Hi Fred ... If that was the joke about the IRS auditor, I found it quite funny, and not the least bit offensive. It beautifully pokes fun at stereotyping, and the joke itself has a long history in comedy in various iterations. Frankly, I take greater offense at using asterisks when mentioning Nikon and Canon since A) Pentax is the only brand using an asterisk in the name of one of its products and B) Nikon and Canon, for the most part, are singled out while other camera brands generally are spelled out in full, as are third party lenses and other non-Pentax photographic products. One can say that by using asterisks for Nikon and Canon they are being singled out for a certain type of discrimination.
I agree that the use of certain types of humor can get some people upset, but good humor is supposed to do that, for by poking fun or making light of a situation it can point out its absurdity and foolishness. What is truly sad is that some people will get so upset that they will create more antagonism by riling against the humor, and those that invoke it, than the joke or anecdote by itself may have Of course, I love humor in any form, and will sometimes read myself to sleep with a book that is just filled with jokes and anecdotes. A priest, a rabbi, and a nun walk into a bar. The bartender says, "What is this, a joke?" A set of jumper cables walks into a bar, and the bartender say, "I'll serve you, but don't start anything." I have a friend who's a Puerto Rican Jew. He's a janitor, but he owns the building. Shel > [Original Message] > From: Fred > > We are at peace. That's a good thing. > > I have to disagree. There was a recent thread here that was started with a > religious/ethnic joke that one of us (yours truly) thought was > inappropriate, and said so. [It wasn't about my ethnic group or my > religion, but I just think that all religious and/or ethnic jokes should be > off limits in this sort of a forum, but that's only just my opinion, and > apparently I'm in the minority on that point.] It did not become a war > because I chose not to fuel the ethnic fires with any further reply. > Instead, the thread went on "peacefully" for days with more jokes and the > occasional defense of the "appropriateness" of telling ethnic and/or > religious jokes. Yes, there was peace, but it was not a "good thing". > > Fred >
