Comments on: Funny Bones, 1860

By: Stan Way

Stan Way — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:19:44 +0000

I am fairly certain that I know the inventor of this new fangled telegraph system. She also just so happens to be the lady with a blue hat, red hair, and crossed-eyes.

Thanks for posting Ardis! I love these.

By: Diane Peel

Diane Peel — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 05:28:19 +0000

The NEW invention/women/telegraph would still be told,as the bias is still there. It could be told if with a new invention cell phone teenage girls/texting slant for instance.

I just can’t wrap my head around it tonight.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 21:31:23 +0000

That fact is funnier than the joke itself, isn’t it, Heather!

By: Heather B in SC

Heather B in SC — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 21:24:31 +0000

I was most amazed at the one in the middle about the “end of all your troubles.” I’ve heard that one quoted all over the place including in conference, only (with our more common stereotype today) as a Bride to be and her Mother getting ready for the wedding-day. I was mostly amazed that a joke had survived mostly intact for over a hundred and fifty years and folks still thought it was funny. Or, funny-ish….

By: Mina

Mina — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 16:34:45 +0000

Great minds laugh alike. I, too, found the Compassionate Child to be the winner in this lot!

By: Mark B.

Mark B. — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 15:47:15 +0000

At least some of the Basques would object violently to being grouped with the Spaniards. See, for example, the ETA. (Not to be confused with the Greek letter or the burakumin, the lowest caste in Japanese feudal society.) As to the Scandinavians, skip the herring and go straight to the lutefisk (or lutfisk in Swedish). Look that up in Wikipedia if you're afraid of an overactive appetite today--you'll be cured for a week.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 15:34:28 +0000

This is true gospel generosity, Amy T — by all means, let’s find a way to insult everybody in the same joke!

My favorite this time was the compassionate child concerned for the welfare of the little lion who wouldn’t get his fair share of Christian. Har!

By: Amy T

Amy T — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 15:00:36 +0000

To resuscitate a drowned Englishman, place a piece of roast beef under his nose; an Irishman, a gill of poteen; a Scotchman, a baubee; a Welshman, a few leeks; a Frenchman, a pinch of snuff; a Spaniard, some fresh blood; an old maid, an offer of marriage; a Yankee, attempt to pick his pockets.

This hits most of the significant ethnic groups in Utah at the time,* except the Scandinavians. (What would you use for them? A herring?)

In response to the joke, I almost said, “What’s a baubee?” but figured I could find the meaning as fast as anyone else here, except for Keepa’s good Scottish readers. And, of course, as is the case with 99.95 percent of the Scottish jokes in the pages of the early church magazines, it’s a jab at the tightfisted nature of the Scots — a baubee or bawbee is a halfpenny.

*Okay, so there weren’t many Frenchmen, but I do know of a few since my children are descended from them. And there were Basques — would Basques resent being grouped with Spaniards?