Posted on 04/11/2026 3:46:15 PM PDT by Twotone
Ethnic humour has become one of those things we don't do well anymore, or simply won't do because nobody wants to lose their job. Back when it was still tolerated – about fifteen or twenty years ago – what was left of ethnic humour (as practiced by comics like Dave Chappelle or Chris Rock) was gatekept by a single, unbreakable rule: you can only make an ethnic joke if you're a member of the ethnicity that's the butt of the joke.
Now, of course, this is largely off the table because nobody thinks the risk is worth it anymore. I couldn't help but think of this while watching Whisky Galore!, the 1949 Ealing comedy whose every plot point, gag and character relies on an ecosystem of Scottish stereotypes. If you wanted to be offended by Whisky Galore! (and I don't know why you would, but this has become a popular leisure activity today now that nobody joins clubs or bowling leagues) you would have to run it through the latest oppression meter, which is to say you have to figure out if the film is punching down, up or sideways.
Whisky Galore! doesn't make it easy. It's a film by an American-born Scottish director, based on a book by a Scottish writer, produced by a Russian Jew for a British studio, and cast with Scots and Brits playing Scots. Even more baffling was that, while it did very well in the UK, it was a big hit in America (under the title Tight Little Island). I suppose the ultimate arbiter is whether a Scot would find it offensive. I'm one-third Scottish and none of me was offended by the picture, though I'm sure you could find someone somewhere north of Hadrian's Wall who was...
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
Similar jokes were already told in ancient Greece (making fun of the people of particular city-states).
My favorite Scottish joke:
A Scotsman opens his pay envelope and that finds he’s been overpaid by 10 pounds. He says nothing.
The next week, he opens his pay envelope and finds that he’s been underpaid by 10 pounds. Furious, he goes to see the paymaster.
Scotsman: I’m very angry! You’ve underpaid me by 10 pounds!
Paymaster: You didn’t complain last week when we overpaid you.
Scotsman: I can overlook one mistake. But not two in a row.
I once had a book called “A Treasury of Ethnic Humor”. Sadly, I lost it in one of my moves.
Anyway, I’m of Hungarian descent. So after I bought the book I immediately went to the Hungarian section. To my surprise, there was only one joke.
Q. How do you make a Hungarian omelette?
A. First steal two eggs.
😀
Decades ago, I dated a natural blonde that should have been a redheaded girl named Tiffany on the Hot/Crazy matrix. I never repeated that mistake.
When I sold encyclopedias door to door I had a Tiffany, very good looking in a natural and sexy way, I could never teach her the door opener, her natural door opener was to stand there, tilt a hip while saying “Hi, I’m Tiffany” it was just her way and nothing phony or odd about it, she was one of my best sales girls and I took her (and others) with me when I went to open another office in a different state, she had that thing, the magnetic sexual magic.
Holy cow!
We could be related! (Mom had a touch of the Irish ancestry)
It always amazed me when folks would research (and spend $$) their family history searching for princes, nobility, aristocracy, etc..
... And discover (like me) their forefathers were peasant drunks, mercenaries, pirates, etc.
This is part of a genre where small-town residents outwit the city slickers (as the article says, Ealing made a number of these).
“The Secret of Santa Vittoria” and “Waking Ned Devine” would be other examples.
I’ve never cared for “My Cousin Vinnie” for that reason - it reverses the concept.
Q: How does a Scotsman find a sheep in tall grass?
A: VERRRRY satisfying!
And then there was Firesign Theater, and Mel Brooks.
bump
Mel Brooks took no prisoners when it came to humor, anybody was fair game. “Blazing Saddles” was insanely funny. Mel Brooks was a gifted director.
Okay - I have a joke. Two Scottmen walk out of a bar....hey it could happen!”
Norm MacDonald does a good bit about how he hates polish jokes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_0q_CXl41s
My favorite Polish joke.
A Polish solider encounters a German soldier and a Russian soldier, which does he shoot first?
The German. Business before Pleasure.
He will be 100 years old in June.
Two Polish guys were very lost in the woods. They’d wandered for a week.
First guy says “I think we’ve wandered so far, we’re in Russia!”
Second guy, “why do you think that?”
First guy “well, someone just stole my watch!”
Blondes are now telling AOC jokes,
Finally the announcement was made that a final determination had been made--it was definitely going to belong to Poland.
A local woman was very happy with the news. "I don't think I could have stood another one of those cold Russian winters."
Aye. And Craig Ferguson.
I think the Dean Martin Show "roasts" are still around on YouTube, from the 60s or 70s, where all his many ethnic guest comedians would insult each other, and everyone laughed. That is how America was supposed to be. I think even Ronald Reagan may have been roasted on his show. Check it out! Definitely Don Rickles did many numbers on roastees.
Hah! Very funny! Here's my fave:
A new doctor is being shown around a Scottish hospital.As they enter one ward, the nearest patient turns to him and says “Fair fa’ your honest sonsie face, great chieftain o’ the pudden race!”
Before the doctor can react, the patient in the next bed adds “Wee sleekit cowerin’ timorous beastie! O what a panic’s in thy breastie!”
And not to be outdone, the third patient responds “Some ha’ meat and cannae eat, and some wad eat that want it!”
The doctor murmurs to the orderly “So this is the mental health ward?”
“Och no!” replies the orderly.
“...it’s the Serious Burns Unit!”
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