Koń by się uśmiał. What do we joke and do not joke about?

People joke for many reasons. Most of us would joke for entertainment, fun, relaxation but also, medicine or relief from troubles. Some would use jokes to build community with others, develop understanding and solidarity (often across languages or cultures), or contrary to that, manifest one’s identity, individual opinions and preferences.

People representing particular professions would treat jokes differently. For linguists, jokes are the examples of certain linguistic mechanisms and patterns that allow humorous expression. For sociologists and historians, jokes are indicative of the tendencies and phenomena characteristic for the society (or a particular group) at a given time. For language teachers and language learners, jokes provide a rich source of authentic language that develops both linguistic knowledge and socio-cultural awareness. Jokes also shed some light on the attitudes and beliefs of the people who create or spread them around. And finally, jokes may develop our self- awareness, self-knowledge and linguistic sensitivity. Thus, the purposes are numerous.

The same applies to topics. Jokes fall into a variety of categories, some more popular than others. Among them, we can differentiate:

Blonde jokes

What does a blonde say when she finds she’s pregnant?
Is it mine?

Cannibal jokes

What did the cannibal say when he found the white hunter asleep?
‘Ah, breakfast in bed.’

Dumb jokes

Why did the British couple stop after three kids?
Because they read that every fourth child in the world is Chinese.

Knock-knock jokes

Knock knock!
Who’s there ?
Isabel.
Isabel who?
Is a bell necessary on a bicycle?

Jokes with a specific opening
Waiter, there is ………a twig in my soup!
Yes, sir, we’ve got branches everywhere.

What is the difference between … Niagara
and Viagra?’
Niagar Falls.

There was an Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman….
Był sobie Polak, Rusek i Niemiec…..

Some other common topics are: death, disease, mutilation, disabilities, misfortunes, nationalities (the German tell Polish jokes, Poles joke about Russians and Germans), particular social groups (policemen, teachers), family relations (husband’s and wife’s jokes, mother-in-law’s jokes) to name just a few. We joke about every new event (positive or negative) and every new invention. Sometimes old jokes are modified to fit the situation.

Yet, surprisingly, within this multitude of topics and types, there are relatively few jokes about European Union (correct me, if I am wrong)! Here are the jokes that I managed to find:

EU jokes
“If the EU applied to join the EU, it would not be admitted. Why?
On the grounds that it does not meet its own standards for democracy.”

The European definition of heaven?
The French are the chefs
The Italians are the lovers
The British are the policemen
The Swiss are the bankers
The Germans are the mechanics

European definition of hell?
The British are the cooks
The Swiss are the lovers
The Germans are the policemen
The French are the bankers
The Italians are the mechanics

*(The modified version of the joke about nationalities – Blake, 2007: 28)

Why is that so? No answer comes to my mind. We may hope that ‘eccentric’ and ‘colourful characters’ of our Members of Parliament, recently selected for EU Parliament, would change this situation. For the time being, enjoy yourself and laugh your head off!

References:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/the-jokes-on-eu-a-cartoon-history-of-the-european-union))
http://www.jokesnjokes.net/funny.jokes.amusing.humor.laughs
http://www.anglik.net/britishjokes.html
http://www.zarty.biz/index.php?page=list&cat=36
http://www.zarty.biz/index.php?page=list&cat=36
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http://www.zarty.biz/index.php?page=list&cat=36" rel="external">http://www.zarty.biz/index.php?page=list&cat=36
http://www.zarty.biz/index.php?page=list&cat=36
http://www.zarty.biz/index.php?page=list&cat=36

Blake, B. 2007. Playing with words. Humour in the English Language. London: Equinox
Crystal, D. 1997. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.