I receive the following joke via e-mail. But when I read it, I felt strangely unsatisfied, like a man driving home with his takeout burger and realizing with his first bite that they forgot the pickle slices. So I’m soliciting opinions, which profession / social group / other human classification would make this joke funny, yet polite enough that Miss Manners would laugh at it.
P.S. to encourage greater impartiality, I removed the original profession mentioned in the e-mail I received.
My first two thoughts seem rather obvious: a lawyer or an IRS agent.
Republican? That kinda fits. 
A moderator? 
Well, to be honest, the first thing that I thought of was ‘Politician.’
My first thought was “Organ Donor”. True, that’s not a profession, but so what?
My first thought was ‘lawyer’, too.
Aren’t most politicians lawyers?
A leper. I think that would really work.
[sub]or possibly a viralogist[/sub]
A kleptomaniac? Although i don’t think that counts as a profession…
Perhaps a gynecologist or a proctologist? I wouldn’t let either profession shake my hand.
Well, Crunchy Frog hit the nail on the head, when I read the joke, the profession mentioned was “tax collector”, but as C.F. says, I thought that was too obvious. So far I like the idea of “kleptomaniac” or maybe “virologist” or “leper”.
As far as Montfort’s suggestion goes, I think he’s quite wrong. As moderators, we are quite willing and able to give you a serious load of grief for dissing one of our august tribe. :mad:
Nothing personal, but this sounds like it was once a Jewish slur.
One test Miss Manners has stated for whether a joke is offensive or not is to put your own group into the blank.
If it’s no longer funny to you, then it’s not really funny.
So, since Moderator won’t fit, Miss Manners would never laugh at it.
“Advice columnist.”
It’s almost as good as leper.
I thought the same as richman. It sounds like a shakespearian moneylender. Banker?
Well, that’s crappy logic. People are different. You’d be hard pressed to find a joke that makes fun of theatre people or artists that offends me. Most of those jokes are true.
Anyway, how about “Unemployed”? “What is your profession?” “I’m unemployed!”
Or “Movie Star”.
The unemployed do have to take more than they can give, obviously, but most are generous with what they have. The rich are a lot stingier.