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Korean Job Discussion Forums
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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 Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 9:32 pm Post subject: |
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| ddeubel wrote: |
| ...they'd laugh at Jesus on the cross... |
Some do indeed do just that.
In any case, am sincerely intrigued and interested to see examples of humor that does not exist at someone else's expense. Do you or does anyone else here have any joke-examples to cite to demonstrate how it works?
Off the top of my head, I can only think of the last series of "blond" jokes I told; or the "Portuguese" jokes Ernesto, a Brazilian friend told me a little while ago. There is a "joke thread" in the Off-Topic forum, though. Those were spontaneously generated and might be a good control group. Anything in there that contradicts what I said and supports what you asserted, Ddeubel? |
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Adventurer
Joined: 28 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 11:16 pm Post subject: |
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| Gopher wrote: |
| Adventurer wrote: |
| The people of [X] don't know [Y] at all... |
As you can see, I took liberties with your words. Please forgive me, as I did not do it to mischaracterize you but rather to abstract your point.
This is a general truth in human affairs, and not at all exclusive to the (allegedly especially insensitive) West -- and, indeed, sometimes "the West" is the victim of this.
And I agree with you. People should not reduce, essentialize, or in any way, shape, or form, create, ridicule, or mock crude stereotypes of Others.
But that is just not the world we live in. Humor exists only at someone else's expense. It is always so. The only way to wipe it out would be to suppress humor. |
Well, I was motivated by the potential harm done to these Romanian villagers who are impoverished. Were they manipulated to be Kazakhs and then given a pittance. Were they lead to believe a certain thing? I guess we can say that someone can take license with that, and I am not sure about all the details. I appreciate your apology.
I also appreciated Cohen's clarification of his work. One can misconstrue these things. The controversy can be positive if it does two things:
One, have people actually really feel find out who the Kazakh people are, have the media report more on the place, thus introducing it and its Central Asian neighbour, and, since he is making fun of people who easily believe in narrow ideas about other peoples, including in the West, it may get people to discuss that.
Some people feel he is using Kazakhstan to make fun a certain part of the West on a socio-political level. I understand that. And people on this forum who are engaging in Jewish bating are being the lowest of the anti-Jewish anti-Semites. Trying to defend Kazakhs by attacking Jews is illogical. I am just questioning the methodoly of the film, how it is being show cased. People do use ethnic jokes, I am not dismissing the merit of it. I am not a prude. Also, some co-stars said they were misinformed by the director. I am still not sure what I think.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Movies/11/16/people.borat.reut/index.html
Anyway, here is Baron defending himself... What do you make of the criticism and defense, Gopher? |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Fri Nov 17, 2006 5:38 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| examples of humor that does not exist at someone else's expense |
One of the all-time great jokes:
Q: How do you know an elephant has been in your refrigerator?
A: There are elephant foot-prints in the Jell-o.
Famous novels:
"Rusty Bedsprings" by I. P. Nightly
"Under the Bleachers" by Seymour Butts
Q: What do you call a paraplegic floating in the water?
A: Bob.
Q: What do you call a paraplegic laying in front of your door?
A: Matt.
Q: What do you call a paraplegic hanging on the wall?
A: Art.
Oops. Sorry about the last ones. |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Fri Nov 17, 2006 8:44 am Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
| One of the all-time great jokes... |
I referred to adult humor. I guess I should have clarified. Sure, there are a few examples of Rated-G humor that do not take liberties with Others.
"Why is six afraid of seven?
"Because seven, ate, nine."
By the way, have you reviewed the pattern the joke thread presents? |
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jajdude
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sun Nov 19, 2006 12:53 am Post subject: |
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Some countries do not like to be mocked I guess. They fail to see the joke and take it too seriously. I guess "Western" humor involves satire and saying and doing ridiculous things that anyone with a clue can see as a joke. If Borat says, as he does in one video, "How to use the toilet/urinal?" we laugh, though the guy he is talking to seems to believe he is sincere. Strange. Do people think a person from Kazakhstan would not know this?
A movie like this probably wouldn't work if "Borat" was from a more western or liberal country. These countries can accept a joke about them, but in the world there are many that cannot. There are still many countries where media/internet is censored, and you cannot even hint or joke about your leaders being fools. I think most western countries have a long tradition of making fun of their leaders and just accept it as part of democracy. Then there's a cultural clash or misunderstanding when encountering countries where people really cannot express themselves freely without fear of reprisal.
This would be one reason for a reluctance, for me anyway, to go to China, where the internet is heavily censored. |
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Slep
Joined: 14 Oct 2006
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| Posted: Sun Nov 19, 2006 1:11 am Post subject: |
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| Adventurer wrote: |
| What if Mr. Cohen made fun of Jews or Arabs? I don't think people would want to distribute the movie. |
Uh, i'm pretty sure jews are mocked as well...
And plenty of movies target arabs and are distributed.
I mean, how many seasons of 24 do we have? |
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Green Tea
Joined: 04 Nov 2006
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| Posted: Sun Nov 19, 2006 8:46 am Post subject: |
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| Thunndarr wrote: |
| Down with the Americans! |
I'll second that!  |
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Pligganease
Joined: 14 Sep 2004
Location: The deep south...
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| Posted: Sun Nov 19, 2006 6:53 pm Post subject: |
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| Green Tea wrote: |
| I'll second that! |
As any over-envious outsider would say... You couldn't even lead! You had to follow someone else. |
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