The origin of ethnic jokes in America

July 25, 2005

Every generation, it seems like a new ethnicity would come to America to try to seek their fortune. And of course, with every new ethnicity comes ethnic jokes. For example, the Italians often would not have immigration papers with them. So they got stamped WOP for without papers. Thus, "wop" became the derogatory name for Italians.

The Irish supposedly had problems with alcohol consumption. The stereotype with the Irish is that they drank too much. Thus, Irish jokes tend to revolve around being drunk.

Mexican folks were accused mainly of two things - not having car insurance and having cars that plain out don't work. Being poor immigrants when they came over, of course they couldn't afford a brand new Mercedes Benz so they'd end up with a beat up car and the stereotype stuck.

Jewish jokes tended to revolve around money, since Jews when it was their turn to come over here often ended up in professions dealing with money, like banking.

The Chinese were known for eating dogs. Thus, many of the Chinese jokes involved missing dogs later ending up on the dinner plates of a Chinese family.

The funniest in my opinion were the Polish jokes. These were downright mean though because in many cases, they were not deserved. They were more victims of practical jokes. For example, a guy would hand a new Polish immigrant a banana and would say it's a delicious American food. The guy's friends would stand around and wait for the Polish guy to eat it. Having never seen a banana, of course the Polish guy wouldn't know what to do with it so more often than not, he'd take a bite out of it without peeling off the skin. To the Americans, that proved the Polish guy was "stupid."

There are many more. I've heard jokes made about every ethnicity that has more than a million people in America. I've heard religious jokes, gender jokes, sexual orientation jokes, I've heard them all. But somewhere along the lines, people got offended and the joking stopped.

In my book, it's a shame. Back then, it was like a rite of passage for new ethnicities to get accepted into the mainstream. But political correctness is trying to destroy these jokes, which really are a part of American history. If people are too thin-skinned to accept history, how do you think they'll survive the upcoming zombie plague?

© 2005 by The Zombieslayer

Shootin' Political Correctness in the head since May 2005. If you're soft skinned or weak at heart, you might want to try elsewhere.

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