ethnic jokes

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Ethnic Jokes, Moral Values and Social Boundaries Author(s): Christie Davies Source: The British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 33, No. 3 (Sep., 1982), pp. 383-403 Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The London School of Economics and Political Science Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/589483 . Accessed: 20/04/2011 05:32 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=black. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Blackwell Publishing and The London School of Economics and Political Science are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The British Journal of Sociology. http://www.jstor.org

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Page 1: Ethnic Jokes

Ethnic Jokes, Moral Values and Social BoundariesAuthor(s): Christie DaviesSource: The British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 33, No. 3 (Sep., 1982), pp. 383-403Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The London School of Economics and Political ScienceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/589483 .Accessed: 20/04/2011 05:32

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unlessyou have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and youmay use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at .http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=black. .

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printedpage of such transmission.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

Blackwell Publishing and The London School of Economics and Political Science are collaborating withJSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The British Journal of Sociology.

http://www.jstor.org

Page 2: Ethnic Jokes

Christie Davies

Ethnic jokes, moral values and social boundaries

A B ST RACT

The universal popularity of ethnic jokes and in particular those about supposedly 'stupid' or 'crafty' ethnic minorities is to be explained in terms of the general characteristics of industrial societies rather than the particular circumstances of each separate society. The ethnic jokes of western industrial societies in both peacetime and wartime reflect the competing moral values, un- certain social boundaries and impersonal power structures of these societies. The corresponding eastern European jokes are in some respects similar but as one might expect highly politicized and reflect the deeper social and political divisions that characterize the socialist industrial countries.

Ethnic jokes delineate the social, geographical and moral boundaries of a nation or ethnic group. By making fun of periph- eral and ambiguous groups they reduce ambiguity and clarify boundaries or at least make ambiguity appear less threatening. Ethnic jokes occur in opposed pairs such as those mocking 'st-upid' and 'crafty', or 'cowardly' and 'militaristic' groups respectively and express the problems and anxieties caused by the conflicting norms and values inevitably found in large societies dominated by anomic impersonal institutions such as the market place and bureaucracy.

Ethnic jokes of diverse kinds are rery popular in most societies. Particularly remarkable is the enormous popularity in most western countries of jokes about 'stupid' and 'canny' minorities. The wide- spread popularity of ethnic jokes in general and of these jokes in particular calls for a sociological explanation in terms of the general characteristics of the many societies where they are enjoyed rather than the particular circumstances of each separate society. We need to look at such general characteristics as moral values, social bound- aries and the impersonal power structures of modern societies in order to find an explanation for the popularity of ethnic jokes.

The British Journal of Sociology Volume 33 Number3 September 1982 (C) R.K.P. 1982 0007 1315/82/3303-0383 $1.50

383

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384 Christie Davies

All ethnic groups have two sets of boundaries that are important to their members. The first are the social and geographical boundaries of the group that define who is a member and who is not. The second are the moral boundaries of the group which define what is acceptable and characteristic behaviour of the members, and what is unacceptable behaviour characteristic of outsiders. Ethnic jokes police these boundaries. They mock groups who are peripheral to the central or dominant group or who are seen by them as ambigu- ous. They ascribe to these groups traits which the group telling the jokes does not wish to recognize among its own members. It is not, however, a simple question of dividing the world up into virtues and vices with the good qualities reserved for one's own group and the bad ones ascribed to the outsiders. In complex modern societies each individual will experience a conflict of goals and of values and will need to steer his way carefully between the competing claims of legitimate alternatives, such as work and leisure. Under these circumstances, the stereotypes that underpin ethnic jokes tend to occur not singly but in pairs of opposites. Thus in most western industrial societies the most popular ethnic jokes are those about groups supposed to be stupid and (in opposition to this) jokes about groups supposed to be canny (i.e. crafty and stingy). These two kinds of ethnic joke are far more numerous, widespread, durable and popular than any other type of ethnic joke. They are to be found in all the western industrial societies, societies charac- teriz.ed by an advanced capitalist economy, political democracy and social pluralism. Table I indicates the existence of such jokes in all the countries listed and it can almost certainly be extended to many other similar societies.

The jokes that in Britain are told about the stupidity of the Irish occur in a very similar form in all the other countries listed as can be seen from the following examples: X merican examples 'There has been a temporary slowdown in Poland's space program. Their astronaut keeps falling off the kite.'l

'Wykowski was arrested for rape. "Don't worry", said the cop, "We'll treat you fair, we'll put you in a line-up with un-uniformed policemen."' They did. Thet brought the victim in. Wykowski saw the woman, pointed to her and said, "Yeah, that's her." 92

New Zealand example 'Did you hear abou t the Maori whose library burned down? Not only did the fire destroy both books but, worse still, he hadn't finished colouring in the second one.'3 Finnish examples 'A gypsy in a sauna ordered cold water to be thrown on the stones so that it zouldn't be so hot.'

'A gypsy was given a 120-year jail sentence. \hen asked how he felt about it, he said, "I'm very relieved I didn't get life imprison- ment." 4

Page 4: Ethnic Jokes

TABLE I

Ethnic iokes, moral values and social boundaries 385

Country where the jokes are told

England Wales Scotland Ireland USA

Canada (east) Canada (west) Mexico

Australia New Zealand France Germany Netherlands Belgium Italy Greece Sweden Denmark

Finland

Identity of 'stupid'group * . . sn ]otes Identity of stingy-

crafty group in jokes

Irish Irish Irish Kertymen Poles

Newfies (Newfoundlanders) Ukrainians, Icelanders Yucatecos, Germans

Irish, Tasmanians Irish, Maoris Belgians Ostfrieslanders Belgians, Limburgers Flemings Southerners Pontians Norwegians, Finns

o

Citizens of Arhus, Norwegians

Karelians, Gypsies

Scots, Jews, Welsh Cardis Aberdonians Scots Jews, Scots, New

England Yankees Nova Scotians, Scots Scots Regiomontanos, i.e.

citizens of Monterrey Scots Scots Auvergnats, Scots, Jews Swabians Jews Dutch Levantinis, Scots Scots Scots, Jews Scots, Jews

Laihians

German example 'Ostfrieslanders visiting Swabia have been for- bidden to climb up the Fernsehturm (TV mast). They used to stay up there all day trying to feed the helicopters.'5

Similarly the jokes about stingy and crafty people that, in k;ngland, are told about the Scots and the Jews are to be found told about a number of other groups in all the countries listed. In essence, the jokes are on the same theme though with local variations.

Welsh example about Cardis 'Have you heard about the Scotsman in the Aberystwyth work-house? He could never raise enough money to go home.'6

Mexican example 'In the periodical Tribuna y kl PonJeJnir of Monterrey, appears the story of a millionaire of that city who died and passed to a better world. At the gates of heaven Saint Peter asked him, "What good deeds have you done?"

"I gave a hundred pesos for the building of the church of the Virgen del Roble."

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386 Christie Dauies

Saint Peter, not knowing what to do, put the case before the Eternal Father who pronounced this sentence: "Give him back his hundred pesos and then he won't bother us any more." 7

German example 'A Swabian climbing in Switzerland fell down a crevasse in a glacier. An hour later a rescue team atrived at the edge of the crevasse and peered down at him. "It's the Red Cross", they shouted. "Go away", he replied, "I already gave at the office." 8

American example 'A Maine farmer with a reputation for frugality which was more than local, drove up to the general store. He halted his team, dismounted from the wagon, entered and passed the time of day with those present. This formality concluded, he drifted over to the cooler and drank copiously of the ice-water. One of the resident loafers furnished him with tobacco for his pipe and another provided a match. Then he picked up a handy bucket and went out to water his horses. Returning, he begged a daub of axle grease with which to anoint one of his wheels. This seemed to remind him that a tyre was slipping so he asked the proprietor to lend him a hammer for a few minutes. While the obliging store-keeper was searching his stock for a hammer, the visitor made a light but satisfying luncheon of cheese sliced from a cube on the counter, a couple of soda crackers plucked from a handy barrel and a few segments of dried apple.

After this, apparently, he could think of nothing else. He had mounted to his seat and was driving away when the storekeeper hailed him:

"Say, Bill," he called out, "if you should find, later in the day, that you've lost your purse, remember you didn't have it out while youwashere!"'9

In all these jokes, the tellers are projecting traits that they wish to remain on the moral periphery of their culture onto groups who inhabit the social or geographical periphery of their society. The butts of the joke may be foreigners, an ethnic minority at home, people living in a border area or town or an off-shore island. They may be hated, tolerated or liked. Their only common characteristic is that they are in some sense a peripheral group occupying an ambiguous position on the social or geographical margin of the society where the jokes are told.'° Occasionally a group suffers twice because it is peripheral to two societies as in the case of the Belgians (who consist of Dutch and French speaking communities) who are an ambiguous group on the national and linguistic border of both France and the Netherlands. The result is jokes like the following: 'Where is the biggest chip-shop in Europe? On the border of i rance and Holland. " '

This Dutch joke (with the inevitable gibe at the plebeian Belgian addiction to fritsss) eliminates the ambiFous peripheral Belgians

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Ethnic jokes, moral values and social boundaries 387

altogether, leaving a clear boundary between the two nation-states and languages of the Dutch and the French.

Jokes also seek to define moral boundaries, the boundaries of values that are in conflict. The vast popularity of jokes about stupidity and crafty-stinginess in western societies reflects a central value conflict inherent in modern western capitalist societies, societies which stress the attainment of individual utilitarian goals in the market place. In these peaceful, secular, capitalist democracies, the individual's main preoccupations are (in a broad sense) economic rather than political, ideological, religious or military ones. The central realities in most people's lives are (a) the need to succeed through one's work, and in this way to earn money; and (b) the use of this money to buy legitimate pleasure in one's leisure time for oneself and one's family. The exact balance struck between these two will differ between individuals and social classes but the dilemma of how to strike this balance correctly is present for all the groups and individuals in the society.l2 Each individual has to resolve the problem of how to allocate his time, energy, commitment and material resources, between the competing claims of 'work' and 'pleasure'. There is also another contradiction between work and enjoyment-work demands that the individual displays qualities such as rationality, diligence, competence, thrift, sobriety, which are not always compatible with the rival pursuit of carefree enjoyment.

It is this tension between the values of work and the values of enjoyment, and the lack of clear social rules defining and demarcat- ing the balance between them, that is at the heart of jokes about stupid and crafty-stingy minorities. The first point to note is that these traits indicate the two alternative ways in which an individual can lose out in the competition for success and for pleasure. To be stupid is to fail utterly in the face of the demands of the modern economic world, that a person should be able, rational, calculating and competent, without gaining any compensating reward from the world of pleasure. An intelligent but lazy man may be a failure in life but he misses the pains of work as well as its rewards and may well gain leisure and a relative stress-free existence. Jokes about the lazy or about ethnic groups thought to be lazy-French jokes about Corsicans, Dutch jokes about Surinamers, American jokes about the Louisiana-French Cajuns, British jokes about Andy Capp the idle Geordie-contain more than a hint of envy. By contrast, stupidity is a despised and humiliating path to economic failure. We reassure ourselves that it is a path we will not follow by telling jokes that reserve that fate for other people, people living on the periphery of our own group. Any anxieties that people have regarding their liability to failure through incompetence are released and dissolved by laughter at the crass stupidity of ethnic outsiders. The alternative way in which an individual can be defeated by the

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388 Chrastie Davies

linked but competing demands of work and pleasure is if he sub- ordinates himself so completely to the contest for money and economic success as to lose altogether the ability to derive any real enjoyment from his life. The popular stereotype of the stingy, cautious, over-rational, humourless, cunning Scot depicts the alterna- tive type of individual defeat that call be suffered by the citizens of a competitive and materialist society. The Scotsmall's life is so rigidly controlled, so utterly devoted to the rational pursuit of gain for its own sake that he has lost sight of one of the basic utilitarian reasons for seeking material success-the enjoyment of its rewards. The person who is so consumed by the protestant ethic that he loses sight of the competing and equally legitimate utilitarian ethic may accumulate the resources with which to enjoy life but in the process he loses the ability to attain this enjoyment. This self-destructive aspect of the behaviour of crafty-stingy groups (alld one which in the jokes leads remarkably frequently to actual self-destruction) is a favourite theme of this kind of ethnic joke Mexican example ' "Hello there, Pancho, what are you doing here in Acapulco? When did you arrive from Monterrey?"

"I've been here the last two days. l've just got married and I'm here on my honeymoon. "

"Congratulations, old man. You must introduce me to your new wife. "

"I'm afraid she's still in Monterreylookingaftertheshop.We couldn't leave the business without someone in charge.... Bllt when I go back to Monterrey, she will come here to Acapulco for her honeymoon*" 13

Scottish examples 'A Deeside wife listened for a whole evening to the jokes and patter of Billy Connolly without a hint of a smile. Next day she confided to a friend: "He's a great comic. It was all I could do tae keep from laughing." 14

'An Aberdonian sat at the bedside of his friend who was a patient * . n a nurslng zome.

"Ye seem to be cheerier the day, John" said the visitor. "Ay, man, I thocht I was going to dee but the doctor tells me he

can save my life. It's to cost a hunner pounds." "Eh, that's terrible extravagance! Do ye think it's worth it?" 915

'Two Aberdonians went bathing. One said: "I'll bet you sixpence I call stay under water longer than you." The other said: "All right." Both submerged. The police are still looking for the bodies.'l6 French example ' "It's terrible" said a Scotsman, "I never get to drink a cup of coffee the way I really like it. At home in order to save money I only take one spoonful of sugar. At friends' houses where it is free I take three. Now what I really like is a cup of coffee

with two sugars. 17

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Ethnic jokes, moral values and social boundaries 389

A merican example 'A Jewish coat-manufacturer who suffered from insomnia was advised by a friend to count sheep to help him- self sleep.

The next motning he looked more weary and exhausted than ever. "What's wrong with you?" asked the friend.

"I've been counting sheep" said the manufacturer. "Last night I counted up to twenty thousand. Then I sheared the sheep, had the wool made into cloth and made twenty thousand overcoats. Then I spent the rest of the night worrying about where I could get twenty thousand linings." 18

These jokes about stupid and stingy-crafty groups allay people's anxieties about the problem of getting the balance right between the world of work and money and the world of leisure and enjoyment. They also provide guidance as to how to get the balance right in the form of a pair of linked cultural messages. They warn people not to take the world of work and money too seriously but not to take it too lightly either. Ethnic jokes are in this respect rather like proverbs or legends and indeed there is an English proverb that conveys exactly this pair of messages:

'All play and no work makesJack a dull boy.' 'All work and no play makesJack a dull boy.'

The messages conveyed by jokes and legends are usually less explicit than this but the particular pair of instructions that I have discussed above in relation to the 'stupid' and 'crafty-stingy' jokes are suf- ficiently obvious for them to have been made the subject of a moral lesson in a book of humorous anecdotes and jokes written by the Scottzsh clergyman the Rev. David Macrae:

The Irish have long had the reputation of being thriftless and of finding it easier to spend money than to save it. An Englishman, Scotchman and Irishman were jocularly discussing the reason for the shape of coined money. The Englishman said it was made round because it was meant to circulate. The Scot said it was made flat that it might be piled up. 'Not a bit', said the Irishman, twirling a half-crown on the table as he spoke: 'It's made like that, the better to spin.' And some of them no doubt make it spin more quickly than wisely. If the English are liberal in giving and enter- prising money, and the Scotch keen in acquiring it, the Irish are too often reckless in making it go.

The very generosity of the Irish character probably helps to account for the prevalence of thriftlessness and improvidence. One often sees the money that has been earned by hard toil slipping carelessly away from between their fingers. They quiz the Scotch folk about their excessive carefulness. I remember, at Limerick, an Irish gentleman telling me with great gusto about a

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390 Christis Davies

company of Scotch artisans who were enjoying a holiday in that city. One wet day, when they were crossing the muddy street one of them was accidentally knocked down and run oster by a jaunt- ing car. Another of the party, who was a little way behind, came rushing up in great excitement to where his friend was lying stunned by the fall. A gentleman who had already hurried over to help said, seeing this one's excitement, 'Is he a relation of yours, sir?' 'No', exclaimed the Scot, 'He's no relation, but he's got on a pair of my breeks! 19

This concern for the safety of the borrowed 'breeks' would certainly not have been the first thought in an Irishman's mind; but the Irish might not be the worse for a little more of the care- fulness about which they sometimes joke the Scotch.'20 There is another sense in which ethnic jokes about the 'stupid'

and 'crafty-stingy' explore a social boundary for the dominant mass of middling people who make up the core of each of the societies listed and provide the audience for its jokes. The jokes isolate those ethnic groups who are perceived as being towards the ends of the stratification system or income distribution, groups who can be defined as failures or as 'too successful'. Such groups are perceived as being rather too far away from the centre in a material as well as a moral, social and ethnic or geographical sense. The jokes once again convey a pair of linked messages, this time about the legitimacy of the situation of the majority relative to those ethnic groups above and below them.2l The first message is that their success relative to the ethnic groups below them is legitimate and justified. Those ethnic groups who have failed economically and who provide the unskilled labour in industry and on construction sites (the Poles in the USA and the Irish in Britain, for instance) are labelled 'stupid' with the implication that they deserve their low place in the hier- archy of classes and occupations.

The second message is that the conspicuous success of ethnic minorities such as the Scots and the Jews relative to the major?ty is illegitimate and unjustified. Ethnic groups who have done better than the majority are labelled cheats and exploiters with the impli- cation that their success is unfair and undeserved.22

Even their thrift and diligence may be seen as a means to deprive the more easy-going majority of its just desserts. The members of these ethnic minorities are perceived as having gained an unfair advantage by their excessive adherence to the world of work and money. The 'stupid' group only harms itself but the 'stingy-crafty' are seen as harming everyone else too.

The first of these reassuring (for the majority people of the 'core') messages is underlined by the way in which jokes about the 'stupid' group tend to stress their typically low-status unskilled occupations or to imply that that is where they all ought to be.

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Scottish example 'An Irishman was working on a new railway and one day he said to the ganger: "Do you want any more hands, sir, for I've a brother at home that wants a job of wurrak."

The ganger asked him what sort of workman his brother was. "Faith, sorr" Pat replied, "tIe's as good a man as myself." "All right" said the ganger, "tell him to come and start on Mon-

day." "Whoile I'm asking you for my brother, there's the poor old

father at home wants a job at the same time, yer honour." "Well, what sort of a man is your father, Pat?" "Bejabers, sorr, he's as good a man as the two of us." "Oh well" said the ganger, "tell your father to come and you and

your brother can stay away." 923

American examples 'What is a nouveau riche Polack? The guy on the front steps in the clean under-shirt. 924

'Polish Intellectual-a man who doesn't move his lips when he reads.'25

'Polish property owner-a Polack who has made all the payments on his false teeth. 26

'Bedvarik was having a hard time taking the examination for the sanitation department. For his final question, he was asked: "What does the Aurora Borealis mean?" "It means", said the Polack, "I don't get the job." 27

'Did you hear about the Polack who lost his elevator operator's job because he couldn't learn the route?'28

Canadian example 'The foreman called the Newfie up out of the ditch and said: "You just brought up more dirt on your boots than you shacked out of the ditch all morning." 29

Englzsh examples 'Did you hear about the Irishman who bought his godson a christening shovel?'30

'The captain of an Aer Lingus jet is identified by the three gold rings on his wellies.' 31

'How do you tell an Irish solicitor? Pin-striped donkey jacket and charcoal grey wellies. 32

'Have you heard about the expedition of Irishmen who set out to climb Mount Everest? They ran out of scaffolding thirty feet from the top.'33

The Elrst message then is that the economic failure of the lowly ethnic minority is caused by stupidity. The second linked but opposed message that relates to the stingy-crafty groups is that the cunning ethnic groups achieve success by cheating or exploiting a situation unfairly. American examples 'And then there was the Scotsman who counted his money in front of the mirror so he wouldn't cheat himself.'34

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392 Christie Davies

'A Jew crossing the Brooklyn Bridge met a friend who said: "Abe, I'll bet you ten dollars that I can tell you exactly what you're think- ing about". "Vell" agreed Abe, producing a gTeasy bill, "I'll have to take dat bet. Put up your money".

The friend produced two fives. "Abe", he said, "You are thinking of going over to Brooklyn, buying a small stock of goods, renting a small store, taking out all the fire insurance that you can possibly get and then burning out. Do I win my bet?"

"Vell", replied Abe, "You don't exactly vin, but the idea is worth de money. Take id." '35

'The Yankees are generally supposed to possess more acuteness than any other people on the face of the globe yet the following story will show that some of the Germans possess this faculty to a remarkable degree.

On one occasion a German residing in the country came into Buffalo with hams to sell. Among the rest he sold a dozen or two to a German hotel keeper who afterwards demonstrating the acuteness of his countrymen over the Yankees, said:

"You may talk pout your tam Yankees scheeting but a Dutchman scheeted me much better as a Yankee never was. He prings me some hams-dey vas canvas nice, so better as you never see. I puy one, two dozen all so nice; and if you believe de scheet was so magnificent dat I eat six, seven, eight of dem tam hams perfore I found out dey

vas made of wood. s 36

English example abo?l t the Welsh 'Inquisitive lady: "Do you find it a profitable thing to keep a cow?" Jenkins: "Oh yes, my cow gives about eight quarts a day." Woman: "How much of that do you sell?" Jenkins: "About twelve quarts." '37

Scottash example 'An old man on giving advice to his son, said: "Laddie, be honest. Honesty is the best policy. I ken for I've tried them baith. " 9 38

French example 'A Roman Catholic industrialist on meeting a Jewish banker asked him: "How the devil do you Jews manage to take from us all the money that we have made?"

The banker retorted: "And how do you Goyim manage to make all the money that we take from you?" '39

Jokes about 'stupid' and 'stingy-crafty' people are popular in very many societies. What is peculiar about modern western societies is (a) the preponderance of jokes about such traits over other jokes and (b) the way in which these traits (which can and do stand alone in jokes) are ascribed to ethnic minorities.40 Both of these features of modern western jokes may be related to the enormous scale of such societies and the centrality of that large impersonal institution, the market. The market places of modern society -the markets for

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Ethnic jokes moral values and social boundartes 393

labour and commodities, for capital and consumer goods, for currencies and futures, for skills and qualiflcations have a bewilder- ing Gesellschaft quality. Each individual is part of an ethnic or national community, of a market-system and of a moral culture that is closely related to both. Though these are all mediated through smaller and more immediate groups, institutions and communities, the individual is nonetheless very much aware of being a part of the larger (and for him possibly ill-defined and perplexing) systems. The result is ethnic and economic anomie and the jokes are both a result of this and a means of providing a structure for an uncertain world.4l

In Britain, the first industrial nation to emerge, ethnic jokes rose into prominence along with the development of an impersonal, large-scale, national and capitalist society in the eighteenth century. Ethnic jokes had of course existed from a much earlier time but it was in the eighteenth century that Irish 'bulls' and jokes about Scottish 'economy' really gained that enormous popularity which in various forms they have retained ever since.42 As consciousness of ethnicity grew and became the dominant basis of an individual's sense of collective identity so the individual's sense of the 'others', of the 'outsiders', came to refer to members of other ethnic groups rather than other towns or districts.43 This ethnic boundary was at once stricter and yet more problematic, than the older more local social and geographical boundaries. The outsiders were more decisively different and yet more difficult to define and identify. Under these circumstances ethnic jokes about despised traits began to replace jokes about individuals, or the inhabitants of particular towns or districts. The Irish joke replaced jokes about Gotham, or Lancashire.44

The nature of the comic traits mocked in jokes also shifted with the rise of the capitalist system with its stress on the theme of success and failure. Economic life became more intensified and economic norms and expectations more uncertain.45 It was in this situation, first in Britain and later in the other industrial countries listed that the ethnic jokes about stupid and stingy-crafty groups became dominant. Today in industrializing countries as diverse as India, South Africa and Mexico we can see the same pattern of jokes beginning to emerge.46

The market is not, however, the only, nor necessarily, the dominant impersonal order of modern industrial societies. Most societies in the twentieth century have experienced the growth of bureaucracy as a rival and an adjunct to the market. In socialist societies it is bureaucracy and not the market that is the dominant order of the society47 and this is reflected in the jokes of such societies. Similarly in capitalist societies in wartime, bureaucracy tends to replace the market and as it does so, a whole new genre of ethnic jokes is thrown up. In both cases the structure of the ethnic jokes as a system of paired opposites remains the same, but

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394 Christie Davies

the meanings and the content differ significantly from those of peacetime capitalist society.

In eastern Europe jokes about stupid and cunning groups are just as popular as in the west and this reflects the fact that in the industrial centres of eastern Europe one of the dominant aspects of most people's lives continues to be the need for them to pursue their individual material goals within a large, impersonal and uncertain socio-economic structure. However, the jokes are highly politicized and the jokes about the stupid groups though essentially similar in form to their western equivalents are usually told about members of the political elite, aparatchiks, official heroes or the militia (police). Czech example 'A policeman asked two citizens to show their identity cards. He opened one of them and began to read with difficulty: "I-den-tity ca-rd". He then examined the second man's I.D. card and said "I-den-tity.... You are brothers?" 48

Russzan examples 'The fearless hero of the Civil War, Vasiliy Ivanovitch Chapaev and his loyal orderly Pyetka were sky-diving.

"We're only 100 metres off the ground" said Pyetka excitedly. 'It's time to pull the rip-cord, Vasiliy Ivanovitch!"

"It's still kind of early." Chapaev answered calmly. "It's only fifty metres now!" screamed Pyetka. "Pull the ring,

Vasiliy Ivanovitch." "Calm down, Pyetka." said Chapaev. "There's still time before

we hit! " "Only three metres remaining! " cried Pyetka. "Pull! " "It's not worth it." answered Chapaev. "From this height I can

land without a parachute. . . ! " '49 'Question to Radio Armenia: "Why do police officers walk in

threes?" Answer: "One knows how to read, the second knows how to

write and the third is to keep an eye on the two intellectuals. " '50 'Brezhnev brought along an Olympic brochure to read to a party

meeting. Brezhnev's talk began: "Oh-oh, Oh-oh, Oh!" 951 Polssh examples 'Why do police cars have stripes down their sides?

So that the militiamen can find the door handles.' sWhy are the militiamen sitting in the car looking sad? There's no stripe on the inside and they don't know how to get

out.'52

In the popular joke culture of these countries the boundary of the 'people ' is drawn so as to exclude not an ethnic group but the political elite and its servants in the coercive arm of the bureaucracy. The jokes expel them from the ranks of the national or ethnic group as if they were foreigners or an ethnic minority. They are thus placed at a distance and behind a boundary. The jokes reflect the social

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structure of these essentially non-plural societies, where the key social division between those who control and exert the power of the state and the mass of the people is of much greater significance than any other form of social differentation.53 Ethnic consciousness is not absent but it is suppressed and rendered of secondary signifi- cance by the over-riding and cross-cutting divide between those who control the state (and thus all the key institutions of the society) and the powerless majority who can only express their frustration by telling jokes.

In such circumstances the ever-present modern industrial anxiety about stupidity and failure is alleviated by projecting these qualities on to those who have obtained bureaucratic power and political success. The jokes undermine the legitimacy of the elite members' success by ascnbing to them the quality of stupidity, the hall-mark of failure in a rational social order. Success in politics, the higher bureaucracy and the militia is thus differentiated from the normal unode of success through competence that characterizes the world of work. Hence the paradox that the aparatchik of eastern Europe is given the same comic label as an Irish nawy or a Polish-American hard-hat. In the case of the militia there is less of a paradox to be explained since their social background (especially the lower ranks of the militia) tends to be the same as that of the peasant migrants to industrial society who are mocked in the west. For a poor peasant in eastern Europe or a peasant in Poland who has somehow lost his land, joining the militia is one of the few ways open to him of getting a decent well-paid job in the towns or even a much-coveted permit allowing him to live in a major city. Joining the militia is a much less attractive (and indeed socially unacceptable) prospect for some- one with a skill, a trade or some education, all of which are easier to acquire in the towns.54 Hence the rank and file of the militia tend to be ignorant bumpkins who are mocked and despised by the more sophisticated urban population whom they police.

Craftiness, however, is still a quality ascribed in eastern Europe to ethnic groups, usually the Jews, though the craftiness now tends to be exercised in, through or against the bureaucracy rather than in the market place. The transmogrification of the quality 'stingy- craftiness' can be illustrated by showing what happens to Lord Grade's favourite joke in eastern Europe:

Lord Grade: 'Somebody comes up to me and says: "What is two and two." and I say: "Are you buying or selling?" '55

In eastern Europe (probably the Ukraine) this becomes: 'Applicants for a position were being interviewed. Each was asked: "How much is two and two?" The answer was always: "Four" One candidate asked: "How much do you want it to be?" He was appointed.'56

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The east European crafty jokes about the Jews and the bureaucracy reflect a curious triad of social facts and contradictions, namely, that (a) the people are hostile to the demands of the elite that controls the bureaucracy (b) the elite is anti-semitic and persecutes the Jews (c) the people retain a strong residue of traditional anti-semitism. The situation is even more complicated by the fact that some of the people (incredible though it may seem) believe that the elite's anti- semitism is really only a fasade and that they are really Jews them- selves or else manipulated by Jews.57 Hence the complexity and ambivalence of the following jokes about craftyJews: Polzsh example 'Two Jews who had not seen each other for a long time met by chance in the streets of Warsaw. One of them asked the other how his three sons were prospering in their chosen careers.

'4Well" said the second Jew, "my eldest son, Moishe, has a very well-paid job in Russia helping to build socialism. He's really very successful there. And then there's my second son, Chaim-he's got an equally good job in Prague. He's helping to build socialism, too."

'4What about your third son, Isaac?" asked his friend. "He was a very able boy."

"Oh, he's emigrated to Israel." he said. "He's done very well, too. He has an excellent job in Tel Aviv."

"And is he also helping to build socialism?" "Oh no, he wouldn't do a thing like that; not to his own

country. 4 58

Ukrainian example 'A Soviet Jew was applying for a position. He filled out an application form on which he included the fact that he had a brother in Israel. In the interview he was asked if he had any relatives outside the motherland. He replied in the negative. The interviewer pointed out that there was a discrepancy since on the application he wrote that his brother was in Israel.

The applicant replied: "Oh, he's not outside the motherland, I am outside the motherland." '59

In these jokes the Jews are depicted (a) as an ethnic minority whose loyalties lie with another country. This of course is implied in a great deal of official anti-Zionist propaganda which is often simply disguised anti-semitism. The jokes either implicitly or explicitly place the Jews outside the core people, and (b) as outwitting the bureauc- racy to their own advantage or as being seen by others as doing so. Sometimes this is done from outside and sometimes from within. The jokes portray the Jews sometimes sympathetically as victims of the bureaucracy who none the less prevail over it and sometimes unsympathetically as manipulators of the bureaucracy at the expense of the people. There is a deep-rooted ambivalence here.

In wartime, bureaucracy also tends to become the dominant order in western societies and the armed forces become a much more

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central institution in the society. Under these circumstances a new pair of ethnic jokes dealing with 'cowardice' and 'bellicosity' emerges alongside the old peacetime stupid and crafty-stingy jokes. These jokes were particularly marked in Britain and the USA during and after the Second World War, a war that was almost universally, perceived in both countries as legitimate and patriotic, indeed a necessary war against tyranny. Because of this the powers of the military bureaucracy were perceived as legitimate and this produced something of a conflict of values for those subject to the authority of the armed forces. For those who had volunteered or been con- scripted into the forces there was a conflict between the legitimate demands of the military bureaucracy for the qualities of a good soldier-courage, discipline, obedience, and the persisting norms and values of peacetime that stressed self-preservation, individualism, autonomy, and family rather than comradely loyalty.60 The individual soldier had the problem of how to strike a balance between the two, much like the peacetime problem of how to balance work and saving against enjoyment and spending. The jokes express the two ways in which an individual can lose out in the face of this problem. The first of these is expressed in jokes about Italian cowardice.

Brittsh and American jokes about Italtans 'British naturalists visit- ing Italy have brought back some amazing films showing three Italian birds surrendering to a worm.'6l

'An Italian officer impatient at his country's deplorable military reputation, leaped out of the trenches and cried to his men: "Avanti! Avanti!" No one moved. Once again he cried valiantly: "Avanti! Avanti! " Again no one moved but someone called out enthusiastically

from a safe position behind a sandbag: "Ah, che bella voce! 62

'A mini-Olympics had been organised among Nato troops and when the ground and equipment was being inspected by officers of the various nations competing, an Italian colonel objected to the run- up for the high jump being of sand. It should be, he insisted rather too heatedly, of the same consistency as the track, and he continued to argue and beat the air about this though nobody else objected. A British colonel who sported the Africa Star tried to smooth (?) things over by remarking amiably, "Oh come, Colonel, I seem to remember your chaps ran pretty well on sand in the desert." 963

'What is the thinnest book in the world? The list of Italian war heroes.'64

Cowardice is laughed at because it is one of the most discreditable forms of failure for a soldier. All soldiers are afraid at some time in their career and they are also afraid of fear, of showing the despised trait of cowardice. Any anxieties a British or American soldier in World War II had about his own potential failings in this direction were relieved by laughter at the expense of the cowardly Italian

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enemy. Since that time the shadow of war has rested more or less continuously on the peoples of Britain and America and the jokes have remained popular and multiplied in number.

The opposite mode of failure is that displayed by the Germans who are depicted as too bellicose, too willing to subordinate their personal aims to the demands of the militar-, too likely to fight a hopeless battle at their own and everyone else's expense. As with the Scotsman who is shown as succeeding financially but as failing in a broader, more human sense, so too the German succeeds militarily but is also a loser, someone whose very success is comically self-defeating. Once again this is also a source of anxiety, for civilians entering a military organization will naturally fear that they will lose their individuality altogether and cease to be independent beings with a life and purpose of their own. It is this anxiety that leads them to laugh at the Germans for being over-disciplined, over- subordinated and such enthusiastic militarists.

British, American and French jokes about Germans

Brittsh example 'In 1956 off the coast of the Orkney Islands, a fishing trawler was astounded to see a German submarine rise to the surface, the gun on deck swiftly manned and the Captain call across to them from the conning tower to surrender.

"But the war's been over for years! " called back the master of the trawler.

"Himmel! " said the German Naval Captain "Who won?" "We did," was the reply. "You did? Ach.... Hoch der Kaiser! 99 ,65

French example 'In 1940, not knowing what to do next in order to invade Britain, Hitler decided to drain the English Channel. He massed a million German soldiers all along the coast of Normandy, each man standing exactly one metre behind the man in front, and on the command of the officers-ein, zwei, drei-each line of men stepped forward and swallowed three mouthfuls of sea-water. During the whole of the first day the operation went very well but as the sun set an evening -breeze blew across from the English coast a steady chant of "One, two, three-pee! 99 966

American example 'A Bavarian immigrant joined a Union regiment and in the third year of the (American Civil) war was sent to Virginia. One night he imbibed too heavily of strong drink and fell asleep in a corn crib. When he awakened he discovered that during the night a negro camp follower had stolen his uniform leaving behind a ragged civilian outfit. The German clothed himself in these tatters and set out to find his command.

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Presently another and an even more disagreeable circumstance than the theft of his wardrobe impressed itself upon him. By certain signs he was made aware that the Federal forces had withdrawn from their old positions and the enemy had advanced so that he was now inside the foe's lines.

As he limped towards the rear hoping to overtake the retreating force, a squad of ragged gray troopers came whirling out of a thicket and surrounded him. Quite frankly he told them who and what he was and they made a prisoner out of him.

Presently his captors halted him where a tree limb stretched across the road, and one of the Southerners, unlooping a plow line from his saddle-bow, proceeded to fashion a slip-noose in one end of it. The captive inquired of the lieutenant in command what the purpose of all this might be.

"Why" said the lieutenant "we're going to treat you as we would any Yank caught inside our lines in disguise. Under the laws of war we're going to hang you as a spy."

"Vell," said the German "votever is der rule! 9 67

Once again there is a pair of key messages: (i) Don't take the world of war, the military bureaucracy, soldienng too lightly; (ii) but don't take it too seriously either. The Italians are depicted as seeking self-preservation at the expense of the military bureaucratic qualities of loyalty and discipline. The Germans by contrast sub- ordinate themselves so totally to the military bureaucratic machine as to lose their individual identity altogether. The German sub- ordination to rules and regulations of a military kind was seen as comic long before the Second World War (as in the American Civil war joke) and this is carried over into jokes about their over- bureaucratic and obedient behaviour in civilian life.68

The jokes and their messages once again reflect a situation in which there is a conflict between two sets of legitimate societal objectives which are associated in a problematic way with a domi- nant, impersonal order-the military bureaucracy. Men are faced with two sets of moral requirements. First there are those of peace- time and of the non-bureaucratic world which stress individual autonomy, choice and responsibility, self-preservation and a primary concern for family and kin. In contradiction to these are the bureau- cratic demands for orderly obedience to regulations and superiors and for the supremacy of a disciplined hierarchy plus the special war- time values of physical courage, sacrifice and patriotism. Out of this contradiction and the need to achieve a satisfactory balance emerges a pair of jokes essentially similar to the earlier capitalist pair. Also there is a second parallel pair of linked messages-the jokes legit- imize victory over the Italians (they deserved to lose, they were cowardly) and seek to undermine the legitimacy of a possible German victory (and perhaps also of post-war German economic success).

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CONCLUSION S

In answer to the question 'What is the sociological basis of the appeal of ethnic jokes?' we may answer: (1) The jokes delineate both (a) the social and geographical and (b) the moral boundaries of a nation or ethnic group. By mocking peripheral and ambiguous groups, they reduce ambiguity and clarify boundaries or at least make ambiFity less frightening. (2) The jokes occur in opposed pairs and reflect the problems and anxieties caused by the conflicting norms and values inevitably found in large societies dominated by anomic, impersonal institutions such as the market place and bureaucracy. In peacetime jokes about 'stupid' and 'stingy-crafty' groups and in wartime jokes about 'cowardly' and 'militaristic' groups have three key aspects.

(a) They reduce anxiety about the possibility of individual failure vis a vis large, impersonal and perplexing institutions due to one's failing to obtain a correct balance between conflicting norms and goals. (b) They provide guidance as to what the moral limits are, what the correct balance is and thus reduce anomie. (c) They provide a legitimation of the individual's situation in relation to both those who have failed and those who have been more successful whether in the market place or the bureaucracy, * . n war or ln peace.

Christie Davies Department of Sociology

University of Reading

NOTES

1. Larry Wilde, More, the Official Polish Joke Book, Pinnacle Books, Los Angeles, 1975, p. 13.

2. Wilde, 1975, p. 26. 3. Sent to me by a correspondent

in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1980. 4. These jokes are summaries of

much longer jokes in Finnish from the collection of jokes in the archives of the Finnish literature society in Helsinki sent to me by Lic-phil Pirkko- Liisa Rausmaa. They probably date from the period 1900-40.

5. Told to me in 1980 by an Englishman who had heard it while working in Stuttgart.

6. Told to me by a Welshman from Caerphilly in South Wales in 1980.

7. Joaquin Antonio Pehalosa, Hu- mor con agua Bendita, Editorial Jus, Mexico City, 1979, p. 75 (my translation).

8. Told to me in 1980 by an Englishman who had worked in Stuttgart and heard the joke there a couple of years before.

9. Irvin S. Cobb, Many Laughs for Many Days, Garden City Publisning, Garden City, New York 1925, pp. 208-9.

10. Thus Ireland, Newfoundland, Tasmania are offshore islands; Lim- burgh, Cardiganshire, Cornwall, South- ern Italy, Monterrey, Aberdeen, Yuca- tan, Nova Scotia, Ostfriesland, Karelia, Laihia, Kerry, Swabia, the Auvergne,

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Ethnic jokes, moral values and social boundaries

Arhus are geographically peripheral areas or places in their respective countries. Norway and Finland were formerly part of Sweden, Belgium was briefly part of France and later of the Netherlands, Iceland and Norway were parts of Denmark, Ireland part of Britain-they are all from the point of view of the core people 'seceded periphery'. The Poles in the USA, the Irish in Britain, Australia and New Zealand, the Ukrainians and Ice- landers in Canada, tile Pontians (Black Sea Greeks) in Greece, the Finns in Sweden, the gypsies in Finland are all marginal low-status immigrants. The Flemings in Belgium, the Maoris in New Zealand are marginal low-status aboriginals. The Jews are a marginal group in a large number of societies. It should be noted that in almost all cases the jokes are told about a group related in some way to the joke tellers, an ambiguous group sharing something of the same culture and language and not about a com- pletely foreign or alien group.

11. Told to me by a Dutch woman in 1978.

12. There is a very illuminating discussion of this kind of balancing process in H.G. Oxley, Mateship in Local Organisation, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, Australia, 1979, p.296. Here the balance to be struck is betwee;l the values of Australian egalitarianism and those of the stratification system.

13. Magdalena Mondragon, Mexico Pelado...pero sabroso!, Editorial Diana, Mexico City, 1977, p.156 (my translation).

14. Max Hodes, The Official Scottish Jokebook, Futura, London, 1978, p.58.

15. Grahaxn Moffat, The Pawhy Scot, Valentine, Dundee, 1928, p. 16.

16. Allan Junior, A berdeen Again, Valentine, Dundee, 1928, p. 24.

17. Mina and Andre Guillois, Les meilleures histoires-ecossaises, angl- aises, irlandaises, Editions Menges, Paris 1979, p.18 (my translation).

18. Told to me by an American in and from Los Angeles in 1979.

401 19. Rev. David Macrae, National

Humour, Alexander Gardner, Paisley, Scotland, 1915, pp. 286-7.

20. Macrae, pp.56-7. 21. Which of these two messages

is the more popular one will depend on the joke-teller and joke-listener's position in the stratification hierarchy. See Oxley (above). However, most people will be in a position to under- stand and sympathize with both messages albeit not equally.

22. The second kind of message reflects a set of beliefs which can range from a mere joke to total paranoia and which can result in the extreme persecution of an ethnic minority as we can see from the case of the Jews in Europe, the Armenians in Turkey, the Chinese in South-East Asia and the Asians in East Africa. I have analysed this at greater length in Christie Davies, 'Asians of East Africa', Quest, no. 77, July-August, 1972, p.33-9

23. William Harvey, Irish Life and Humour, Eneas Mackay, Stirling, Scot- land, pp.330-1.

24. Larry Wilde, More, the Official Polish Jokebook, Pinnacle Books, Los Angeles, 1975, p.2.

25. Wilde, 1975, p.80. 26. Wilde, 1975, p.83. 27. Larry Wilde, The Last Official

Polish Joke Book, Pinnacle Books, Los Angeles, 1977.

28. Wilde, 1977, p.152. 29. Bob Tulk, Newfie Jokes,

Mount Pearl, Newfoundland, 1971, p.69.

30. Garry Chambers, The Second Complete Irish Gag Book, Star Books, 1980,p. 11.

31. Peter Hornby, The Official Irish Joke Book, Futura, London, 1977, p.84.

32. Hornby, p.84. 33. I was told this joke in England

in the late 1970s. 34. 'Senator' Ed Ford, Harry Hersh-

field, Joe Laurie Jr, Cream of the Crop, Grosset & Dunlap, New York, 1947, p.221.

35. William Patten, Among the Humorists and After-dinner Speakers,

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402 Chrtstie Davies

P.F. Collier, New York, 1909, vol.I, p.l73.

36. The Malseum of Mirth, Part IV, Yankee Wit and Wisdom, John Cameron, Glasgow, p.9.

37. Max Gilbert Frost (ed.), The Merry Stories Omnibus Book, J. Werner Laurie, Londons 1933. Joke 1247, p.194.

38. Stories told by Sir James Taggart, Valentine, Dundee,1927, p.20.

39. Herve Negre, I)ictionnaire d'histoires droles, Fayard, Paris, 1973, vol. I, p. 444. Joke 1150 (my trans- lation). This joke is a comic restate- ment of one of the central assumptions of anti-semitic ideologies. See also the comment on this kind of joke by George Orwell in The Cottected Essays, Joalrnalism and Letters oJn George Orwett, Secker & Warburg, London, 1968, vol. III, p. 338.

40. Today jokes about the 'stupid' and the 'stingy-crafty' are mainly ethnic but historically there have always been jokes and folktales about 'noodles', 'tricksters' and 'misers'. See for instance, W. A. Clouston's The Book of NoodZes.

41. Concerning the concept of economic anomie see E. Durkheim, Suicide, a Study in Sociology, Rout- ledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1970, pp. 241-58.

42. The rise of Irish 'bulls' and Scottish 'economy' is well described in J.O. Bartley, Teague, Shenkin and Sawney, Cork University Press, Ire- land, 1954.

43. There are still many jokes in the modern world about the 'stupid' citizens of such towns as Arhus in Denmark or the 'stingy ' citizens of towns such as Aberdeen in Scotland or Gabrovo in Bulgaria. However, the risv of ethnic jokes has meant the decline of jokes about towns. Fool- towns such as Abdera, Gotham, Chelm were a much more popular source of jokes in earlier centuries than they are today. See Evan Esar, The Comic Encyclopaedia, Doubleday, Garden City, New York, 1978, pp 295-6.

44. In the past Lancashire and

Yorkshire were also the subject of opposed pairs of jokes with the Lancastrians being cast in the stupid role while the Yorkshiremen were crafty and stingy. See for instance Joell, Laugh with Joell, A. Brown & Sons, Hu11,1944.

45. See E. Durkheim (above) and also The Division of Labour an Society, The Free Press, New York, 1964, pp. 353-73.

46. In South Africa stingy-crafty jokes are told about the Jews and stupid jokes about Van der Merwe, a thick Afrikaaner. In India stupid jokes are told about ie Sardaq;s (Sikhs) .

47. See Maria Hirszowicz, The Bureaucratic Leuiathan, a Study in the Soctology of Communism, Martin Robertson, Oxford, pp. 10,35,131.

48. From Anekdoty za Pendrek, Konfrontation AG/SA, Zurich, Switz- erland, 1979.

49. Emil Draitser, Forbidden Laughter: Soviet Underground Jokes, Almanac, Los Angeles, 1978, p.50. Draitser is a Russian humorous writer who wrote for various Russian period- icals including Krokodil under the pseudonym Emil Abramov (Draitser was seen as too obviously Jewish a name) until 1974 when he emigrated to Los Angeles.

50. Draitser, p. 49. 51. From a lecture on 'Soviet

Humour and Society' by Emil Abra- movitch Draitser given at the Univer- sity of Reading, 1980.

52. Told to me by a Polish intel- lectual who left Poland in 1968 and now lives in London.

53. See R. Conquest We and They, Temple Smith, London, 1980, pp. 81-2, 103-4, 111-12.

54. My comments concerning the militia are based on discussions with two Polish criminologists who do not wish to be identified. The Russian writer Emil Draitser confirmed that a similar situation prevasled in the Soviet Union. See also Conquest, p. 98, and 1t. Conquest (ed), The Soviet Police System, Bodley Head, London, 1968, pp. 32-3.

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Ethnic jokest moral values and social boundaries 403

55. David Jacobs, Book of Cel- brities ' Jokes and Anecdotes, Robson Books, London, 1980, p. 58.

56. John Kolasky, Look Comrade, the Peo jple are Laughing, Peter Martin, Toronto, Canada, 1972, p. 76. Kolasky attended the Higher Party school of the Central Committee of the Com- munist Party of the Ukraine in Kiev, 1963-5.

57. This was pointed out to me by Dr A. Shtromas, a Jewish Lithualliall Solriet emigre formerly of the Univer- sity of Moscow, now of the Univer- sities of Salford and Bradford.

5 8. Told to me by a Polish-speaking British sociologist who heard it on a visit to Poland in 19 75.

59. Kolasky, p. 49. 60. See also Edward Shils and

Morris Janowitz, 'Cohesion and dis- integration in the Wehrmacht in World War II' in Edward Shils, Center and Periphery: Essays in Macrosoci- ology, University of Chicago Press,

pp. 349-56. 61. Told on the British television

programme The Two Ronnies, 1980. 62. Told to me in England circa

1977. 63. Lt-Col. Dicky Dickinson and

Bill Hooper, Clangers in Uniform, Midas Books, Tunbridge Wells, p. 18.

64. Larry Wildet The Complete Book of Ethn* Humour, Corwin Books, Los Angeles, 1978, p. 133.

65. Michael Kilgarriff, Best Service Jokes, Wolfe, London,1979, p. 20.

66. Herve Negre, vol. I, p. 84, Joke 182 (my trallslation).

67. Cobb, 1925, p. 201, Joke 296. Cobb says this joke was told to him by 'a survivor of Mosby's cavalry'.

68. The German love of order, discipline, uniforms and things military has been frequently commented on and frequently satirized as for in- stance in Carl Zuckmayerts play Der Hauptmann von Kopenick (1931), Ber- man Fischer Verlag, Stockholm, 1946.