Granddad telling kids Irish jokes

[SulisMum]

DS (aged 9) told me an Irish joke last night which he had got from his granddad. I gave him a little talk about how it wasn't nice to make jokes about different nationalities and suggested he didn't repeat it - but only after I'd laughed about it with him. (I actually laughed involuntarily as it was a reasonably funny joke).

DS's response was that his granddad had also told him a joke in which the Englishman was made to look silly.

Questions for the MN jury?

How would you deal with your DC telling jokes based on national stereotypes?
Should I tell my dad not to furnish DS with more similar Englishman/Scotsman/Irishman jokes?
Should I be flamed for laughing?

I was making a point that it's not surprising that some people think racist jokes are not funny. What you think is a lame joke is not necessarily so to another.
Whatever your achilles heel is maisie let's find a joke about that and see if you think it's lame.

I'm bowing out of this now. It's actually made me quite sad to think that ridiculing another human being because of their nationality or race is completely acceptable to some people.
Maisie, i despair of people like you, i really do.
There is nothing at all lame about trying to belittle people for cheap laughs, when the one who is doing it has all the power. Is that beyond your understanding,- it really is a very simple thing to grasp surely.
Goodbye

i'm irish and i'm a joke
can you have me deleted?

taig on a workmates chair?
were you in norn iron at the time? don't understand the context otherwise...

Ronald, you would be a bad joke then

I do think the joke this thread is about is lame, and only mildly offensive, if I heard it in real life, I'd roll my eyes, and not give it another second's thought

but if it upsets people, it does, you can't argue with that

if it is offensive, and racist, as it is to at least one poster here, they should be able to have it deleted.

The point that keeps being made is that if you substitute the name of other former colonies that were oppressed by the UK - it becomes obviously unacceptable.

Bye Curry.

Pauline, you're absolutely right, what is a lame joke to one person is not necessarily so to another - but that's the nature of comedy, it's utterly subjective. There is a fine line on occasion, but it's important (imo) to differentiate between humour when laugh at each other and ourselves, and out and out bullying and racism which doesn't arise out of comedy. There is very little humour which isn't based on some form of mickey taking, ridicule, or poking fun. Which is why, I suspect, Curry was less than forthcoming about the comedy she laughs at.

i sometimes think that people go out of their way to be offended on other people's behalf

if the op is offended by it then that is a matter for her
similarly we will all have things that offend us in an incendiary way and others that get a meh
it will vary wildly

imo this is just a bland joke but to others it might be terribly demeaning
up to yourself and your own set of rules op

Unwind - if we deleted every thread that offended one poster there would be very little if anything on the board!

didn't realise that taig was a hate crime term

linky please

Maisie, you are creating a straw man

there was no mention of thread deletion, or preventing discussion, merely deletion of a single post, very late in the thread, containing the joke in question.

I was the one who repeatedly asked for the joke, so we could guage its offensiveness or not. I am sorry I did because I see now that the OP was right not to post it in the first place - it has turned discussion from abstract concepts to individual's personal taste in comedy, which is nothing like as interesting.

If "black man" was substituted for "Irishman" would you still be defending the lame joke?

ronaldinho No I was in England. It was written on an Irish workmates chair by another hilarious joker that used to be in the British army. That enough context for you?
Maisie you are totally right about subjective humour. There is also the fact that people in communities tell such jokes about themselves.

Masie you are truely un PC aren't you where do you think the term mickey taken comes from?

Back to the OP now. I would try to dissuade your dad from telling those jokes but I wouldn't create a big fuss. If it were me I would be rolling my eyes and saying I'd rather you didn't the first time, before telling him off if he keeps on.
And you weren't unreasonable to laugh. I have heard it where a Geordie was the pancake day punchline and I laughed.

I agree that Irish jokes are similar in their level of harmfulness to Blonde jokes. Fairly similar. Except that there are Irish blondes.

Tnog, I also hate that expression 'to have a paddy'. You don't hear it in Ireland, but yet, some MN-ers have in the past argued with me on that point and told me I'm wrong to hate the expression.

Hmmm, I remember looking at old copies of PUnch magazine in history class. I think I beg to differ really. Most English people don't KNOW why the saying came into their common usage, but that doesn't make it harmless, and Irish people aren't 'wrong' to object to it.

still don't understand... why they didn't go to hr themselves....as they were irish and aware what was being levelled at them?

They did. But I went first. What are you trying to imply Ronaldinho. What do you want, photocopies of the written statements, picture of the tippexed chair. And all that from someone who didn't know taig was a hate word. Hmmmmm.

Actually, there is no clear consensus as to where taking the mickey comes from - but you may be interested in this

Taig

As you said no clear consensus. Depending on which side of the line I guess.

All I meant was if you have heard the term taig you would know it's racist . Not that everyone Irish should know what it means. Am bowing out of this one now as it's getting too emotive for me.

I don't know if it's exactly racist. It's abusive, a slurr, but it's more sectarian than racist ... imo. Seeing as how the loyalists are the same race........

Absolutely - depends on which side of the line, but I'll go with the majority of sites which err on my side.