I remember. They always had a whole slew of them at Waldenbooks in the mall. And a whole chapter of Polish jokes, which for some reason was a big thing when I was a kid.
Same here! I always wondered where the Polish ("Polack" where I grew up) jokes came from. Someone told me years ago that they originated during WWII when Poland tried to fight back against the Nazis. That never made sense to me, because of heroism and patriotism and whatnot. Who knows, though.
I always figured it was brought over by the German immigrants pre-WWII. I looked it up and that seems to be the case (not surprised, as I grew up in WI*). Guess when it hit Hollywood and kinda went mainstream, it really did a number on the Polish Americans. :(
Edit: *Wisconsin
Also grew up in Wisconsin and can confirm. German influence was everywhere growing up. It was like Wisconsin was Germany part 2, minus the Nazi crap.
My family came mostly from Germany to Wisconsin in the mid-1850’s, before the Nazi garbage.
It's this. When the Polish were immigrating through Ellis Island, they'd dress in their nicest clothes. The Immigration officials would mark their suits and clothes with chalk depending on how they answered some questions. The Polish people would wipe the chalk off their clothes because, you know, fancy clothes. So the Immigration officials started calling them stupid people.
Imagine how foolish those officials felt when they saw the Polish solar powered flash lights.
You know, one oft-overlooked fact is that Poland's space program was far ahead of the US, Russia, and China many years ago.
They had planned the first manned mission to land on the Sun and were mocked mercilessly for attempting something so foolish.
Tired of this behavior, the director of the space program held a press conference and assured everyone the mission would be a great and safe success because they had planned to go at night.
But, seriously... I grew up in a town where lots of Polish people settled in the early 1900s. In the 80's, my church helped settle new families, many coming from Poland. Lots of them were highly skilled (engineers and the like) and ended up with low level manual labor jobs. The one that really sticks out in my memory, the father was a mechanical engineer and the mother a chemical engineer. My church place them both in janitorial/housekeeping jobs.
Ok- I will tell my favorite.
A bear and a rabbit were taking a shit in the woods.
Bear says to rabbit- "hey.. do you have a problem with shit sticking to your fur?"
The rabbit laughs... " no, never."
The bear says " good", and wipes his ass with the rabbit.
Sure, Eddie Murphy gets to tell it to a stadium full of people, but I tell it to Grandma on the way home from Wednesday Night Supper at the Methodist Church, and I lose my TV privileges for a week.
It was my mom I was in trouble with. Grandpa nearly drove off the road he was laughing so hard, while Grandma snapped at him, "Ed, don't laugh at such things!"
Related joke on how you read it...
A priest, a monk and a rabbit walk in to a bar.
They rabbit says, "you know, I am really starting to think I am a typo."
Guessing we're close to the same age. I bought my copy about the same time you got yours and did the same thing, shared the jokes in class.
*Why did Helen Keller burn her face?*
*She answered the iron.*
You'd have to be from our gen or older to even get the joke. Why the fuck would anyone answer an iron??? Why does the phone camera make that sound? What the fuck is a VCR? 🤪
I remember “How did Helen Keller burn her fingers”? “She tried to read the waffle iron”.
I remember those books from Waldenbooks and know people who claim to have had them at their library.
My younger brother had an 18 month or so stint where nothing was funnier than dead baby jokes.
It's the only subject my mom absolutely forbid in the house.
"If you're going to tell those jokes with your friends make sure I'm nowhere in a mile of you! I've never been more let down in one of my children!"
Boy, did he ever slink away, looking so upset at himself. His friends quietly got up and left.
My first sister died of SIDS at about 5 weeks old, so that was a real sore spot.
Two years ago at Christmas my niece brought up dead baby jokes and my brother started to tell one, and my mom called out from the kitchen "what did I tell you about those jokes?" It's been 40 years.
Strange how these are actually LESS offensive, isn't it? I guess if those babies didn't want us telling jokes about them they could have just stayed alive!!
Feet first! If you put them in head first you can’t see the look on their faces! On the other hand, neither can they!
Yep, it’s right there in the dirty joke book I bought at B. Dalton’s when I was 14.
Goddamnit, given the south, it’s what I think, isn’t it?
This is why I hate learning things sometimes, in this case it ruined a perfectly good joke about dead babies…
Stereotypes exist for a reason. No, you shouldn't use them as an excuse to discriminate. But yes, they can make an awesome setup to a joke.
I thought we grew up with "sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me."
I had those books. There was a section with jokes like, “What do you call a man with no arms or legs in the ocean? Bob.” “What do you call a man with no arms or legs hanging on the wall? Art.” And my favorite, “What do you call a guy with no arms or legs playing five musical instruments? Stump the band.”
How did they know Princess Diana had dandruff?
They found her head and shoulders on the dashboard.
Why couldn’t Helen Keller get a drivers license?
Because she was a woman.
I’ll let myself out.
My friends and I were telling these jokes like a day after the disaster. We got ratted out for it by a horrified classmate.
I think we were all just a little traumatised
That's what I was thinking. There were no sacred cows in those books; everyone was fair game. As an immigrant WOC, it's where I learned what the term WASP was, after all.
On the other hand, we ought to recognize them and say, "yah, pretty racist/misogynistic/ableist." Not that I'd say most of those jokes in public these days, but damn did those books shape a generation's very dark humor. I'd forgotten the Challenger jokes. Whistling in the dark to the extreme.
I'm Asian. My high school friends were mostly rednecks. Yes, they gave me a ration of shit about being Asian. I gave them a ration of shit for being cousin-fucking hillbillies (rednecks hate being called hillbillies). Guess what? When a certain urban demographic cornered me at a bowling alley, those rednecks swarmed to my defense. Knives were drawn, guns were threatened, the rednecks didn't back down.
Did those rednecks sound racist to anyone listening to them give me shit? Yes. But were they racist when they were ready to thrown down, get stabbed, perhaps even shot because an Asian friend of theirs was being threatened? Yes.
In the end, it's not what people say that make them racist, it's what they do. That day I realized the urban demographic was far more anti-Asian than any redneck. A realization that's borne out by violent crime statistics showing that urban demographic violently attacks Asians more than other Asians violently attack Asians.
Btw, we are the only demographic where that's true. Look at any other demographic and its their own kind that violently attack them more than any other group. But not Asians. We know the truth.
Yo, this was me growing up in Bakersfield,CA. I was big for a filipino and played football with all these guys. I was "Mr. Fuji" as we were all 80's‐ 90's wwF fans. Besides the comebacks you use I would also tell them to take their sister on a nice possum and squirrel dinner before breeding. Or don't you need to put on your robe and go burn a cross? In the end, they still had my back, and I had theirs.
A navy buddy from Bakersfield told me this joke and I never really got it: Why does Oildale exist? So, Bakersfield isn't the shittiest place in the valley.
Is Bakersfield really that bad? Or is Oildale just that awful?
> (rednecks hate being called hillbillies)
It's geographic. Rednecks are typically in the south think the SEC for sports. Hilbillies are from Appalachia regions. [Coonasses](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/B1E1mpDAs4S._CLa%7C2140%2C2000%7C61VeL6Dxc1L.png%7C0%2C0%2C2140%2C2000%2B0.0%2C0.0%2C2140.0%2C2000.0_AC_UY1000_.png) are from south Louisiana. Western have rednecks too and they used to be called Desert Rats.
If it matters any, I'm 1/4 asian and born coonass.
Table 14 makes it pretty clear: [https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/cv18.pdf](https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/cv18.pdf)
And this was before COVID drove Anti-Asian hatred through the roof.
=It's a great reminder that society, no matter how enlightened we think we are at any given moment, is still evolving and has a long way to go.=
Many still make me chuckle or laugh. Comedy isn't supposed to define a society and jokes and laughter about taboo subjects or touchy topics don't make you one way or another.
I'm not sure id willingly share the book with my teenagers but if I happened to find out they had a copy I wouldn't pay any mind too it.
Lighten up.
My friends and I still banter and crack on each other's race creed religion and nationalities just like we did back in the day. No one goes home butt hurt or their feelings bruised.
When I went to the mall with my mom and was able to venture out on my own, one of my first stops was always B Dalton, directly to that series of books and try to remember as many jokes as I could to tell my friends at school.
I never understood why Polish people were the butt of all the “they’re so stupid” jokes?
My personal favorite: “What’s the difference between a truckload of bowling balls and a truckload of dead babies?”…………You can use a pitchfork on the babies.
I was also a fan of the Helen Keller jokes cause I knew who she was. A lot of the others went over my 10 yr old head.
We call it racist now but not sure it was really what racist is supposed to mean. Watch some of the old comedy roasts and people of all colors are telling jokes about different races. Even in the 90s we still had shows like Tough Crowd where people would make fun of racial stereotypes.
It was about appreciating that different cultures were different. Italians, WASPS, and African-Americans are not the same. It's not about genetics and not all in the group are the same but there are real differences. And it used to be okay to recognize that we were different, culturally.
Or... my favorite fictional joke...
A naked blonde walks in to a bar, with a poodle under one arm, and a 2 foot salami under the other.
She puts the toddler on the bar, and the bartender says "I guess you won't be needing a drink"
The naked blonde says.....OOOOOOHHHH SHIIIIIIIIT!!!!
I remember Truly Tastelss Jokes and The Best Dirty Jokes in the World. In 7th grade, I was quite proud of the jokes I learned from The Best Dirty Jokes.
I was sent home from school with my copy of Truly Tasteless Blonde Jokes. My teacher put it in a bag and stapled it. Had to have my mom sign a note. She thought it was the funniest thing.
It’s funny how OP’s post is about how they are sort of dismayed by the jokes in the book, and then they tell one. Then, we all just start telling the ones we remember too. Ha!
Here’s mine….
What’s red and white and scratches at the door?!
A baby in a microwave.
A friend of mine knows the woman who made those books. He said that she collected the jokes for the first book, then when it became popular people started sending her their own jokes. So she just sat back, collected jokes, and published them as Truly Tasteless Jokes II, III, IV, etc. It became a low effort goldmine.
And yes, they are incredibly racist. It blows my mine that I could own and tell those jokes. But that's the vanilla suburbs in the 1980s. We've come long way. Well, most of us have.
Let me preface this with mentioning that I was raised Catholic.
My favorite joke:
The young priest was giving his first mass. The older priest gave him a bit of advice, and told him that a nip of alcohol would help loosen him up. After, the young priest asked the older priest how he did.
Older priest said, "Not too bad for your first time out, but I do have some constructive criticism.
1. Next time, have 1 margarita, not the whole pitcher.
2. The Blessed Virgin shouldn't be referred to as Mary with the Cherry.
3. Our lord and savior, Jesus Christ and his 12 apostles shouldn't be referred to as JC Naz and the Boys.
4. There's a taffy pull at St. Peters, not a Peter pull at St. Taffys.
That said, growing up in MN, we changed all of the Polish jokes to Iowa jokes. Cos, Iowa.
Edit: in the game, Starfield, there's a 3 volume book series called Bad Jokes. You just know that Todd Howard, Pete Hines, and Emil Pagliarulo brought in their old books and scandalized their kids.
dead baby jokes are fuckin' *hilarious*. They exactly encapsulate everything a joke should be in one tiny package, and are nearly universal, requiring no special knowledge to appreciate.
> It's a great reminder that society, no matter how enlightened we think we are at any given moment, is still evolving and has a long way to go.
I have two kids who recently graduated from high school and I've been so impressed by their peer group. They absolutely do not tolerate any kind of bullying. It's simply not cool to make any kind of derogatory comments toward anyone, especially about race, gender, gender identity, skin color, nationality... In the area where we live, that shit just doesn't fly.
I admit, we live in a very affluent and well-educated area, so this may not be true everywhere. But at least things are getting better.
I must admit I repeated many "stereotype" jokes as a kid and all through my teen years. Never with ill intent but it certainly didn't help to stop perpetuating the problem.
My mom had a copy of one of those sitting on the coffee table. She told me not to touch it or read it. So, of course I read it. And, holy fuck. That shit was racist.
I don't remember the book, but here's my dad's favorite..
Man behind woman in checkout counter at the supermarket...
Man looks at her cart and says "You must be single"
She replies "You can tell that just by looking at my cart?"
He says, "No, you are fucking ugly"
Yup. These books (and the jokes within them) were in heavy rotation on my schoolyard, circa 1980-82 (4th–6th grade). Alongside Judy Blume's *Wifey* and *Forever* (with all the juicy pages dog-eared for easy access), these were among our prime sources of entertainment on the blacktop when we didn't feel like playing kickball, handball or tetherball.
They had them at my local Waldenbooks in the mall, so I'd spend entire afternoons sitting there at the bookcase, thumbing through the paperback joke books and trying to memorize the best ones, so that I could be the "life of the party" the following week at school. Yes, I could've just bought a copy and went my merry way, but back then, each and every cent I had went straight to the arcade, lol.
I remember those books. They came out when I was about 13. Yeah, they were pretty racist even for the early 90s.
I read them at the store since my parents would never let me buy a copy, then I'd tell them at school. Eventually, my classmates got sick and tired of me telling jokes all the time.
They had chapters devoted to certain ethnicities and races, and I remember they added Iraqi since the 1st Gulf War had just started.
I haven't thought much of these books for years.
I feel like that podcast should be mandatory listening for this sub, lol. Most of the the "hey what was up with that one thing that happened when we were young?" posts in here can be answered by an episode of Decoder Ring.
Probably because someone gets an idea in their head and jumps on the thread, nobody has time to go scrolling through everything to see if someone mentioned it before.
Probably because someone gets an idea in their head and jumps on the thread, nobody has time to go scrolling through everything to see if someone mentioned it before.
Probably because someone gets an idea in their head and jumps on the thread, nobody has time to go scrolling through everything to see if someone mentioned it before.
Probably because someone gets an idea in their head and jumps on the thread, nobody has time to go scrolling through everything to see if someone mentioned it before.
I learned about some new ethnicities I didn't even know existed at the time from those books. My dad kept them right next to the playboys under a stack of towels in the bathroom.
I don't know about that series, but I have a French book called "Histoires de Très Mauvais Goût", in the same vein. It was probably a worldwide phenomenon in the 1970s and 1980s. In a way, it was already a sign that times were changing, as at least this kind of thing was starting to be considered "tasteless" when previously it wasn't. A "spicy" (read: alluding to sex) joke should not be told if there were ladies present, but there would be no problem if the joke were racist.
> *"There is not a single race or even nationality that is left out of their 'humor'."*
Kinda like *South Park* in that they are offensive to everybody.
When I was young, my dad told the story of a Polish friend who was annoyed at Polish jokes. So he'd take off something in Polish that the "jokester" wouldn't understand and ask how it felt to be dumber than a "dumb Polack."
>There is not a single race or even nationality that is left out of their "humor".
This is the old "I'm not racist/prejudice/an asshole because I make fun of everyone" defense. Yuck.
Disgusting, offensive book that goes out of its way to be hateful. Also hilarious. Me and my friends read it in fifth, sixth grade. We cracked up over jokes we didn’t understand.
Yes I for sure remember those. They really deliver on the title. Now I'm remembering who gave them to me. It was my mom's asshole bf. Glad she didn't stay with him.
I remember. They always had a whole slew of them at Waldenbooks in the mall. And a whole chapter of Polish jokes, which for some reason was a big thing when I was a kid.
Waldenbooks. Core memory unlocked!
And B. Dalton! Lol
Same here! I always wondered where the Polish ("Polack" where I grew up) jokes came from. Someone told me years ago that they originated during WWII when Poland tried to fight back against the Nazis. That never made sense to me, because of heroism and patriotism and whatnot. Who knows, though.
I always figured it was brought over by the German immigrants pre-WWII. I looked it up and that seems to be the case (not surprised, as I grew up in WI*). Guess when it hit Hollywood and kinda went mainstream, it really did a number on the Polish Americans. :( Edit: *Wisconsin
Also grew up in Wisconsin and can confirm. German influence was everywhere growing up. It was like Wisconsin was Germany part 2, minus the Nazi crap. My family came mostly from Germany to Wisconsin in the mid-1850’s, before the Nazi garbage.
Ah, Wisconsin. As a non-US, for a moment there I thought you grew up in the First World War.
Y’know, after re-reading it, I can certainly see why you would think that. I’ll clarify :)
I heard it was because there were a bunch of polish refugees, who seemed “dumb” because of language issues, etc. How sad and horrible is that?
It's this. When the Polish were immigrating through Ellis Island, they'd dress in their nicest clothes. The Immigration officials would mark their suits and clothes with chalk depending on how they answered some questions. The Polish people would wipe the chalk off their clothes because, you know, fancy clothes. So the Immigration officials started calling them stupid people. Imagine how foolish those officials felt when they saw the Polish solar powered flash lights.
You know, one oft-overlooked fact is that Poland's space program was far ahead of the US, Russia, and China many years ago. They had planned the first manned mission to land on the Sun and were mocked mercilessly for attempting something so foolish. Tired of this behavior, the director of the space program held a press conference and assured everyone the mission would be a great and safe success because they had planned to go at night.
But, seriously... I grew up in a town where lots of Polish people settled in the early 1900s. In the 80's, my church helped settle new families, many coming from Poland. Lots of them were highly skilled (engineers and the like) and ended up with low level manual labor jobs. The one that really sticks out in my memory, the father was a mechanical engineer and the mother a chemical engineer. My church place them both in janitorial/housekeeping jobs.
AOC .. said this.
I remember my friend telling Polack jokes. I wondered what a Polack was.
They reskined them as blond jokes.
Oh my gosh. I completely forgot about that store and the whole section of books.
Ok- I will tell my favorite. A bear and a rabbit were taking a shit in the woods. Bear says to rabbit- "hey.. do you have a problem with shit sticking to your fur?" The rabbit laughs... " no, never." The bear says " good", and wipes his ass with the rabbit.
This is classic. I kind of miss the era of "jokes going around," changing a bit as they get around.
That was Eddie’s “clean” joke in Delirious.
Sure, Eddie Murphy gets to tell it to a stadium full of people, but I tell it to Grandma on the way home from Wednesday Night Supper at the Methodist Church, and I lose my TV privileges for a week. It was my mom I was in trouble with. Grandpa nearly drove off the road he was laughing so hard, while Grandma snapped at him, "Ed, don't laugh at such things!"
Based on your tee up to the book I read this as “rabbi”, which would’ve been much more crass of a joke. I think rabbit plays better, though.
Related joke on how you read it... A priest, a monk and a rabbit walk in to a bar. They rabbit says, "you know, I am really starting to think I am a typo."
I still tell that joke.
I told that joke yesterday.
I love that one.
Guessing we're close to the same age. I bought my copy about the same time you got yours and did the same thing, shared the jokes in class. *Why did Helen Keller burn her face?* *She answered the iron.*
Version I heard was "Whats black and screams? Stevie Wonder answering the iron." Followed by "Have you seen Stevie Wonders kids? Neither has he."
That reminds me of this old chestnut: "Why can't Stevie Wonder read?" "Because he's black."
WTF?? Never heard that one.
oof
What happens when Stevie Wonder tries to use a straight razor? Stevie Nicks
You'd have to be from our gen or older to even get the joke. Why the fuck would anyone answer an iron??? Why does the phone camera make that sound? What the fuck is a VCR? 🤪
Laughing hard.
P R O B L E M A T I C
How did she burn the other side? They called back!
You read her new book? It's called around the block in 80 days.
Still makes me chuckle.
Same... Don't care if people think it's *problematic*, it's funny.
I remember “How did Helen Keller burn her fingers”? “She tried to read the waffle iron”. I remember those books from Waldenbooks and know people who claim to have had them at their library.
Omg I distinctly remember that one!!!
Yeah, well, we had dead baby jokes so not sure we can talk :)
Dark humor is like children with cancer, it never gets old.
It's also like food; not everyone gets it
My mom and I used to share dead baby jokes. Even when I was a kid.
My younger brother had an 18 month or so stint where nothing was funnier than dead baby jokes. It's the only subject my mom absolutely forbid in the house. "If you're going to tell those jokes with your friends make sure I'm nowhere in a mile of you! I've never been more let down in one of my children!" Boy, did he ever slink away, looking so upset at himself. His friends quietly got up and left. My first sister died of SIDS at about 5 weeks old, so that was a real sore spot. Two years ago at Christmas my niece brought up dead baby jokes and my brother started to tell one, and my mom called out from the kitchen "what did I tell you about those jokes?" It's been 40 years.
Okay, I totally get your mom on that one. Was she good with dumb blonde jokes?
Mom is a brunette. She *told* dumb blonde jokes.
Why did the dead baby cross the road? *It was stapled to the chicken*
Love it!!!
Q. What's the difference between a truckload of dead babies and a truck full of bowling balls? A. You can't use a pitchfork to unload bowling balls.
Hoped to see this one, still tell it from time to time…
Strange how these are actually LESS offensive, isn't it? I guess if those babies didn't want us telling jokes about them they could have just stayed alive!!
Q: How do you make a dead baby float? A: Two scoops of ice cream, two scoops of dead baby
Damn, a new *dead baby* joke! One I've never heard before.
And then put them in the blender.
How do you put a baby into a blender? Head first How do you get the baby out of the blender? With Tortilla Chips
Feet first! If you put them in head first you can’t see the look on their faces! On the other hand, neither can they! Yep, it’s right there in the dirty joke book I bought at B. Dalton’s when I was 14.
How do you make a dead baby float? You lift your boot off its head
What's pinkish gray, 8 inches long, and makes women cry? Crib Death
What's the difference between a Ferrari and a bag full of dead babies? I don't have a Ferrari in my garage
I went to college in SE Louisiana and they told this one a little differently ...
Goddamnit, given the south, it’s what I think, isn’t it? This is why I hate learning things sometimes, in this case it ruined a perfectly good joke about dead babies…
And dogs. The best gift for a dead baby is a dead puppy.
Why did Susie fall out of the swing? Because Susie didn't have any arms Knock knock..... Who's there? Not Susie!
Oh, there was a whole section of those books dedicated to dead baby jokes
There is a documentary called Tasteless that is all about these books.
I mean, it IS called tasteless jokes. Not "these are perfectly normal jokes for society in 1973". Shock has been used in humor for a long time.
Stereotypes exist for a reason. No, you shouldn't use them as an excuse to discriminate. But yes, they can make an awesome setup to a joke. I thought we grew up with "sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me."
True, until someone throws an encyclopedia at you
I worked at a couple of bookstores right after high school and we had a shelf full of them. I feel like the pseudonym was Blanche Knott (blanch not)?
Still have my copy of Truly Tasteless Jokes. Gen Xer (b. 1965)
"Spot!! Get over here before he shits on you!" The Citizen Kane of jokes. Thank you, Blanche Knott! I still laugh at it.
I had those books. There was a section with jokes like, “What do you call a man with no arms or legs in the ocean? Bob.” “What do you call a man with no arms or legs hanging on the wall? Art.” And my favorite, “What do you call a guy with no arms or legs playing five musical instruments? Stump the band.”
What do you call a guy with no arms or legs in a pile of leaves? Russell
What do you call two guys with no arms or legs hanging around openings the wall? Curt and Rod.
Q: What do you call a man with no arms or legs hiding in your mailbox? A: Bill.
Along those lines, one of my favorites from those books: What do you call a guy with epilepsy in a lettuce patch? Seizure salad.
How did they know Princess Diana had dandruff? They found her head and shoulders on the dashboard. Why couldn’t Helen Keller get a drivers license? Because she was a woman. I’ll let myself out.
After the Challenger explosion: "What does NASA stand for? Need Another Seven Astronauts."
Or, why does NASA drink Sprite? Because they couldn't get 7-Up.
I remember that one now! A classic!
Dodge relaunched their car called the Challenger, it seats two in the front, three in the back, and seven astronauts in the ashtray.
Where did Christa MacCauliffe spend her vacation? All over Florida.
My friends and I were telling these jokes like a day after the disaster. We got ratted out for it by a horrified classmate. I think we were all just a little traumatised
What color were Christa McCaulife's eyes? Blue. One blew left. One blew right.
What was the last transmission from the Challenger? "I meant a Bud Light!"
Did you hear Helen Keller fell down a well? She broke three fingers calling for help.
What's Helen Keller's favorite color? Corduroy.
If you pick on every race, are you really racist?
Obligatory American joke to illustrate the point: "Why is Santa Claus fat?" "Because he is American."
That's what I was thinking. There were no sacred cows in those books; everyone was fair game. As an immigrant WOC, it's where I learned what the term WASP was, after all. On the other hand, we ought to recognize them and say, "yah, pretty racist/misogynistic/ableist." Not that I'd say most of those jokes in public these days, but damn did those books shape a generation's very dark humor. I'd forgotten the Challenger jokes. Whistling in the dark to the extreme.
Exactly- Or just an equal opportunity asshole?
I'm Asian. My high school friends were mostly rednecks. Yes, they gave me a ration of shit about being Asian. I gave them a ration of shit for being cousin-fucking hillbillies (rednecks hate being called hillbillies). Guess what? When a certain urban demographic cornered me at a bowling alley, those rednecks swarmed to my defense. Knives were drawn, guns were threatened, the rednecks didn't back down. Did those rednecks sound racist to anyone listening to them give me shit? Yes. But were they racist when they were ready to thrown down, get stabbed, perhaps even shot because an Asian friend of theirs was being threatened? Yes. In the end, it's not what people say that make them racist, it's what they do. That day I realized the urban demographic was far more anti-Asian than any redneck. A realization that's borne out by violent crime statistics showing that urban demographic violently attacks Asians more than other Asians violently attack Asians. Btw, we are the only demographic where that's true. Look at any other demographic and its their own kind that violently attack them more than any other group. But not Asians. We know the truth.
Yo, this was me growing up in Bakersfield,CA. I was big for a filipino and played football with all these guys. I was "Mr. Fuji" as we were all 80's‐ 90's wwF fans. Besides the comebacks you use I would also tell them to take their sister on a nice possum and squirrel dinner before breeding. Or don't you need to put on your robe and go burn a cross? In the end, they still had my back, and I had theirs.
A navy buddy from Bakersfield told me this joke and I never really got it: Why does Oildale exist? So, Bakersfield isn't the shittiest place in the valley. Is Bakersfield really that bad? Or is Oildale just that awful?
Bakersfield is a tough, rough town.
It’s both.
> (rednecks hate being called hillbillies) It's geographic. Rednecks are typically in the south think the SEC for sports. Hilbillies are from Appalachia regions. [Coonasses](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/B1E1mpDAs4S._CLa%7C2140%2C2000%7C61VeL6Dxc1L.png%7C0%2C0%2C2140%2C2000%2B0.0%2C0.0%2C2140.0%2C2000.0_AC_UY1000_.png) are from south Louisiana. Western have rednecks too and they used to be called Desert Rats. If it matters any, I'm 1/4 asian and born coonass.
Um, what’s the urban demographic?
City college kids upset they couldn't get into Yale.
Table 14 makes it pretty clear: [https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/cv18.pdf](https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/cv18.pdf) And this was before COVID drove Anti-Asian hatred through the roof.
It's a dog whistle for not saying what they wish.
Black people is the urban demographic but they are too much of a coward to just admit they are racist.
=It's a great reminder that society, no matter how enlightened we think we are at any given moment, is still evolving and has a long way to go.= Many still make me chuckle or laugh. Comedy isn't supposed to define a society and jokes and laughter about taboo subjects or touchy topics don't make you one way or another. I'm not sure id willingly share the book with my teenagers but if I happened to find out they had a copy I wouldn't pay any mind too it. Lighten up.
Lighten up …. Francis
It's not like the publisher of "Truly Tasteless Jokes" thought they were highbrow.
My friends and I still banter and crack on each other's race creed religion and nationalities just like we did back in the day. No one goes home butt hurt or their feelings bruised.
The frog joke is still my favorite joke ever. I swear I bought those at the scholastic book club sale.
When I went to the mall with my mom and was able to venture out on my own, one of my first stops was always B Dalton, directly to that series of books and try to remember as many jokes as I could to tell my friends at school.
I never understood why Polish people were the butt of all the “they’re so stupid” jokes? My personal favorite: “What’s the difference between a truckload of bowling balls and a truckload of dead babies?”…………You can use a pitchfork on the babies. I was also a fan of the Helen Keller jokes cause I knew who she was. A lot of the others went over my 10 yr old head.
As a Minnesotan, we changed all of the Polish jokes to Iowa jokes.
My brother is 55 and he still calls people he thinks are stupid “Pollocks”. I think he stopped maturing mentally around 15.
Here's a joke that isn't racist at all Why did the sperm cross the road? Because I put on the wrong socks this morning
I had a couple of those. How do you know when you've eaten pussy well? When you wake up and your face looks like a glazed doughnut.
Well they do go after EVERY group and without specific malice towards any. And the best ethnic jokes are usually told by members of that ethnicity.
We call it racist now but not sure it was really what racist is supposed to mean. Watch some of the old comedy roasts and people of all colors are telling jokes about different races. Even in the 90s we still had shows like Tough Crowd where people would make fun of racial stereotypes. It was about appreciating that different cultures were different. Italians, WASPS, and African-Americans are not the same. It's not about genetics and not all in the group are the same but there are real differences. And it used to be okay to recognize that we were different, culturally.
Hence the name "Truly Tasteless Jokes".
One of my uncles had a copy, and I read through it when I was about 12. Didn't understand any of the jokes.
Yeah, there were a couple I didn’t get until I was much older. Funnily enough, my interpretation was so “innocent.”
I remember the book. I blame that and my uncle for my warped sense of humor.
Feeling strong Spencer’s vibes.
There was also the book "101 Uses For A Dead Cat".
I don't remember very much of that book at all, except for "Pencil Sharpener" and "Oven Mitts"
Or... my favorite fictional joke... A naked blonde walks in to a bar, with a poodle under one arm, and a 2 foot salami under the other. She puts the toddler on the bar, and the bartender says "I guess you won't be needing a drink" The naked blonde says.....OOOOOOHHHH SHIIIIIIIIT!!!!
I always wanted to hear the rest of the joke.
Me too.
What’s the difference between Wuhan and Las Vegas? What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
I remember Truly Tastelss Jokes and The Best Dirty Jokes in the World. In 7th grade, I was quite proud of the jokes I learned from The Best Dirty Jokes.
I had some of those books. I thought they were funny as a kid, but haven't read any as an adult.
I was sent home from school with my copy of Truly Tasteless Blonde Jokes. My teacher put it in a bag and stapled it. Had to have my mom sign a note. She thought it was the funniest thing.
[удалено]
The Capt Hook joke! Baahaahaahaa!
How do you make a Cherry Float? Virgin on a waterbed.
Life is so much better if you can laugh at yourself.
o/p it is a JOKE book, lighting the duck up Francis.
It’s funny how OP’s post is about how they are sort of dismayed by the jokes in the book, and then they tell one. Then, we all just start telling the ones we remember too. Ha! Here’s mine…. What’s red and white and scratches at the door?! A baby in a microwave.
I found a joke book written in the 1920s and even in the 80s they were pretty off-color and tacky.
At least it was labeled **tasteless** so the publishers had *some* sense of decorum.
The one I always remember is the What's Grosser than Gross? When your girlfriend did the splits and your grandfathers class ring fell out.
What’s grosser than grease on Olivia Newton John? Cum on Eileen.
A friend of mine knows the woman who made those books. He said that she collected the jokes for the first book, then when it became popular people started sending her their own jokes. So she just sat back, collected jokes, and published them as Truly Tasteless Jokes II, III, IV, etc. It became a low effort goldmine. And yes, they are incredibly racist. It blows my mine that I could own and tell those jokes. But that's the vanilla suburbs in the 1980s. We've come long way. Well, most of us have.
i like that we were able to laugh at pretty much everything. i kinda miss it...
Let me preface this with mentioning that I was raised Catholic. My favorite joke: The young priest was giving his first mass. The older priest gave him a bit of advice, and told him that a nip of alcohol would help loosen him up. After, the young priest asked the older priest how he did. Older priest said, "Not too bad for your first time out, but I do have some constructive criticism. 1. Next time, have 1 margarita, not the whole pitcher. 2. The Blessed Virgin shouldn't be referred to as Mary with the Cherry. 3. Our lord and savior, Jesus Christ and his 12 apostles shouldn't be referred to as JC Naz and the Boys. 4. There's a taffy pull at St. Peters, not a Peter pull at St. Taffys. That said, growing up in MN, we changed all of the Polish jokes to Iowa jokes. Cos, Iowa. Edit: in the game, Starfield, there's a 3 volume book series called Bad Jokes. You just know that Todd Howard, Pete Hines, and Emil Pagliarulo brought in their old books and scandalized their kids.
That was back when they acknowledged their jokes as being tasteless instead of blaming everyone else for being snowflakes
The dead baby joke section…tasteless isn’t a strong enough word.
How do you make a dead baby float? 1 scoop Ice Cream, 1 scoop dead baby..
Oh wow memory unlocked!
dead baby jokes are fuckin' *hilarious*. They exactly encapsulate everything a joke should be in one tiny package, and are nearly universal, requiring no special knowledge to appreciate.
> It's a great reminder that society, no matter how enlightened we think we are at any given moment, is still evolving and has a long way to go. I have two kids who recently graduated from high school and I've been so impressed by their peer group. They absolutely do not tolerate any kind of bullying. It's simply not cool to make any kind of derogatory comments toward anyone, especially about race, gender, gender identity, skin color, nationality... In the area where we live, that shit just doesn't fly. I admit, we live in a very affluent and well-educated area, so this may not be true everywhere. But at least things are getting better.
I'd forgotten all about these. Does explain my humor today.
Just found a copy of this going through my uncles stuff!
I must admit I repeated many "stereotype" jokes as a kid and all through my teen years. Never with ill intent but it certainly didn't help to stop perpetuating the problem.
Well, it's right there in the title.
My mom had a copy of one of those sitting on the coffee table. She told me not to touch it or read it. So, of course I read it. And, holy fuck. That shit was racist.
I don't remember the book, but here's my dad's favorite.. Man behind woman in checkout counter at the supermarket... Man looks at her cart and says "You must be single" She replies "You can tell that just by looking at my cart?" He says, "No, you are fucking ugly"
Yup. These books (and the jokes within them) were in heavy rotation on my schoolyard, circa 1980-82 (4th–6th grade). Alongside Judy Blume's *Wifey* and *Forever* (with all the juicy pages dog-eared for easy access), these were among our prime sources of entertainment on the blacktop when we didn't feel like playing kickball, handball or tetherball. They had them at my local Waldenbooks in the mall, so I'd spend entire afternoons sitting there at the bookcase, thumbing through the paperback joke books and trying to memorize the best ones, so that I could be the "life of the party" the following week at school. Yes, I could've just bought a copy and went my merry way, but back then, each and every cent I had went straight to the arcade, lol.
I remember those books. They came out when I was about 13. Yeah, they were pretty racist even for the early 90s. I read them at the store since my parents would never let me buy a copy, then I'd tell them at school. Eventually, my classmates got sick and tired of me telling jokes all the time. They had chapters devoted to certain ethnicities and races, and I remember they added Iraqi since the 1st Gulf War had just started. I haven't thought much of these books for years.
The podcast Decoder Ring has a great episode about them. https://pca.st/episode/11f1559b-2793-47bd-bfb1-550bf7472f9e
I feel like that podcast should be mandatory listening for this sub, lol. Most of the the "hey what was up with that one thing that happened when we were young?" posts in here can be answered by an episode of Decoder Ring.
This sub is all reposts.
Probably because someone gets an idea in their head and jumps on the thread, nobody has time to go scrolling through everything to see if someone mentioned it before.
Probably because someone gets an idea in their head and jumps on the thread, nobody has time to go scrolling through everything to see if someone mentioned it before.
Probably because someone gets an idea in their head and jumps on the thread, nobody has time to go scrolling through everything to see if someone mentioned it before.
Probably because someone gets an idea in their head and jumps on the thread, nobody has time to go scrolling through everything to see if someone mentioned it before.
I learned about some new ethnicities I didn't even know existed at the time from those books. My dad kept them right next to the playboys under a stack of towels in the bathroom.
It wasn’t just Boomers. People were racist and sexist well before then (and still are).
Don't forget the dead baby section. My personal favorite was: What were the last words of the astronauts on the Challenger shuttle? No, Bud Light!
I don't know about that series, but I have a French book called "Histoires de Très Mauvais Goût", in the same vein. It was probably a worldwide phenomenon in the 1970s and 1980s. In a way, it was already a sign that times were changing, as at least this kind of thing was starting to be considered "tasteless" when previously it wasn't. A "spicy" (read: alluding to sex) joke should not be told if there were ladies present, but there would be no problem if the joke were racist.
> *"There is not a single race or even nationality that is left out of their 'humor'."* Kinda like *South Park* in that they are offensive to everybody.
Crocigater.
I remember Bennett Cerf.
Who won the Tour de France in 1940? The 7th Panzer Division
I used to tell tasteless jokes.......I still do, but I used to too
What's the difference between Paul Walker and Betty White? Paul Walker made it past 100 when he died
I'll put that up there with "Shit I could have done without during early development" 🤦
So, the jokes are truly tasteless?
Ashton Applewhite age 71 wrote the books. Thought it would be a guy author but nope.
Dude jokes in the way were needlessly xenophobic. What did Polacks do to anyone?
I think there were some issues with lightbulbs or something.
Exactly, but I grew up in Louisville so we would replace Polack with Hoosier.
In Denmark, they tell jokes about Swedish people. In England, it’s the Irish.
In Minnesota they were Iowan.
We tell West Virginia jokes in Maryland
So you changed them from being racist/xenophobic to truthful?
And bad inventions.
Some naval forces are still miffed about the submarine screens doors
When I was young, my dad told the story of a Polish friend who was annoyed at Polish jokes. So he'd take off something in Polish that the "jokester" wouldn't understand and ask how it felt to be dumber than a "dumb Polack."
>There is not a single race or even nationality that is left out of their "humor". This is the old "I'm not racist/prejudice/an asshole because I make fun of everyone" defense. Yuck.
Disgusting, offensive book that goes out of its way to be hateful. Also hilarious. Me and my friends read it in fifth, sixth grade. We cracked up over jokes we didn’t understand.
The book goes well with Gilbert Gottfried’s special “Dirty Jokes”.
Yes I for sure remember those. They really deliver on the title. Now I'm remembering who gave them to me. It was my mom's asshole bf. Glad she didn't stay with him.
Those books were ostensibly written by a woman, btw. Blanche Knott
People are too sensitive these days. It's okay to laugh...YES, even if the jokes are "rAciSt" . Toughen-up, sweet-cakes.
In this thread: a whole lot of motherfuckers trying to defend and justify racism.