Comments on: Funny Bones, 1908 (3)

By: Clark

Clark — Mon, 09 May 2011 01:46:56 +0000

Jokes about negligee are also sure to be left our when the Ensign resurrects this feature!

By: Jayne

Jayne — Sun, 08 May 2011 16:20:18 +0000

I quite enjoyed reading these, I liked the ‘His Favorite Parable’
Thankyou for sharing

By: David B

David B — Sun, 08 May 2011 02:41:02 +0000

Oh, i don’t think you crossed a line or anything—we all know these sorts of attitudes were commonplace back then (and perhaps not so uncommonplace nowadays as we’d like to think), it’s just that it packed so many things into such a small space.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Sat, 07 May 2011 20:59:39 +0000

Re: Blue-blooded: I used to weed out all jokes built around skin color (the greatest number being black, but also a few brown and “yellow”) but have recently decided that I’ve been seriously misrepresenting the nature of the jokes in our old magazines by doing so, especially since I’ve posted so many Scots-are-cheap and Irish-are-drunks stereotypes, along with a number of Swedish, Jewish, and Italian jokes.

I still weed out those that strike me as being founded entirely on hate (“blacks are criminals” is an exceedingly common stereotype in these old pages) while posting others that draw on other sources for their humor. I try to measure them in rough equivalence to the level of meanness directed toward other national and language groups.

It’s a hard line to draw, and I may misjudge from time to time. When that happens, call me on it. Really, though, I’m trying to balance the humor of these corny old features that we can enjoy just for their absurdity, with an acknowledgment that this humor reflects a part of our cultural past.

By: David B

David B — Sat, 07 May 2011 19:22:16 +0000

Blue-blooded: Oh. My. Times certainly have changed, haven’t they? Preoocupied: Was that one ever funny? I mean, it’s more scary than funny to me, and i can’t imagine it being any funnier back when infant and child mortality was higher.