DKW](#): > > Let’s say an oncoming semi appears, and the cops’ wild shooting terrifies the driver so much that he swerves into them and upends both police cars, and the final shot is the cops wailing and crying for their mommies. Such cruel irony! Or the man watches, anguished, as the cars disappear into the distance…then he suddenly smirks and removes his disguise revealing, gasp, he…or rather she _was_ the girl all along! She chuckles evilly at pulling one over the law before getting back into the car and calmly driving off. What a twist! Now THOSE would’ve been proper payoffs. Not enough for me to favorite it or anything, but at least it wouldn’t come across as a complete waste of time. I still like the idea of the little girl springing from behind the pole and calmly raining bullets on them. Then, when some of them manage to get to their cars and speed away, she runs after them with like dude from Terminator 2. If they made the “little girl” actually be a _baby_–extra points if she’s dolled up in pink and ruffles–then that would be the extra layer of absurdity that would ensure near universal funniness. In terms of irony, it would also lampoon the sexist suggestion that little girls are weak and cowardly. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2017, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-the-little-girl/789988/143 "2017-07-02T13:06:28Z")
> [@DKW](#): > > I get that we’re supposed to hate the cops. I get that they’re the bad guys. I get that completely missing the actual girl was a mark against them. I get all that. People are reading _far_ more into the joke than is there. There are no good guys or bad guys because the butt of the joke was\* the English language\*. They were saying “where is the little girl”, implying that there was a little girl missing but in the end revealing that they really were searching for someone who would react strongly, matching the common figure of speech " crying like a little girl." It is a _pune_, or play on words, like “_the leopard can’t change his shorts._” I believe that if some of you reading this thread look up, you may still see the “whoosh” above you, because it was so high up it is in geosynchronous orbit. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2017, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-the-little-girl/789988/144 "2017-07-02T14:06:47Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > Many of us have already explained why we don’t think it’s funny. It’s bullshit that “girl” is used as a fucking insult or a punchline. “Where’s the little baby” would have worked just as fine for me. > [@](#): > > Is it acceptable to use racial stereotypes as “unexpected” punchlines? For certain types of humor, absolutely. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2017, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-the-little-girl/789988/145 "2017-07-02T14:57:15Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > “Where’s the little baby” would have worked just as fine for me. Yeah. Absolutely _nothing_ about the “humorousness” of his joke would have been changed by substituting “baby” for “girl.” Babies cry. “Cry like a baby” is every bit as common an expression as “cry like a little girl.” (629,000 Google results to 626,000). And that would have taken the misogynistic “insult a male by referring to him as a female” vibe out of it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-the-little-girl/789988.md?page=7)