A Call For Humor!

[DonR]

Does the one on the left(Kim, Chloe?) have 2 ankle monitors?

Maybe we have reached the stage in modern society where ankle monitors now constitute a fashion statement.

 

[ryanosaur]

indeed.

And before people start jumping on me for using Eskimo:

Eskimo has been criticized as an offensive term, and many people either avoid it or feel uncomfortable using it. The claim that Eskimo is offensive is often supported by citing a popular etymology tracing its origin to an Abenaki word meaning “eaters of raw meat.” Modern linguists speculate that Eskimo may actually derive from a Montagnais word referring to the manner of lacing a snowshoe, but the matter remains undecided

Inuit is a more specific term than Eskimo, properly applying to the traditionally Inuit-speaking peoples of Arctic Canada and parts of Greenland. In southwest Alaska and Arctic Siberia, where Inuit is not spoken, the comparable term is Yupik, which has not gained as wide a currency in English as Inuit.

Use of these more specific terms is generally preferable when speaking of the appropriate ethnic group. For lack of a universally accepted general term, Eskimo is still often used for speaking of the Yupik and Inuit peoples collectively


So I am not sure how an ancient etymology that could either be "“eaters of raw meat" or "lacing a snowshoe in a specific way" can be construed as a derogatory.

Next people will be telling me my username is derogatory when in fact it could be an accurate description!!!!!

But back to the humour.

It’s like the French being called Frogs… which one Austrian native from Vienna says was there gift to the world, and the best the French could come up with was calling them “Crescent Eaters.”

*shrugs

People are strange.

In retrospect, Chapelle’s running story about how “brittle” people have become is bordering on absolute prescience.

 

[ryanosaur]

for using Eskimo

Anybody else here having flashbacks to Heathers?

 

[Brian Hall]

Must be American. Over here, "C**N" is a derogatory racist term for First Nations Australians, considered as offensive as the "N" word. There was a brand of cheese that was named "C**N" after the guy who invented the recipe, it was rebranded a few years ago.

Raccoons are very common here. People frequently shorten that to coon as in "My dang dog treed another coon last night". I've never heard anyone around here use it in a derogatory manner to refer to someone with higher than average melanin levels.

When we hear coon we think of the animal. Have you never heard of a coonskin cap like Daniel Boone was supposedly fond of?

People need to stop thinking everything is racist or looking for things to be offended about.

Raccoons are pretty smart and kind of cute when they aren't knocking over trash cans. Why would anyone use their name or a shortened version of it in a negative way?

 

[Keith_W]

re: "C**N", I am fully aware that what is offensive in one culture is not offensive in another. In no way was I implying that Americans were being offensive to indigenous Australians, it is the intent of using the word and not the word itself.

One example are Chinese who say "那个" (Nei Ge) which is the equivalent of "ummm", which sounds a lot like the N-word especially if spoken quickly. So if you visit China you may hear something resembling the N-word spoken a lot. Some Chinese even call African-Americans by the N-word. I met a guy who said it and I was shocked and told him that it's racist. He was confused, he told me it's used all the time in American rap songs by African-American rappers so how can it be racist when they use it themselves. I tried to explain, but it seemed like a foreign concept to him. In the end he said "if they find it offensive, then I won't use that word". It wasn't his intent to be offensive, it was his limited English and limited understanding of foreign culture.

Another example is "growler". In the USA, it means "person that growls". Australia: type of beer bottle. UK: female genitalia.

 

[Blumlein 88]

re: "C**N", I am fully aware that what is offensive in one culture is not offensive in another. In no way was I implying that Americans were being offensive to indigenous Australians, it is the intent of using the word and not the word itself.

One example are Chinese who say "那个" (Nei Ge) which is the equivalent of "ummm", which sounds a lot like the N-word especially if spoken quickly. So if you visit China you may hear something resembling the N-word spoken a lot. Some Chinese even call African-Americans by the N-word. I met a guy who said it and I was shocked and told him that it's racist. He was confused, he told me it's used all the time in American rap songs by African-American rappers so how can it be racist when they use it themselves. I tried to explain, but it seemed like a foreign concept to him. In the end he said "if they find it offensive, then I won't use that word". It wasn't his intent to be offensive, it was his limited English and limited understanding of foreign culture.

There was a professor in California kicked out of his job teaching a class for using the Nei Ge. Even though people taking a language class you would think at university level would get this. Didn't matter, sounded too similar to something else and he was out.

 

[Doodski]

There was a professor in California kicked out of his job teaching a class for using the Nei Ge. Even though people taking a language class you would think at university level would get this. Didn't matter, sounded to similar to something else and he was out.

Just WoW! The cancellations that I have seen in recent months has been discouraging.

 

[Sir Sanders Zingmore]

Speaking of taking offence (and bringing some humour back too )

Sam Kerr Named 'Australian of the Year' After Revelations She Spewed in a Taxi and Swore at a Cop — The Shovel

Sam Kerr has been honoured for her unique contribution to Australian culture after she got shitfaced, chucked up in a cab, disputed the fare and then called an English cop a stupid white bastard.

theshovel.com.au

 

[jkasch]

 

[ryanosaur]

Raccoons are very common here. People frequently shorten that to coon as in "My dang dog treed another coon last night". I've never heard anyone around here use it in a derogatory manner to refer to someone with higher than average melanin levels.

When we hear coon we think of the animal. Have you never heard of a coonskin cap like Daniel Boone was supposedly fond of?

People need to stop thinking everything is racist or looking for things to be offended about.

Raccoons are pretty smart and kind of cute when they aren't knocking over trash cans. Why would anyone use their name or a shortened version of it in a negative way?

Coming from another Midwestern community, one had to be careful about the distinction and the "Ra" was never dropped when talking about the animal. Those that dropped it weren't talking about animals.

While I agree there are things that people should get over, it's hard when you see it used in such a hurtful manner to denigrate or subjugate another human being.

Who gets to decide a word is no longer an epithet or derogatory?

Once again this humor thread is treading on the all too serious. We should drop this conversation and get back to real jokes.

 

[Boris Badinov]

 

[Boris Badinov]

 

[Doodski]

Coming from another Midwestern community, one had to be careful about the distinction and the "Ra" was never dropped when talking about the animal. Those that dropped it weren't talking about animals.

While I agree there are things that people should get over, it's hard when you see it used in such a hurtful manner to denigrate or subjugate another human being.

Who gets to decide a word is no longer an epithet or derogatory?

Once again this humor thread is treading on the all too serious. We should drop this conversation and get back to real jokes.

Here's a story about a racoon. Long ago I lived in the Kootenay Region of Canada in South Central British Columbia where the winter is fairly mild and it receives dumps of snow every year that can exceed easily several feet of snow in a period of ~2 or ~3 days. Great place for skiing and snowmobiling. I was sitting in the basement rec room watching the TV, enjoying the fireplace and was watching the snow fall as I looked out the patio door. I saw some shiny things and realized they where eyeballs looking at me from inside the fluffy powder snow. I was thinking very cool as I was a outdoorsman at that time and enjoyed wild animals being around. So in a moment I heard the garbage can falling over and the lid clanging on the concrete and I also heard a very strange wild sounding growl and some sort of noise that put fear into me. So I said I'm going outside to investigate and grabbed the 12 gauge shotgun for backup. When I got to the garbage can the beast was not there but there where tracks under the patio and I followed them until they disappeared into the power. The beast went into the powder and was moving through the snow and I was having a difficult time tracking it but I could hear it making some scary growls and stuff and then it popped out of the snow under the 4 foot eve of the house and it was pretty large for a racoon I thought. So I saw that it was going a route that would take it around the house so I went the other way and to intercept it near the fireplace chimney outside the house. I got there and so did it and it was very very angry with me. It was a wolverine and it was ready to fight. I was not going to shoot it as they are super rare and never seen and the only reason I saw it this time is it came down from the mountains into the Columbia River Valley to get out of the deep snow pack in the mountains. I was near crapping my drawers in surprise and was not wasting time to get back into the house even if I had that 12 gauge shotgun in hand. So not a racoon...LoL.

 

[fatoldgit]

It’s like the French being called Frogs… which one Austrian native from Vienna says was there gift to the world, and the best the French could come up with was calling them “Crescent Eaters.”

*shrugs

People are strange.

In retrospect, Chapelle’s running story about how “brittle” people have become is bordering on absolute prescience.

Slight difference... Frog is modern English (from the French Revolution) like Kraut is for Germans (from WW2)..both of which were meant to be offensive.

Eskimo is one ancient groups name for another wider group (Inuits and Yupiks) and yet, as Dave Chapelle notes, we take offense on behalf of Inuits and Yupiks.

Sure, calling an Inuit an Eskimo to their face might be offensive but in the case I highlighted, the ice cream used a generic, non-offensive, generalized name for two groups of people that live in a specific [cold] latitude of the world and obviously the marketing thread was the cold.

Its like banning the use of Polynesian cause it groups Samoans, Native Hawaiians, Tahitians, Tongans ,Cook Islanders, Māori etc together.

At least in one case, logic prevailed in this part of the world:

"Puha and Pakeha" is a 1960s New Zealand novelty song, written and performed by Rod Derrett. Darkly humorous in nature, it is about Māori people in early New Zealand preparing 'boil-up' meals of pūhā (a leafy vegetable that grows in the wild) and Pākehā (New Zealanders of European descent).

In 2004, a complaint was laid with the Broadcasting Standards Authority that the song was culturally insensitive to Pākehā. In its ruling, the BSA said that it could not be interpreted as such, and that it was "clearly humorous".

Anyway... on with the offensive jokes!!!!

Peter

Found the cover to the single:

 

[Waxx]

Thanks to B88 for pointing out the obvious.... context matters.

If this was a real product, it would be popular with the mythical Southern Hick for whom Coon is short for Racoon.

Next you will be thinking a coonskin hat is made from....(1)

To those that wondered, I am not American...I am a Kiwi.

But as someone whose 5000 album record collection is 98% Blues and Jazz and thus is 95% made up of Black American artists, has been collecting said albums since 1970 and has a deep historical interest in Blues and Jazz (and so by extension, the Black American experience from which Blues especially was born), I know that "coon" has a derogatory meaning.

See for example Howlin' Wolf's "Coon on the Moon" track and read its sarcastic lyrics. And of course, Howlin' Wolf is entitled to use this derogatory form of the word cause he is...checks notes... a Black American.

I even lived in the US for 15 years and worked/traveled all over it and so have some appreciation of the complexities and subtleties of American culture.

So off the high horse before you fall off.

Peter

(1) In Kiwiland we had a icecream product that since I was a kid was called an Eskimo Pie... but due to pressure from specific groups was renamed to Polar Pie in 2021... I assume because people thought it was made from Eskimo's (actually it was due to perceived cultural appropriation...Eskimo's are renowned for their ice cream products )... and yet Jeep can still sell a vehicle called the Cherokee

Volkswagen also sells an SUV called Touareg, referring to the Berber people with the same name that live in the Sahara in Algeria, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali and Lybia. But there they refer to the notorious endurance of those people who live in very harsh conditions, not in an offensive way. And most Touareg that i know (and i know quiet a few of them living down here) see it as a compliment. It's all about the context.

(random picture of Tuareg in traditional outfit from the internet)

 

[Kuppenbender]

There was a professor in California kicked out of his job teaching a class for using the Nei Ge. Even though people taking a language class you would think at university level would get this. Didn't matter, sounded too similar to something else and he was out.

Incredible incident, so I delved a little deeper.

He wasn’t actually teaching Mandarin, which is done in numerous U.S. schools and universities without issue. He was teaching Business Communication, and specifically highlighting the similarity to the English taboo word. This was the issue. And for the record, paying customers (students) complained, he was suspended, the matter was considered, and he was subsequently reinstated. Relax people. No one was cancelled.

那個 is one of the most useful phrases for people who don’t speak much Mandarin. It means ‘that one’. I used it all the time in Taiwan for ordering food, buying clothes, gadgets and, to neatly segue back on subject, HiFi.

 

[digitalfrost]

 

[mhardy6647]

STEM Cartoon 037 - The Wheel - March 1967 by Johnny El-Rady, on Flickr
I am not absolutely sure if the troglodyte on the far right is holding a wheel... or an LP record.

Speaking of linguistics, I collected this bon mot from hifihaven just moments ago.

 

[Boris Badinov]

 

[Boris Badinov]