I’m on some joke lists and there has been a notable increase in Middle East jokes — showing again how people can find (often stereotypical) humor in times of tragedy and calamity.
Here’s the latest…just received, never PC and always operating on the basic theory (as noted by comedy coach Greg Dean) that a joke is a “shattered assumption” — an assumption shared by the audience or in this case joke list readership:
What happens when a fly falls into a coffee cup in a Mideast cafe?
The Italian – throws the cup and walks away in a fit of rage.
The Frenchman – takes out the fly, and drinks the coffee.
The Chinese – eats the fly and throws away the coffee.
The Russian – drinks the coffee with the fly, since it was extra with no charge.
The Israeli – sells the coffee to the Frenchman, the fly to the Chinese, buys himself a new cup of coffee and uses the extra money to invent a device that prevents flies from falling into coffee.
The Palestinian – blames the Israeli for the fly falling in his coffee, protests the act of aggression to the UN, takes a loan from the European Union to buy a new cup of coffee, uses the money to purchase explosives and then blows up the coffee house where the Italian, the Frenchman, The Chinese, and the Russian are all trying to explain to the Israeli why he should give away his cup of coffee to the Palestinian.
(In comments you can analyze the assumptions and give your take on it…)
UPDATE: Now a reader sent me this (and we are not going to update this little post all day so this is IT).
Dan Rather, Katie Couric and an Israeli sergeant were all captured by terrorists in Iraq. The leader of the terrorists told them that he would grant them each one last request before they were beheaded.
Dan Rather said, “Well, I’m a Texan, so I’d like one last bowlful of hot spicy chili.”
The leader nodded to an underling who left and returned with the chili. Rather ate it all and said, “Now I can die content.”
Katie Couric said, “I’m a reporter to the end. I want to take out my tape recorder and describe the scene here and what’s about to happen. Maybe someday someone will hear it and know that I was on the job till the end.”
The leader directed an aide to hand over the tape recorder and Couric dictated some comments. She then said, “Now I can die happy.”
The leader turned and said, “And now, Mr. Israeli tough guy, what is your final wish?” “Kick me in the ass,” said the soldier.”
“What?” asked the leader? “Will you mock us in your last hour?” “No, I’m not kidding. I want you to kick me in the butt,” insisted the Israeli.
So the leader shoved him into the open and kicked him in the butt. The soldier went sprawling, but rolled to his knees, pulled a 9 mm pistol from under his flack jacket, and shot the leader dead. In the resulting confusion, he jumped to his knapsack, pulled out his carbine and sprayed the terrorists with gunfire. In a flash, all terrorists were either dead or fleeing for their lives.
As the soldier was untying Rather and Couric, they asked him, “Why didn’t you just shoot them in the beginning? Why did you ask them to kick you in the butt first?”
“What?” replied the Israeli, “And have you two report that I was the aggressor?
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.