Robert Whiting,
An elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane.
At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport
In his carry on.
"You
Have been to France before, monsieur?" the customs officer asked
Sarcastically.
Mr. Whiting
Admitted that he had been to France
Previously.
"Then
You should know enough to have your passport ready."
The American said,
"The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it."
"Impossible.
Americans always have to show their passports on arrival in France !"
The American senior
Gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he
Quietly explained, ''Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in
1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find a single Frenchmen
To show a passport to."
Relapse wrote:Robert Whiting,
An elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane.
At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport
In his carry on.
"You
Have been to France before, monsieur?" the customs officer asked
Sarcastically.
Mr. Whiting
Admitted that he had been to France
Previously.
"Then
You should know enough to have your passport ready."
The American said,
"The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it."
"Impossible.
Americans always have to show their passports on arrival in France !"
The American senior
Gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he
Quietly explained, ''Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in
1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find a single Frenchmen
To show a passport to."
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn. Nice bit of jingoism always sends me off to a peaceful sleep.
Only the Brits get to bash the French. That's our birth right (see what I did there)
Us yanks are going to do what yanks do, the Tommy's are going to make snide comments about yanks being yanks, a yank will make a joke along the lines of saying the US bailed the UK out in the 40's and kicked their asses in the revolutionary war, and are still bitter about it. We'll fight about it for a page or so, also bringing in who has better beer, or better teeth, or healthcare... At this point the thread will probably be locked, or we will realize that both our nations largely enjoy terrible television programming, and become once again united.
There were 130,000 Free French forces involved in the liberation of France, many of them black soldiers from the French colonies in Africa. At de Gaulle's request, it was French troops that led the advance into Paris (although Eisenhower allowed this only on condition that no black soldiers be seen in this advance - the 2nd armoured was chosen as it was the only French unit that could maintain operational effectiveness while hiding it's black troops... history is messed up).
With the liberation of France their fighting strength grew, there were more than a million French troops in Germany at the end of the war.
US troops, along with British, French, Polish and other troops, did a great thing in liberating France, and full credit to every soldier that served and risked his life to save France from Nazi rule. It's a shame that subsequent generations try to use those achievements in jingoistic crap.
Hey maybe we wanted to argue with those guys from across the pond for a page or two! Now we cant because you ruined it you..........you..........you...ruiner!
LunaHound wrote:One thing i dont understand , how are things like what OP post any different than racism?
It's not. It's stupid, it's ignorant, and it's factually wrong, which *gets out the checklist* hey, meets all the requirements to identify Relapse as a racist douchebag.
You can be both stupid, and ignorant without being a racist.
In other news, the OP was a joke. I found it funny for what I imagine are reason other than those intended, but I did find it funny. Picture an old American man wearing a hat yelling at a French maitre d' dressed up in a customs uniform, and you have what I thought of first.
ShumaGorath wrote:Clicked expecting to see a news story about airline harassment. Left annoyed that relapse has started copy pasting his spam mail again.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
One thing i dont understand , how are things like what OP post any different than racism?
Sure its not hate towards a race , but towards a country , for something that happens decades ago?
Ladies and gentlemen, we have our answer.
Dammit so did I. I hate being let down on a thread that might have been worth reading
ShumaGorath wrote:Clicked expecting to see a news story about airline harassment. Left annoyed that relapse has started copy pasting his spam mail again.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
One thing i dont understand , how are things like what OP post any different than racism?
Sure its not hate towards a race , but towards a country , for something that happens decades ago?
Ladies and gentlemen, we have our answer.
Hm? my point was . If it was a racial intolerance he would be perma banned off dakka already im sure.
But the same intolerance moved onto a different subject is ok?
Thats what i meant by "why is it any different"
Im sure you knew thats what i meant shuma , right?
ShumaGorath wrote:Clicked expecting to see a news story about airline harassment. Left annoyed that relapse has started copy pasting his spam mail again.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
One thing i dont understand , how are things like what OP post any different than racism?
Sure its not hate towards a race , but towards a country , for something that happens decades ago?
Ladies and gentlemen, we have our answer.
Hm? my point was . If it was a racial intolerance he would be perma banned off dakka already im sure.
But the same intolerance moved onto a different subject is ok?
Thats what i meant by "why is it any different"
Im sure you knew thats what i meant shuma , right?
You asked a question then rather accurately answered it for yourself.
The answer being: different forms of intolerance are treated differently. I could rant about the obvious inferiority of oranges, and how we should exterminate them so that apples won't be dragged down by their dead weight. I very much doubt that I would be banned, unless someone thought I was being allegorical. Certain subjects simply don't carry the same implicit stigma.
dogma wrote:The answer being: different forms of intolerance are treated differently. I could rant about the obvious inferiority of oranges, and how we should exterminate them so that apples won't be dragged down by their dead weight. I very much doubt that I would be banned, unless someone thought I was being allegorical. Certain subjects simply don't carry the same implicit stigma.
While i do understand that , some how i feel if this was a french board and not american , or the situation was reversed , the joke would not be as funny -_-
dogma wrote:The answer being: different forms of intolerance are treated differently. I could rant about the obvious inferiority of oranges, and how we should exterminate them so that apples won't be dragged down by their dead weight. I very much doubt that I would be banned, unless someone thought I was being allegorical. Certain subjects simply don't carry the same implicit stigma.
But.. but I like oranges .
Automatically Appended Next Post:
ShumaGorath wrote:
LunaHound wrote:
ShumaGorath wrote:Clicked expecting to see a news story about airline harassment. Left annoyed that relapse has started copy pasting his spam mail again.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
One thing i dont understand , how are things like what OP post any different than racism?
Sure its not hate towards a race , but towards a country , for something that happens decades ago?
Ladies and gentlemen, we have our answer.
Hm? my point was . If it was a racial intolerance he would be perma banned off dakka already im sure.
But the same intolerance moved onto a different subject is ok?
Thats what i meant by "why is it any different"
Im sure you knew thats what i meant shuma , right?
You asked a question then rather accurately answered it for yourself.
Aggh, you edited before i submit and I didn't notice. Dogma answered in my stead.
It's just a dang joke, no hate at all in this thread except the hate people breath into it. It's like this joke:
An american couple was visiting the site of the D-Day invasion and were trying to find where their father had landed on D-Day. Without any clues they found an elderly british gentleman and asked him where Utah beach was. The elderly man responded by saying "60 years and you yanks still can't find the right beach."
Yeah, you seem to have a problem with the whole critical thinking thing, or else you would have an inkling that the two 'jokes' are nothing alike.
The first one is entirely dependent on the 'French are cowardly surrender monkeys,' sterotype, and the whole point is, 'oh ho ho, watch me put those snooty bitches in their place.'
Your joke? has no stereotypes in it at all, denigrates no one, with the punch line entirely based on being a historical reference that part of the invasion ended up in the wrong place. If you can't tell the difference between the two... well, then I don't know what to say, except that ignorance is a choice.
I got that in a forwarded email titled "you could've heard a pin drop'.
Here's another part of the email;
There was a conference in France where a number of international engineers were taking part, including French and American. During a break, one of the French engineers came back into the room saying 'Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he intended to do, bomb them?'
A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly:
'Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply
emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day,
they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck. We have eleven such ships; how many does France have?'
So I guess the official putting the old douchebag in his place by mentioning that the reason no one was there to greet him was because the resistance was off committing thousands of acts of sabotage just got cut off?
Or were you just being willfully ignorant because it's perfectly fine to say 'all X suck!' when X is a country and not a race?
Jesus people need to calm down a little. It's just a joke. Can't we all just laugh about it or at least let it slide instead of freaking out about "HURR ARROGANCE/IGNORANCE STFU!!!!" That's the point. It's a joke. I bet anything if this was a joke about how Americans are stupid/fat/etc everyone would be laughing their asses off. So let's all just relax and take this for what it is: a joke (even if it's not terribly funny)
Bookwrack wrote:Yeah, you seem to have a problem with the whole critical thinking thing, or else you would have an inkling that the two 'jokes' are nothing alike.
The first one is entirely dependent on the 'French are cowardly surrender monkeys,' sterotype, and the whole point is, 'oh ho ho, watch me put those snooty bitches in their place.'
Your joke? has no stereotypes in it at all, denigrates no one, with the punch line entirely based on being a historical reference that part of the invasion ended up in the wrong place. If you can't tell the difference between the two... well, then I don't know what to say, except that ignorance is a choice.
Or you could say that it was because the french weren't defending the beach heads during the invasion(IIRC it was mainly the germans who had invaded France and built the defences), or because you simply want to agree with the somewhat bigger majority who say it is a bit hateful.
There were no stereotypes in the first joke, no mention of the french surrendering. It's not, as you say, "dependent on the 'French are cowardly surrender monkeys'" stereotype, it's also dependent on history as is the joke I posted afterwards. Both jokes are about old men having fun with the younger generation.
So let's recap. The elderly man reported that there weren't any french people to show his passport to, this is partly due to the fact that the only people he would've seen would be British, American, Canadian, Norwegian, or German. The French Resistance was actively involved, but not at the beach head itself so he may have seen them later on. Now, at the moment he set his foot onto the beach he had entered German occupied France, this was his first time entering France.
Now, the customs officer, who we can guess is younger than the elderly man, was in shock when he heard that this man had entered the country without a passport before(the whole new airport security thing making it so). The elderly man thought it would be clever to mention that his first time visiting was during the D-Day invasion.
Again bookwrack, you lose at the internets. GTFO and take your fail with you.
Automatically Appended Next Post: I also doubt that the French Resistance would've bothered to check their passports anyways. Just get over yourself man.
So I guess the official putting the old douchebag in his place by mentioning that the reason no one was there to greet him was because the resistance was off committing thousands of acts of sabotage just got cut off?
Or were you just being willfully ignorant because it's perfectly fine to say 'all X suck!' when X is a country and not a race?
Easy, Trigger. Where I'm from in northern Maine every other person at least is part French and Indian. Your a tad sensitive about a joke that really isn't meant to be mean or nationalistic. As was said by another poster it's more about somebody caught in their own world, being reminded that there's a lot more out there happening.
chromedog wrote:I got that in a forwarded email titled "you could've heard a pin drop'.
Here's another part of the email;
There was a conference in France where a number of international engineers were taking part, including French and American. During a break, one of the French engineers came back into the room saying 'Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he intended to do, bomb them?'
A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly:
'Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply
emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day,
they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck. We have eleven such ships; how many does France have?'
That's not even a joke. It's a (likely fictitious) anecdote in which a Frenchman who really should know better asks a stupid question, and gets response designed to make Americans who base their ego on the effectiveness of their armed forces feel good about themselves. The only possible enjoyment comes from having your worldview reinforced.
LunaHound wrote:One thing i dont understand , how are things like what OP post any different than racism?
It's not. It's stupid, it's ignorant, and it's factually wrong, which *gets out the checklist* hey, meets all the requirements to identify Relapse as a racist douchebag.
Since when are the French a different race? I'd say that was the ignorant mixup in your facts. Your checklist, sir, is at fault.
Corvus wrote:Jesus people need to calm down a little. It's just a joke. Can't we all just laugh about it or at least let it slide instead of freaking out about "HURR ARROGANCE/IGNORANCE STFU!!!!" That's the point. It's a joke. I bet anything if this was a joke about how Americans are stupid/fat/etc everyone would be laughing their asses off. So let's all just relax and take this for what it is: a joke (even if it's not terribly funny)
I used to quite like jokes about the French (For sale: French Rifles. Only dropped once.) but then people started taking those jokes seriously, and started assuming it reflected on modern French military capacity (in terms of budget the French are third in the world, in terms of force projection they could be second).
The only interesting thing in this thread is that people still buy into the idea of the French Resistance. Now that's propaganda staying power, Hollywood.
Yes, yes. If you watch "Lord of War" you learn that it's also one of the biggest suppliers of weapons. Along with every member of the U.N. security council.
sebster wrote:
I used to quite like jokes about the French (For sale: French Rifles. Only dropped once.) but then people started taking those jokes seriously, and started assuming it reflected on modern French military capacity (in terms of budget the French are third in the world, in terms of force projection they could be second).
Context matters.
I see your point, but in that case you should just go after the people who are honestly dumb enough to take a freaking joke seriously rather than the one who made the joke.
On a side note, while I don't doubt French military tech or budget, I believe their combat effectiveness is severely hampered by the same politically correct ROEs and strategies that plague most modern European military forces. Bottom line, they have some very nice toys, but they don't always have the will to use them effectively.
The french resistance existed, I remember watching the history channel talking about the "Who me?" gas american scientists were developing for the resistance. It was supposed to smell like a bad fart and break up meetings of german officers.
sebster wrote:
I used to quite like jokes about the French (For sale: French Rifles. Only dropped once.) but then people started taking those jokes seriously, and started assuming it reflected on modern French military capacity (in terms of budget the French are third in the world, in terms of force projection they could be second).
Context matters.
I see your point, but in that case you should just go after the people who are honestly dumb enough to take a freaking joke seriously rather than the one who made the joke.
On a side note, while I don't doubt French military tech or budget, I believe their combat effectiveness is severely hampered by the same politically correct ROEs and strategies that plague most modern European military forces. Bottom line, they have some very nice toys, but they don't always have the will to use them effectively.
I see your point , i really do. I think the joke in first post is clever no doubt.
So , how much WTC 911 jokes do you think i can post before im banned? ( <-- that is just a question not that im going to do that , so mods , dont! )
Manchu wrote:Luna, in the realm of humor there is a thing called timing. It doesn't just refer to delivery.
I know Manchu , i understand that too.
But i just feel its pretty mean to have the mentality of " you know , we know its mean to make jokes out of you Frenches . but you know what?
your country is weak , and ours kicks your ass any time. So grow thick skin , or do something about it "
@Luna: Mmmm, as has been pointed out any kind of serious xenophobia isn't funny. OP is headed in that direction. Hence why people replied with things like "YAAAAAAAAA(etc)N" right off the bat. No need to mount the soapbox on this one.
Not mounting any soapbox manchu , just trying to see if im understanding this from your ( and who ever i replied to so far ) 's point of view.
And if anything , im trying to understand to what leads to this type of jokes.
Well, the man in this joke survived the actual trauma of the D-Day invasion. Being shot at, killing another human being, seeing his friends and colleagues die...
If you post a 9/11 joke it would be wrong because, well... you kind of were not most likely there and didn't see the actual thing.
LunaHound wrote:Not mounting any soapbox manchu , just trying to see if im understanding this from your ( and who ever i replied to so far ) 's point of view.
And if anything , im trying to understand to what leads to this type of jokes.
Mainly ignorance. An environment where it's tolerated and reinforced helps.
Luna, as I said earlier, I'm part French and thought the joke was funny. I just popped it on, not expecting the type of response it got. I viewed it one context and other people saw it as something else.
My bad there.
I gave up on the History and Discovery channels because they seem to take up most of their shows rehashing what was already gone over before the commercial breaks. After that, I ended up getting rid of the t.v. altogether and nobody in my family misses it.
Well, it is pretty ignorant to assume that the French are constantly rude to every foreigner that visits their country. I haven't had the good fortune to go, but I've heard more good than bad things about Americans interacting with the French in France.
I don't get the rude remark. I get shock from the frenchman. Like I said, airport security checks passports so they would need one. If this man had gotten into the country without a passport I would be shocked as well.
I heard that Paris is the worst when it comes to anti-americanism. A teacher of mine said she had to convince them that they were mexican in order to get some service at a restaurant.
BTW, I have this really great joke about canada...
Automatically Appended Next Post: Sure it says that the officer was sarcastic, but most people are when someone holds up a line or makes their job a little harder. And most custom officers are jerks to begin with.
I hate to have to explain it but the joke turns on the Frenchman's behavior being typical of French people generally. It portrays the French as rude, presumptuous and ungrateful. This isn't a joke about airport workers being mean.
Manchu wrote:I hate to have to explain it but the joke turns on the Frenchman's behavior being typical of French people generally. It portrays the French as rude, presumptuous and ungrateful. This isn't a joke about airport workers being mean.
You fell into the stereotype trap. Making a guess that it's about the "typical" french attitude and basing the joke upon that misconstrues the true meaning. Look at it neutraly and it may be possible to see what I get from the joke.
Although I would have to say that I'm no fan of the french, and if French Canadians are reflective of actual french people then they typically are rude.
I have to step in here, I grew up with French Canadians. The first non family kiss I ever got was at age 7 from a totaly gorgeous French girl named Carmen. My heart melted.
Relapse wrote:Luna, as I said earlier, I'm part French and thought the joke was funny. I just popped it on, not expecting the type of response it got. I viewed it one context and other people saw it as something else.
My bad there.
You dont need to apologize , i really dont hold you or anyone responsible in the thread o_o.
as you can see since the beginning , im just trying to understand out how these type of jokes came to be ( well this and other type of situations )
And im grateful really , that most of you didnt take the opportunity to take what i said out of context ( which can easily be done )
it has been very peaceful and helpful lately , and im very happy to be on the forum , appreciate it! ^-^v
@Manchu Too true. I thought it'd be a couple of comments at best. Just a dumb 'un, like you said.
@ Luna,
I've been told Polish jokes came about as a way to minimize the Poles prior to WW2. This way, the Nazis figured they could do what they wanted in Poland.
Definite urban legend feel there, but a grain of truth with the thought of one people minimizing another.
I have to push you aside here. I also grew up with French Canadians(seeing as though my family history starts in Quebec). In the north my uncles always complained because they would never speak english to him until he got mad enough to make them speak it(he was an electrician and fixed up the power plants and generators in Quebec at times). My other family members up north have had to experience them first hand and haven't had any positive ones.
Now, I live in a "resort" town in the south and we have people from Quebec come here during the summer every year. They are smug, hate to speak english(yes they do know english), and in general are rude. A friend of mine works for a travel agency, she shares my sentiments.
I still say that I don't see the "smugness" and ego necessary for the joke, just basic knowledge of history.
Americans landed at Normandy during WW2 and fought the germans(not the french) and most people who have had experiences with older people know that they like to yank the chain of the younger people.
Does it truly matter manchu? Does one have to have a thorough knowledge of history to enjoy a simple joke? If you know that the french weren't at the beach and the americans and germans were you have the joke. You don't need to know about the other nations involved(the joke's not about the british, canadians, or others). If you really know your history, then you know that the French Resistance was operating by attacking roads and such, but weren't busy attacking the bunkers, mg nests, etc that were at Normandy. They were making sure reinforcements would be difficult to transport to Normandy. Although this doesn't really matter as the basic history was covered.
So by "basic" I do not mean "shallow" as "shallow" may imply a negative meaning.
You're really bending over backwards to see this as not what it obviously is: a contrast between a brave and generous American veteran, standing in for all Americans, and an ungrateful and petulant Frenchman, standing in for all Frenchmen. This is not "falling into the stereotype trap." Rather, it's simply "understanding what is being communicated."
sebster wrote: At de Gaulle's request, it was French troops that led the advance into Paris (although Eisenhower allowed this only on condition that no black soldiers be seen in this advance - the 2nd armoured was chosen as it was the only French unit that could maintain operational effectiveness while hiding it's black troops... history is messed up).
Really? I gotta say sebster, I honestly did not know that. Funny piece of info there. And yeah, that's pretty messed up.
Imagine the OP as if it were done by the Monty Python Crew. Over acted and all that.
Would it be considered "funny" then? Or would the "easily offended" be up in arms about it?
And as for the "racism" issues..... We all post on a forum concerned with our mutual enjoyment of a GAME based on inherent .... racism.
Don't break your brains by thinking on that one too hard....
Hey, I'm all for racist jokes. It's like any other joke. If it's funny, it's funny. (My Indian/Canadian/Australian/Sri-Lankan/Whatever friend is the one who makes the most jokes against his colour.) You should only worry when people start taking it seriously.
Manchu wrote:You're really bending over backwards to see this as not what it obviously is: a contrast between a brave and generous American veteran, standing in for all Americans, and an ungrateful and petulant Frenchman, standing in for all Frenchmen. This is not "falling into the stereotype trap." Rather, it's simply "understanding what is being communicated."
You don't know if the frenchman was ungrateful, until the end the reader didn't even know that this guy was a vet. We only know what was communicated to us and all the rest is speculation. You can say that the frenchman apologized after he heard this, or he just plain snapped and killed everyone in the airport before riding his cyber unicorn into low orbit.
I see that it could be interpreted as anti-french, but it truly doesn't seem so.
Here's the scene I get:
Some old guy is going up to the customs desk(I will guess that there is aline behind him) and begins fumbling for his passport.
The customs agent is a little annoyed and remarks sarcastically "Have you ever been to France before sir?" mainly because it was almost plainly obviuos that this old guy had no idea about airport and international travel protocol.
The old man is able to produce a quick witted response by saying that he had been there before.
The officer states the obvious.
The old man counters with a statement.
The officer is shocked,
The old man explains.
I would also like to add that it would be rather silly for the customs officer at a FRENCH airport to be anything besides French.
Also, how would this joke play out if it was a canadian, or an englishman instead of an american? If anything it could be anti-old men who reminisce about the "old times" and feel like the younger generation should know what they did.
Let me ask you this: Is the joke still (attempting to be) funny if the guy impatiently demanding the passport is American airline employee rather than a French customs official?
Manchu.. that would depend on the location of the airport, now wouldn't it?
This joke makes zero sense in almost any other country.... save Italy and some parts of Africa. Also you would have to change the beach to reflect those locations.
Really, I think the joke could work in any case, as long as there was some actual history behind it. (For example, a US vet visiting South Korea and being stopped for his passport?)
The major parts of this joke is the vet and the airport staff. You would have to change around some of the wording to make the joke relevant though.
So if we make the customs officer an american airline worker we would have to change the punchline from "there weren't any french people around to check it" to "there weren't any (insert airport personel here) to check it. It has to be in France though, or else the vet seems like a looney.
An eighty three year old American man takes a trip to France. When he arrives, he is asked to produce his passport by an American airline employee. The old man has some trouble finding his passport. Annoyed, the other American asks "haven't you ever been to France before?" "Yes," the old man replies. "Then you know you should have your passport handy," the younger American chides. "The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it."
Told this way, the joke makes little sense and loses any chance of being funny. Humor is the result of cleverly resolving tension. The tension of an older American getting slightly hassled by a younger American has no connection to the setting of France. Because the setting is not the locus of the tension in this version the meaning of old man's ultimate response (the punchline) is easy to miss. If someone told you this version of the joke, you'd probably look at them blankly for a moment and then so "oh, because he fought in D-day." But you wouldn't laugh. Because it's just a story about an old person nagging young people about having done important things in the now-distant past. That's not funny.
EDIT: Your suggestion of the punchline change to "they were no airline employees around" is also not potentially funny. You're right to identify that the tension has shifted away from the notion of Americans "saving" France. But the joke relies on a comparison rather than a contrast. The old man is not saying "we didn't come over for a tour in those days, sonny!" he's saying "you shouldn't be rude to me because I saved you, sonny!" Now, he didn't save future American airline employees in anything but the most tenuous sense. But the main claim of the original joke is "France owes respect to the United States for fighting on France's side in WWII." There is no similar "American airline employees working in France owe respect to D-Day veterans" tension that works out to a laugh.
Relapse wrote:Robert Whiting,
An elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane.
At the Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport
In his carry on.
"You
Have been to France before, mister?" the customs officer asked
Sarcastically.
Mr. Whiting
Admitted that he had been to France
Previously.
"Then
You should know enough to have your passport ready."
The American said,
"The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it."
"Impossible.
Americans always have to show their passports on arrival in France !"
The American senior
Gave the Customs Officer a long hard look. Then he
Quietly explained, ''Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in
1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find a single Customs Officer
To show a passport to."
Actually, I probably would laugh. Seeing as though the punchline "last time there was no one to check my passport" still rings true. You just don't have a sense of humor.
It would be comparable to the captain getting measured from one body part to another in order to determine pay and asking to be measured from the tip of his wang to his boys and later telling the measurer that his boys are in vietnam.
Corvus wrote:I see your point, but in that case you should just go after the people who are honestly dumb enough to take a freaking joke seriously rather than the one who made the joke.
Sure. When Homer Simpson says he's been seperated from Marge for three days and now he's dirty as a Frenchman, it's a funny joke that's just that, a joke. But not every joke works the same, the humour often comes from something different. When the kerfuffle between the US and France developed over Iraq you saw a lot of jokes come out where the humour was derived entirely from denigrating the French, particularly their military.
To me, and presumably a few other posters here, this joke feels a lot like one of those jokes. Sometimes the knowledge that some idiots out there would take the joke seriously makes it stop being funny. When I was a kid I thought a lot of racist and homophobic jokes were really funny because they were so absurd (who would really hate someone because of their skin colour or their love interest?) Then I met real some actual bigots and those jokes stopped being funny.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
LunaHound wrote:I see your point , i really do. I think the joke in first post is clever no doubt.
So , how much WTC 911 jokes do you think i can post before im banned? ( <-- that is just a question not that im going to do that , so mods , dont! )
It isn't necessarily the subject matter, but the joke itself. Myself and a lot of others defended that new British comedy about the London bombings because it looked like it was lampooning the terrorists and the incompetence of the police.
The problem here isn't that the joke mocks the French per se, its the nature of the joke itself.
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Emperors Faithful wrote:Really? I gotta say sebster, I honestly did not know that. Funny piece of info there. And yeah, that's pretty messed up.
Yeah, it's messed up. Or you can look at it and be proud of how far we've come. Either way, it's important to know, and it's a shame that the greatest generation narrative has come to dominate WWII so much that any other information has been abandoned.
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helgrenze wrote:Some people just want to be offended.....
Did anyone say they were offended?
Imagine the OP as if it were done by the Monty Python Crew. Over acted and all that.
Would it be considered "funny" then? Or would the "easily offended" be up in arms about it?
It's nothing like a Monty Python sketch. Python was so good and so important to comedy because it was with absurd ideas, and the only time it addressed popularly held ideas was to lampoon them. For instance, the Fawlty Towers sketch where Basil is so worried about mentioning the war to the German fellow (who doesn't even consider the issue) that in the end he can't think of anything else.
And I think you have your head up well past your sigmoidal colon.
Yay, continuation of verbal attacks.
Just think outside of the damn box manchu, not everything mentioned in the world today is meant to be taken seriously or negatively. In fact, this could probably just be a silly JOKE. There are just some things that have no hidden meaning, but people make one up anyways. I just happen to be a free thinker who sees this as joke about a vet who has not lost his wits over a course of 80 years of life going to france.
You must have missed my comments to both LunaHound and Relapse on the previous page (see, no verbal attack necessary). The as-is joke is lame in my opinion and funny in yours. Fine. I'm not telling you that you shouldn't find it funny. What I am saying is that the joke's potential humor, which you appreciate and I don't, hinges on the notion that the French owe some respect to Americans as a legacy of the Second World War. It's not about Americans mysteriously working as French Customs Officials. It's not about giraffes in airports. It's about an American getting the better of a Frenchman.
No kidding. It's funny become some young punk got his ass handed to him by an 80yo man in an airport.
Who the hell cares what nationality the tourist and the official were.
It could have been an American airlines official and the old man could have been French and he could have said "the last time I set foot on American soil was probably the same year your dad was jerking off to pictures of Bobby Jo Hayes in his HS yearbook."
See? A snarky comment from an old man putting a young punk in his place.
This is why this country is so fethed up. People take gak way to serious and let everything offend them.
halonachos wrote:Actually, I probably would laugh. Seeing as though the punchline "last time there was no one to check my passport" still rings true. You just don't have a sense of humor.
No, liking a joke doesn't mean you have a sense of humour and someone else doesn't.
It would be comparable to the captain getting measured from one body part to another in order to determine pay and asking to be measured from the tip of his wang to his boys and later telling the measurer that his boys are in vietnam.
Penis is big penis jokes? How are they comparable or funny?
halonachos wrote:Actually, I probably would laugh. Seeing as though the punchline "last time there was no one to check my passport" still rings true. You just don't have a sense of humor.
No, liking a joke doesn't mean you have a sense of humour and someone else doesn't.
And yet you continue to fail in demonstrating yours.
It would be comparable to the captain getting measured from one body part to another in order to determine pay and asking to be measured from the tip of his wang to his boys and later telling the measurer that his boys are in vietnam.
Penis is big penis jokes? How are they comparable or funny?
Do you seriously want to get into a discussion about this?
This country is "so fethed up," to the very marginal extent that it is, because many people are extremely overconfident about their communication/reading comprehension skills. As sebster pointed out and I myself JUST reiterated, the topic is not about the joke being offensive.
It's nothing like a Monty Python sketch. Python was so good and so important to comedy because it was with absurd ideas, and the only time it addressed popularly held ideas was to lampoon them.
I see. So, seeing Terry Jones as the Customs Agent and Graham Chapman as the American, both overplaying their parts, involved in such an exchange would not be considered funny because its not "Absurd"......
Fateweaver wrote:No kidding. It's funny become some young punk got his ass handed to him by an 80yo man in an airport.
Who the hell cares what nationality the tourist and the official were.
It could have been an American airlines official and the old man could have been French and he could have said "the last time I set foot on American soil was probably the same year your dad was jerking off to pictures of Bobby Jo Hayes in his HS yearbook."
See? A snarky comment from an old man putting a young punk in his place.
This is why this country is so fethed up. People take gak way to serious and let everything offend them.
You've stopped making sense. Jokes are funny because they relate to things. An old man being snarky to airline guy isn't a joke outside of the crappiest of crap sitcoms.
And no, a country doesn't get ruined because people have a higher standard for their jokes.
By post 3 or 4 people were saying it could be construed as stereotyping because the old man is "typical" snobby American and it was an obvious stab at the French's military prowess during WW2.
Maybe nobody here was TRULY offended but to discuss that it's potentially offensive (and I do recall someone telling the OP he was being racist) just means that obviously there are people out there who don't have thick skins.
I'm 1/2 German and I've heard enough comments and jokes about Germans being Nazis and Jew killers to write a book on the subject. Jokes about Germans being baby killers and Nazi's don't offend me.
The fact that this is up to 4 pages pulling this joke apart because it "might offend" (and that IS why it's up to 4 pages) reinforces my idea that people need to get a thicker skin and stop being so goddamned sensitive about things.
Much funnier than the OP is how offended you are at the thought of people being offended.
The four pages are depressing although not for the reason you suggest. No one is trying to show how the joke is possibly offensive at this point. The point is to show what the joke is actually and obviously about since someone has claimed its about something else entirely. The thread is now getting longer because I'm having to point out to you yet again that the discussion is not about the joke being offensive.
halonachos wrote:Actually, I probably would laugh. Seeing as though the punchline "last time there was no one to check my passport" still rings true. You just don't have a sense of humor.
No, liking a joke doesn't mean you have a sense of humour and someone else doesn't.
It would be comparable to the captain getting measured from one body part to another in order to determine pay and asking to be measured from the tip of his wang to his boys and later telling the measurer that his boys are in vietnam.
Penis is big penis jokes? How are they comparable or funny?
The short version of the joke:
It was once a military practice to give bonuses depending on the length between any two parts of a person's body. The first man got measured from the top of his head to the bottom of his foot, the second man raised his hand into the air and got measured from the tip of his fingers to the bottom of his foot. The captain wanted to get measured from the tip of his penis to his balls. When he was being measured the measurer asked "where are your balls?" to which the captain replied "In vietnam."
Manchu wrote:Much funnier than the OP is how offended you are at the thought of people being offended.
The four pages are depressing although not for the reason you suggest. No one is trying to show how the joke is possibly offensive at this point. The point is to show what the joke is actually and obviously about since someone has claimed its about something else entirely. The thread is now getting longer because I'm having to point out to you yet again that the discussion is not about the joke being offensive.
.
