Why do North Americans laugh at the famine so much?

snotboogie

For a place where the media is usually so politically correct (Look as Suey Park and CancelColbert) why do they feel free to take such liberties making fun of the Great Famine? This is currently trending on reddit http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/2l3cbn/classic_irishmans_dilemma/
which is a liberal forum where PC values are typically strongly enforced (at least in popular topics) by the community. Substitute any other ethnicity and their negative stereotypes into that joke and it becomes an absolute no no.

Omackeral

How many potatoes does it take to kill an Irishman?

None.

CrazyRabbit

What is they say about tragedy + time?

...and mountains + molehills?

kneemos

Omackeral wrote: »

How many potatoes does it take to kill an Irishman?

None.

That's all I saw.Was there more?

Scoundrels.

Doc

I don't think Americans laugh at the famine much if at all. Most of them wouldn't even know about it to laugh at it and if they did know about it wouldn't find much to laugh at.

They laugh at the stereotype of a drunken Irishman who eats potatoes. Or at the Frenchman who stinks of garlic and will surrender at the sound of a cork popping. Or at the Englishman in a three piece suit drinking tea his butler has made for him getting upset at the people having fun. Or at the Mexican trying to sneak across the boarder in his sombrero. Just like people might laugh at the fat loud American tourist stereotype.

Qualitymark

Because they haven't experienced famine themselves for a few hundred years. And because they're a little dim.

kneemos

Qualitymark wrote: »

Because they haven't experienced famine themselves for a few hundred years. And because they're a little dim.

Snap.

J Mysterio

That link has nothing to do with the famine. It's about Irish 'being drunks' and 'loving potatoes'.

DoYouEvenLift

Taking Americans seriously is your first problem.

gazzamc

So what, I love my potatoes and my drink, it beats Big Macs and scooters any day...

We bring the craic, they bring "democracy" (If you happen to have oil) :P

Paulownia

Most Americans know nothing of the rest of the world, the educational system is skewed towards introspection rather than a world view.
Ireland is green and it rains a lot and Saint Patrick,
This is the problem when they start to interface with other countries.
Many Americans believe all Muslims are terrorists for example, they have irrational fears of the unknown

Sunnyisland

Paulownia wrote: »

Most Americans know nothing of the rest of the world, the educational system is skewed towards introspection rather than a world view.
Ireland is green and it rains a lot and Saint Patrick,
This is the problem when they start to interface with other countries.
Many Americans believe all Muslims are terrorists for example, they have irrational fears of the unknown

Is the above not just a stereotype in what a lot of Irish see about Americans, Any Americans that I have met in Europe,which be quite a few,are well educated and are very much informed of the countries there visiting.

Paulownia

realies wrote: »

Is the above not just a stereotype in what a lot of Irish see about Americans, Any Americans that I have met in Europe,which be quite a few,are well educated and are very much informed of the countries there visiting.

Those are the ones who travel, 80 0/0 of Americans have never had a passport.
Try visiting America outside of the main cities, I have!

The J Stands for Jay

The classic American's dilemma "If I eat 5 big macs in one sitting, is there still room for a mcflurry with a crushed up apple pie desert?

cloud493

McGaggs wrote: »

The classic American's dilemma "If I eat 5 big macs in one sitting, is there still room for a mcflurry with a crushed up apple pie desert?

Don't be saying that your making me hungry

Paulownia

cloud493 wrote: »

Don't be saying that your making me hungry

Most middle class Americans think that poor people are only poor because they are too lazy to work, even politicians say it

cloud493

Paulownia wrote: »

Most middle class Americans think that poor people are only poor because they are too lazy to work, even politicians say it

Yes, I was more referring to the idea of a mcflurry with a crushed up apple pie in it. Sounds delicious :pac:

Sunnyisland

Paulownia wrote: »

Those are the ones who travel, 80 0/0 of Americans have never had a passport.
Try visiting America outside of the main cities, I have!

Is that not to be said of any large country, India,Russia,Brazil ,try visting them countries outside of the main cities and see what they say about Ireland, which will be what...


You can blame the Irish tourist board for a lot of the images and opinions in America about Ireland,especially in the 60,s 70,s 80,s when they portrayed Ireland as green mystic land of saints and scholars with a top of the morning ta ya :-) and soft day thank God.

Paulownia

realies wrote: »

Is that not to be said of any large country, India,Russia,Brazil ,try visting them countries outside of the main cities and see what they say about Ireland, which will be what...


You can blame the Irish tourist board for a lot of the images and opinions in America about Ireland,especially in the 60,s 70,s 80,s when they portrayed Ireland as green mystic land of saints and scholars with a top of the morning ta ya :-) and soft day thank God.

That may well be true of India, Russia and Brazil but two of those are third world countries and Russia is a bit special too.
Anyway the thread was about Americans.
I have an Irish friend living outside NY who does volunteering work in the area of adult literacy and she finds that her middle class friends think she is mad that she spends her time doing that.
They fell if people can't read and write it is somehow their own fault.

Fratton Fred

Paulownia wrote: »

Those are the ones who travel, 80 0/0 of Americans have never had a passport.
Try visiting America outside of the main cities, I have!

If you didn't need a passport to travel within the eu at all, how many Europeans would have a passport?

BoJack Horseman

Aah Malory Archer.... You put it best

http://youtu.be/rOtls2ZvjE4

Paulownia

Fratton Fred wrote: »

If you didn't need a passport to travel within the eu at all, how many Europeans would have a passport?

Anyone who needed to visit the US for instance, I suppose

blackwhite

realies wrote: »

Is the above not just a stereotype in what a lot of Irish see about Americans, Any Americans that I have met in Europe,which be quite a few,are well educated and are very much informed of the countries there visiting.

In a thread complaining about Americans making "racist" jokes, there's a hell of a lot of racist generalisations about Americans - but apparently that's ok :rolleyes:

kneemos

They have a vast country on their doorstep and huge distances to travel before they'd even need a passport,so not comparable to Europe.

Fratton Fred

Paulownia wrote: »

Anyone who needed to visit the US for instance, I suppose

Which would be what, 20% of the European population?

smash

It's the same as the way we laugh at 911...





I'll get my coat!

kneemos

Europeans traditionally have them because of the borders everywhere.It's still the best form of ID.

MarkR

Can confirm. Am American, famine funniest thing since sliced bread.

Irish knock knock joke.

Knock Knock.
Who's there?
Nobody, they all died in the famine.

I think I wet myself.

In reality, going by this thread, we all love the old bit of sweeping generalization. Get over it.

Paulownia

MarkR wrote: »

Can confirm. Am American, famine funniest thing since sliced bread.

Irish knock knock joke.

Knock Knock.
Who's there?
Nobody, they all died in the famine.

I think I wet myself.

In reality, going by this thread, we all love the old bit of sweeping generalization. Get over it.

As an American then you know what I'm saying is correct!

nelly17

Man I could murder a spud right now

Scannal

I find it's more popular amongst British people to laugh and make fun of Irish people about the famine. Which is much worse considering who caused it.

kneemos

Tommy Tiernan is a great man for the famine jokes.

biko

I've spent quite a lot of time in America and never heard anyone joke about the famine.
Maybe I should hang out on reddit more so I can get my outrage on, but tbh their layout does my head in.

Scannal

kneemos wrote: »

Tommy Tiernan is a great man for the famine jokes.

It's ok for jews to make a joke about the holocaust but it wouldn't be ok for a German to do similar.

Paulownia

biko wrote: »

I've spent quite a lot of time in America and never heard anyone joke about the famine.
Maybe I should hang out on reddit more so I can get my outrage on.

I never did either, but I have come upon a lot of people who didn't really know where Ireland was.

fryup

but sure, even the irish make fun of the famine.....

3.40 in......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xtj9Gps2p_I

ElWalrus

Paulownia wrote: »

Those are the ones who travel, 80 0/0 of Americans have never had a passport.
Try visiting America outside of the main cities, I have!

I think the number is a bit higher than that. This link puts it at around 35%. But from what I gather only 3.5-4% of the population go abroad in any one year. Still about 14 million people. :pac:

Links234

snotboogie wrote: »

reddit ... which is a liberal forum where PC values are typically strongly enforced

Are you taking the piss? This is reddit we're talking about, where subs such as /r/whiterights and /r/greatapes are a thing, the admins will not remove anything unless it's illegal and even then they're not too quick to do so. They're all about free speech, and stay out of most subs business most of the time.

hatrickpatrick

snotboogie wrote: »

This is currently trending on reddit http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/2l3cbn/classic_irishmans_dilemma/
which is a liberal forum where PC values are typically strongly enforced (at least in popular topics) by the community.

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

seamus

Irish people who are sensitive about something that occurred 170 years ago need to cop the fnck on tbh.

Billy86

blackwhite wrote: »

In a thread complaining about Americans making "racist" jokes, there's a hell of a lot of racist generalisations about Americans - but apparently that's ok :rolleyes:

You must be new to after hours so let me explain, there is a large underlying theme of "everything about us = good, wonderful, lovely, charming, etc" which obviously has to be balanced out by "others = bad, every damn thing about them". Obviously the second one is much harder to achieve without mass generalisations for whole races and ethnicities, nationalities, religions etc... but the real key to the trick is to act as offended as possible if someone does the same in towards "us".

Oh, and male paedophiles = monsters, beasts, minotaurs, etc... female paedophiles = nice, niiiccceee. Or something.

Links234 wrote: »

Are you taking the piss? This is reddit we're talking about, where subs such as /r/whiterights and /r/greatapes are a thing, the admins will not remove anything unless it's illegal and even then they're not too quick to do so. They're all about free speech, and stay out of most subs business most of the time.

I expect red you to know better though Links, you're in here quire often. "PC" in after hours lingo doesn't mean politically correct, it just means "I disagree with it so this seems like a suitable label" - sure someone called a bloody car "pc" not too long ago!

Philo Beddoe

snotboogie wrote: »

For a place where the media is usually so politically correct (Look as Suey Park and CancelColbert) why do they feel free to take such liberties making fun of the Great Famine? This is currently trending on reddit http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/2l3cbn/classic_irishmans_dilemma/
which is a liberal forum where PC values are typically strongly enforced (at least in popular topics) by the community. Substitute any other ethnicity and their negative stereotypes into that joke and it becomes an absolute no no.

American humour does tend to rely heavily on stereotypes when it comes to dealing with foreigners/different ethnic groups. They're not as exposed to other cultures as the rest of us, largely because they're a net cultural exporter.

The_Captain

Outside of teenage boys posting moronic internet comments, can't say I've ever heard much anti-Irish, anti-famine stuff from Americans.

Certainly not on TV or anywhere in the media

Naydy

Doc wrote: »

I don't think Americans laugh at the famine much if at all. Most of them wouldn't even know about it to laugh at it and if they did know about it wouldn't find much to laugh at.

They laugh at the stereotype of a drunken Irishman who eats potatoes. Or at the Frenchman who stinks of garlic and will surrender at the sound of a cork popping. Or at the Englishman in a three piece suit drinking tea his butler has made for him getting upset at the people having fun. Or at the Mexican trying to sneak across the boarder in his sombrero. Just like people might laugh at the fat loud American tourist stereotype.

Exactly. If you've never seen the show that clip was taken from, it's called Archer and they make jokes about over-exaggerated sterotypes of loads of nationalities; the French, Italians, Japanese, Mexicans, Cubans, Russians, Germans and so on. They also play on American sterotypes for laughs too, it's tongue in cheek.

It's a great show by the way, really worth a watch.

Son Of A Vidic

Paulownia wrote: »

Most Americans know nothing of the rest of the world

I'm guessing you haven't met any.

WoollyRedHat

I blame Pixar. The representation of Mr. Potato Head is clearly a mockery of the Irish peoples and all they hold dear, including the famine. Mr. Potato Head's brazenous attitude is an outrageous and defematory attack on the Irish as a whole.

bodice ripper

Paulownia wrote: »

Most Americans know nothing of the rest of the world, the educational system is skewed towards introspection rather than a world view.
,

In my experience, Irish people know **** all about the US, but are surprisingly opinionated about Americans regardless.

And the same can definitely be said about the Irish education system.

kowloon

I think some people choose to get offended because they enjoy the drama. Irish people joke about the famine all the time. It's not like anybody involved is still alive, the famine made sure of that.

Squeedily Spooch

The joke in the original link isn't even about the famine? It's an old joke about Irish people being pissheads, we're supposed to have this amazing sense of humour but not when it comes to a little joke about us drinking? C'mon now.

endacl

New thread: Why do Irish people care so much about what Americans think?

bodice ripper

endacl wrote: »

New thread: Why do Irish people care so much about what Americans think?

Because even the Irish need someone to look down on.