Of course, the Right is again the victim of the humorless Left. Let's sing that song again -- you might even find a key in which it isn't flat.

Political jokes are fair, because they target politicians or political organizations.

Jokes that target professions are fair, because people join professions, and because there are certain professional stereotypes that they play on.

Jokes that work on the "dumb" premise (blonde jokes are the current favorite... Tom) are fair, because the modifier can be changed without substantially changing the nature of the joke, so they aren't really about blondes or Pollacks or Iowans or whatever.

I appreciate Mr. Zilber's post, explaining his satirical intent. Unfortunately, unlike Jonathan Swift's essay, his work, at least as presented here in soundbite form, was too short to let the full impact of satire sink in. It came across, in length and spirit, as more the class of a "dead baby" joke (innocent and impersonal victim group) combined with an ethnic joke (another version of the blonde joke).

I laughed at the original joke, but I wasn't about to vote. That would invest it with a dignity I don't think it has.

You can get a sense of how truly funny it is if you make the following substitutions:

Scientists have discovered a meteor on a collision-course with Planet Earth. They have calculated that it will strike the United States in 48 hours, at approximately 2:30 A.M. Eastern Standard Time. The meteor is large enough to completely wipe the United States from the face of the earth forever.



The United States and the United Nations have requested that France help evacuate the country. That would mean diverting French ships and planes that are being used to ferry UN inspectors and relief supplies to the Middle East.

You are Jacques Chirac, President of France. What should you do?
__Watch the impact on live TV
__Tape it & watch in the morning



Or, this So Funny dead baby rewrite:

How do you put a group of 9/11 victims onto a truck? You use a pitchfork.

All right, I know, wrong tool. A vacuum cleaner, then. But a pitchfork has the right, um, heft.

I understand that Anne Frank jokes were all the rage in Germany a decade or so ago. They were in very poor taste (things about wasting soap and overusing lightbulb filaments), but they aided the nation in trying to come to terms with the enormity of the atrocity it had committed. Laughter is a good icebreaker, and even gross humor is better than no conversation at all.

Does anyone remember the Christa McAuliffe jokes?

In the immortal words of Han Solo: "Laugh it up, furball."

Regards--
Mary Anne