Anyone who's an equal-opportunity offender gets a pass from me. ;-) Funny thing
is I'm with a conversation group that's kinda international. I regularly have
to prevent people from ganging up on aspects of American culture. But don't get
me cracking Texas jokes now... - Phil
PS - Clouseau was a work of genius. No one in France was ever offended by the
Pink Panther movies. I adore Peter Sellers and Blake Edwards. But that kind of
bantering, to repeat what I was saying earlier, was good-humored, rooted in
observation and leavened by artistic license, and not an instrument of
propaganda. Much of the stuff I've seen passed off as 'French jokes' recently
is propagandistic in nature and gives off a strong aroma of Turd Blossom, a
pretty good indication as to its origin and a strong predictor of what will
come buzzing around. The reason propaganda types use jokes is that they tap
into the natural in-group, out-group dynamics of humor and inoculate
perceptions wrongly seen as innocuous by their targets. The actual intent is of
course an ulterior motive which is manipulative in nature, and the true content
is parasitic, designed to serve that motive. The natural ecology of joking in a
normal society does the rest, including the greedy calculations of TV n
etworks and the like. Walt has a good point about demeaning Southerners, and
could make an equally valid one about persecuted or exploited minorities. Those
jokes are made from a position of dominance.
On 17:20, Walt Wayman wrote:
>What? Why are the French off limits? Was Inspector Clouseau a
>documentary? We Southerners have endured years of derision from such
>crap as "The Beverly Hillbillies" and any number of other idiotic
>movies and TV shows foisted on us by the left-coast Hollyweird
>people. That entitles me to make fun of anybody I want to, whether
>it's right or wrong.
>
>Walt
==
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