the real reason!!

[andrewas]

Sometimes these jokes get to be too much, and this board has seen too much anti-french stuff in particular.

Besides, the real reason the english wore red coats is because they had a surplus of red cloth. And the miliatary thinkers at the time had some concept of honour on the battlefield and the idea of hiding or being difficult to target didnt occur to them. Or so my old history teacher swears, I personaly find it hard to believe that the english could be that crazy.

[Spelca]

Originally posted by john: A long time ago,Britain and France were at war.During one battle,the French captured an English Major.Taking the Major to their headquarters,the French began to question him.The French General asked,"Why do you English officers all wear red coats?Don't you know the red material makes you easier targets for us to shoot at?"In his bland English way,the Major informed the General that the reason English officers wear red coats is so that if they are shot,the blood won't show and the men they are leading won't panic." And that is why from that day to now all French officers wear brown pants.

Umm... nevermind.

[Cerek the Barbaric]

Originally posted by Grojlach: Oh, it's not that I mind jokes targetting one particular nation, it's the nature of the joke I object. I don't care if someone posts jokes about light-heartened stereotypical characteristics (e.g. the Dutch being avaricious), especially if there's a fair number of people from that particular country around to laugh along. But these are mostly made from a maliciously-political rather than from a friendly-stereotypical perspective; and taking the heated history of these "jokes" on IW and the current absence of our French members in response to all the recent France-bashing into account, I still stand by the opinions I voiced in my previous post.

Grojlach - the difference between a joke being "maliciously-political" and "friendly-stereotypical" is entirely dependent upon the person telling the joke and the person hearing it. I've seen several "Blonde Joke" threads posted here, but I haven't seen any of the blonde members complaining about them.

"Oh, that's different...that's an example of the "friendly-stereotypical" attribute". I disagree with this argument because the "friendly-stereotypical" attitude these jokes express is that blondes are inherently stupid! Yep, that certainly sounds like a cute stereotype we want to continue making fun of here on IW.

AFA as the history of "French-bashing" here on IW....let's keep things in perspective. The "French-bashing" started a little over two months ago when France chose not to be an ally in the Iraq War. However, "America-bashing" has been going on for a good year and a half and has been MUCH more venemous at times. Some members complained, but the bashing continued relatively un-abated. As one member pointed out in the War Forum, several of the comments made towards America and Americans would have gotten a thread LOCKED DOWN immediately if the writer had substituted France for America...but since it wasn't France, the thread was allowed to continue.

{sigh - deep cleansing breath}OK...now that I've gotten THAT off MY chest, I will agree that the joke in this thread is in poor taste, especially given the timing. I am sad to see that Moiraine and Masklinn have not been posting very much recently. I had hoped they would start contributing again once the War Forum was closed down. I have seen a few posts by Masklinn but I do miss seeing Moiraine's comments here. Given the amount of tension and hurt feelings that were generated by recent discussions, I can certainly understand them needing a bit more time before contributing again.

And that is why jokes or threads of this nature should be avoided. Whether John meant to be insulting or not really isn't the point...because I doubt he intentionally meant to hurt either of their feelings. But as I told Moiraine, I don't have to understand WHY a comment upsets her (or Masklinn)....the fact that it DOES upset her (or him) is reason enough not to make the comment in the first place.

[LordKathen]

I always thought "Polish" jokes were tastless. Can anyone tell me why the Polish are seen as stupid? And where or why these jokes started? Just a thought I had since you were talking about stereotypical jokes. And nobody seems to care about them either, wierd...

[Stormymystic]

ok let me get this right...it is ok for anyone to make fun of Americans but not ok for anyone to make fun of other countries????????
if you would like to see what i mean go to animals dear America thread....or charlies thread about pool and so forth and so on, this is a joke...and only a joke, you can laugh at american jokes about our president and or former president and our next president, so lay off our backs if we Americans laugh at a joke not pointed at us

[johnny]

Originally posted by LordKathen: I always thought "Polish" jokes were tastless. Can anyone tell me why the Polish are seen as stupid? And where or why these jokes started? Just a thought I had since you were talking about stereotypical jokes. And nobody seems to care about them either, wierd...

Like i said before, it's just jokes. Don't make such a big deal out of it. There's a reason to make jokes of every nation, or so it seems. But in the end, they're just jokes. people who make serious issues over things like this, don't have much of a sense of humor.

The Dutch are known as greedy, so are the Scots. At least that's what the jokes are trying to tell you. Is there really a reason for me to get mad about this ? I don't think so. A joke is just a joke.

[LordKathen]

Originally posted by johnny: quote: Originally posted by LordKathen: I always thought "Polish" jokes were tastless. Can anyone tell me why the Polish are seen as stupid? And where or why these jokes started? Just a thought I had since you were talking about stereotypical jokes. And nobody seems to care about them either, wierd...

Like i said before, it's just jokes. Don't make such a big deal out of it. There's a reason to make jokes of every nation, or so it seems. But in the end, they're just jokes. people who make serious issues over things like this, don't have much of a sense of humor.

The Dutch are known as greedy, so are the Scots. At least that's what the jokes are trying to tell you. Is there really a reason for me to get mad about this ? I don't think so. A joke is just a joke. [/QUOTE]I'm not mad. And you didn't answer my question. You can make fun of anything, country, person, etc. I was just wondering why the Polish are considered stupid. *jeesh*

[LordKathen]

Originally posted by Stormymystic: ok let me get this right...it is ok for anyone to make fun of Americans but not ok for anyone to make fun of other countries???????? if you would like to see what i mean go to animals dear America thread....or charlies thread about pool and so forth and so on, this is a joke...and only a joke, you can laugh at american jokes about our president and or former president and our next president, so lay off our backs if we Americans laugh at a joke not pointed at us

Good point Stormy... [img]graemlins/awesomework.gif[/img]

[Vaskez]

The brown trousers joke is very old, but I haven't heard it in this context before. LOL

[johnny]

LK I never heard any Polish jokes, so i guess i wouldn't know why they are considdered stupid. Must be made up by immigrants of Poland's neighbouring countries.

We Dutch, make fun of Belgians. In the jokes you hear, Belgians are always really really dumb. But the ones who made up the jokes, know just as well as everyone else, that it's just a load of crap. But you gotta have a reason to make fun of them, otherwise there wouldn't be any "Belgian jokes". So whatever jokes there are about those "stupid Polish", it's based opon nothing but a big pile of......

Know what i'm saying ? [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]