SHOCK HORROR: The Folklore of Disaster
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Ethnic slur jokes have proven to be one of the most virulent of all joke types. This genre works on the assumption that a particular race has a universal and usually unpleasant trait and therefore to joke abuse. Poles are usually considered dumb, being Jewish or Scottish equates to miserly behaviour, French men are over-sexed, Japanese are inscrutable, Germans are control freaks, black Americans have oversized penises and so on. The Irish for some reason have been the brunt of stupidity jokes for far too long and like all racist jokes one needs to look at history to uncover how such a traditional reputation evolved into common attitude. It seems that every race has a joke enemy and locally we would need to look across the Tasman to see how our New Zealand neighbours retaliate for all those awful Kiwi and sheep jokes Australians insist on telling. Our indigenous Australians have also been unfairly targeted as lazy and rowdy. As for the rest of us – we only have to look at how the British see us – noisy, uncouth and a bunch of Bazza McKenzies. Rest assured there are plenty of Aussie jokes that are far from flattering.
Here is an ethnic slur joke that, interestingly enough, circulated the day after Australia defeated Uruguay in the World Cup in November, 2001:
| Seeing how the All Blacks were motivated by performing The Haka before their world cup games, the other nations were asked to suggest rituals of their own....
The England team will chat about the weather, wave hankies in the air and attach bells to their ankles for a while before moaning about how they invented the game, and gave it to the world, and how it's not fair that everyone can beat them now. The Scotland team will realise they only have fourteen players and recruit a Jamaican living in East Anglia who has never been north of Doncaster. The Ireland team will spilt into two, with the Southern half performing a Riverdance, while the Northerners march the Traditional route from their dressing room to the pitch, via their opponents dressing room. Unfortunately the Welsh suggestion has been vetoed by the RSPCA. Argentina will unexpectedly invade a small part of opposition territory, claim it as their own Las In-Goals-Areas and then be forceably removed by the stewards. Two members of the South African team will claim to be more important than the other thirteen whom they will corral between the posts whilst they claim the rest of the pitch for themselves. The Americans will not be there until half time. In future years they will alter the records to show that they were in fact the most important team in the tournament and Hollywood will make a film called Saving No 8 Lyle. Five of the Canadian team will sing La Marsaillaise and hold the rest of the side to ransom. The Italian team will arrive in red sports cars, sexually harass the female stewards and then run away. The Spanish will sneak into the other half of the pitch, mow it, and then claim that it was all in line with the European grass quotas. They will then curl up under the posts and have a kip until half time. The Japanese will attempt to strengthen their team by offering good salaries to the key opposition players (over 35) and then run around the pitch at high speed in a highly efficient manner before buying the ground (with a subsidy from the UK Government). The French will declare they have new scientific evidence that the opposition are in fact all mad. They will then park lorries across the halfway line, let sheep loose in the opposition half and burn the officials. The Australians will have a barbie before negotiating lucrative singing and TV contracts in the UK. They will then invite their mates to come and live with them in Shepherds Bush before beating up all the women on the touchline. |
The recent world events produced the following joke, which was collected in several variants. The British version featured a Liverpudlian, the American version featured a Texan and there was also a Polish version from Philadelphia.
Q: Did you hear about the Irish security forces that surrounded a Dublin department store?
A: They had a hot tip that Gossamer Bed Linen was on the third floor.
Q: Did you hear that Ireland sent their best undercover agent to kill Osama bin Laden?
A: Unfortunately she got her anthrax mixed up with the tampax and blew up the wrong cunt.
Then there's the Polish terrorist who tried to crash the A-Train into the
World Trade Center.
And from our own ugly backyard:
"The media haven't got clear details yet, but I have it on good authority that over the weekend, raids by the Federal Police caught three aboriginal terrorists. Bin Smokin and Bin Drinkin were taken into custody along with Bin Stealin. A fourth terrorist, Bin Workin, could not be found......." |
After I had received the above I discovered a variant from Britain with a different bunch of discriminated culprits:
| 'Latest news reports advise that a cell of 4 terrorists has been operating in Merseyside, Liverpool. Police advised earlier today that 3 of the 4 have been detained.TheMerseyside Regional Police Commissioner stated that the terrorists Bin Thievin, Bin Drinkin and Bin Fightin have been arrested on immigration issues. The Police advise further that they can find no one fitting the description of the fourth cell member, Bin Workin, in the area.Police are confident that anyonewho looks like Workin will be very easy tospot in the community.' |
And then out of the blue comes another Australian variant:
| Townsville: The names of the brotherhood are : Bin Fishin, Bin Drinkin, Bin Bludgin. And the brother authorities cannot find is Bin Workin. |
The fact that the above ethnic slur/terrorist joke has been circulated in more than one country begs the question of its original birth. It could, of course, have been an American slur joke, however the fact remains that an Australian version exists and that means someone had to localise it and ‘launch’ it into cyberspace.
Of course the ethnic slur joke rules supreme when we look at how the world now views Muslims. It is a simple case of guilty by association. One of the worst aspects of these disastrous times is that the media has painted all Muslims as dangerous terrorists. The attacks were clearly the work of extremists and not the average peacekeeping Muslim.
It is understandable that Osama bin Laden should be attacked by the media and be held up for ridicule through jokes however it is not reasonable that all Muslims be placed in the same role.
Many of the photoshop jokes appear to indiscriminately ridicule Afghans and Muslims and take advantage of the economic misfortunes of that country. They are not particularly clever jokes and, once again, designed to show the power of the USA over this territory and its people. Some of the jokes, like the ‘Afghan missile launcher’ are old chestnuts that are continually wheeled out in times of war. Folklore propaganda!
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