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The English once had a sense of humour.

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anotheoldgit | 13:58 Tue 24th Feb 2009 | News
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-115364 5/As-BT-suspends-30-staff-telling-Irish-joke-v eteran-comedian-Frank-Carson-defends-great-com ic-tradition.html

Good on yer Frank you and the Irish whether Catholic or Protestant, could teach some of those who can't seem to take a joke, a thing or two about humour.
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Here is the Joke

"Two Irishmen, Paddy and Gerry, drive to the top of Connor Pass, where Gerry looks down at the 1000ft drop and says, �Dis looks like a grand place.�He takes two budgies out of a box, puts one on each shoulder and jumps off. Paddy watches the birds fly off and Gerry falls to the bottom, killing himself stone dead. Looking down, Paddy shakes his head and says � Stuff dat, Dis budgie jumping is too dangerous for me!�
Moments later, Seamus arrives. He walks up to the edge of the cliff carrying another box and a shotgun.�Hi Paddy, watch dis,� Seamus says. He lets a parrot out of the box, then throws himself over the edge of the cliff with the gun. Paddy watches as halfway down, Seamus takes his gun and shoots the parrot. Seamus carries on plummeting until he hits the bottom and breaks every bone. Paddy shakes his head and says �I�m never trying dat parrotshooting either!�
Paddy is getting over the shock when Sean appears. Sean pulls a chicken out of a sack, takes it by the legs and hurls himself off the cliff. He falls to the bottom , hits a rock and breaks a spine.
Once more Paddy shakes his head � Stuff dat, lads. First dere was Gerry budgie jumping, den Seamus parrotshooting and now Sean and his hengliding.


Not a lack of sense of humopur, just a cynical ploy to axe 30 jobs in a recession. Good old BT.
They have probably not been suspended for telling an Irish joke, but more likely been suspended for misusing company property or something similar.

A lot of employment contracts will have rules governing the use of phones and emails. It is likely that the employees are in breach of this and have therefore been suspended.

Of course, that doesn't make a good story though.
be Jaysus! the world's gone mad Aog! I guess it's only acceptable to take the pi55 out of middle aged white English blokes now then!
Should add that if this is purely down to a perceived racist joke, then it is totally ridiculous - though as I said, I don't think it is.
It's like Paddy and Murhpy looking for a job when they see a sign saying "Tree Fellers wanted", Paddy turns to Murphly and "what a pity, to be sure, there's only 2 of us".
It's the way I tell em!
The joke isn't racist. It is a pun on words and dialect.
John Cleese's three golden rules of comedy:

1. No puns.
2. No puns.
3. No puns.
Two words for you Quinlad

Flowery Tw@ts

Rules are for breaking
Having a sense of humour means being able to laugh at yourself, not being able to laugh at others so......
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What do you call an englishman with an IQ of 50?

Colonel sir!!
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Never ask a foreigner where he is from. If he is not english he will tell you within a few minutes, and if he is English, why embarrass him?
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What is the difference between an Englishman and his photograph?

The photograph is fully developed!
Yes, oldgit, the English did all once have a sense of humour. Fortunately, most of us still retain it. So do the Irish, Scots, Welsh (Oh, I dunno about the Welsh!) Jews and most others.

What has happened in recent years is that the worst offence that can be committed is no longer murder, but causing offence to someone because they are in some way different to yourself. (And after all, many jokes are founded on this principle).

Whether this offence is real or imagined by some uninvolved Third Party is no matter. People cannot be trusted to know what is appropriate for the circumstances and what is not. It must all be stamped out. Rigorous rules and regulations (going under the guise of �Political Correctness�) exist to ensure that it is. Hence the ludicrous action taken by BT over this matter. (BTW, vic it is probably quite so that they have been suspended for misue of comapany e-Mail facilities. However BT employees are allowed to use e-Mail for personal use and it is unlikely that action would have been taken had the material involved not been so "offensive").

I have known the joke in question for many years. It was told to me by an Irish friend and I promised to buy him a pint of Guinness if I laughed. We both did, most heartily, and I bought him his pint. He went on to tell me a tale about an Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman (which was disgusting and not for reprint here) where the butt of the joke was the Englishman. We laughed again and had another pint.

That�s what used to make life so enjoyable. Not any more. No doubt if were to repeat similar tales in a pub today we�d both end up down the nick and the pub would lose its licence.

Happy Days!
yeah and woe betide anyone who draws some cartoons poking fun at a certain bunch of relgious nutters.......
Of course there's nothing wrong itself with racist jokes

BUT they have to be funny - not just mildly amusing and not just offensive like some that people like Bernard Manning used to tell

What's the difference between an Iraqi woman and a pilchard?" he would ask: "One's oily and greasy with f*****g bulging eyes, and the other's a fish.

Well done Bernard!

The best often pretend to one stereotype and then hit you with a different one you weren't expecting.

Did you hear about the Irish boomerang?

It doesn't come back, it just sits about singing about how it would like to!

(That's one of my wife's favourites, she's Irish)
I tell you one thing about those darned frenchies, no sense of humour. Those cheese-eating surrender monkeys can�t take a joke and no mistake.
The article says that the people were suspended because of one complaint. That sums it all up! The PC Brigade at work (no pun intended!) yet again. One killjoy adopts the usual "self righteous indignation" stance and 30 people are suspended because of it!
I'm a Brit and have had fun poked at me because of my "ethnic" background. But I haven't gone squealing to anyone because of it. I've had a good guffaw and have retaliated with suitable quips of my own.
If we can't all laugh at ourselves now and then, who CAN we laugh at? It's pathetic! The minority ruling the majority in this country as usual.
A colleague (English) and I were observing the St Patricks Day Parade in the main square from our office window last year, and he turned to me and said �why don�t you jump down there and help them lay some tarmac�.

What should my reaction have been?
To have done as he suggested!
LOL @ New Judge


Can everyone who decries PC for us losing our sense of humour please explain to me the huge popularity of:

Family Guy(black jokes, Asian jokes, paraplegic jokes)
American Dad (all of the above, with added liberal baiting jokes)
Extras
The Office
Friday Night Project

I'm at a loss...really - I've seen all of the above and heard absolutely bone-crunchingly hilarious jokes at the expense of just about every demographic, but told with such wit as to make them genuinely funny.

They're not like the old jokes from the 70s which had a beginning, middle and punchline, but they're complex 'social observation jokes'.

Do you really think that anyone under the age of 25 tells Irish jokes?

In the same way that my generation didn't 'get' the humour of the goons, kids today have developed their own comedy language.

By the way, BT sacking for that joke is mad. Really, really mad.
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jake-the-peg

Of course there's nothing wrong itself with racist jokes

BUT they have to be funny - not just mildly amusing and not just offensive like some that people like Bernard Manning used to tell.

Who decides what is mildly amusing, funny or even offensive? I thought the late great Bernard Manning very funny, in fact that example you gave was hilarious. But then if he had aimed it at one Iraqi woman in particular, no she may have found it offensive.

But the same must go, if a comedian was taking the wee-wee out of a little fat ugly ginger haired white man, a black man in the audience might find this to be hilarious, but then what would this black man's reaction be if the comedian then happened to turn his attention onto him?

What is funny to some can be offensive to others, but hell you have to learn to take it, as long as it is not aimed constantly at one individual.

How many comedians will pick on someone in the front row of his audience, and then revert back to someone that has come in late?

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