Note to Moderators : There are some racial connotations in this post. I have assumed they will be acceptable in context of this post as a whole. It should be obvious I am not trying to offend anyone.

I like jokes that play to stereotypes. Whether they be religious jokes (hello dirty priests!), sexist jokes (hello white goods, I mean women!) or even hair colour jokes (hello dumb nymphomaniac blondes!), there is something that appeals to me about taking a stereotype to the extreme.

Of course, as the topic title would imply, I love racist jokes. Am I racist? No. Am I careful who I say such jokes to? Yes. I understand other people may not have the same sense of humour as me, and what I find funny, others may not. The purpose of a joke to me is to make someone laugh, not offend, so if I think it will offend, it remains unsaid. Sometimes I think jokes are so far off the deep end, so far into offensive territory, that they become funny.

Recently I posted a racial joke on my business' intranet site; a site where we share business ideas with others in our group, as well as our standard 'Friday Funnies' where we put up jokes to add some hilarity to our work week, but it was removed by an administrator in case it might offend someone. The joke in question:

Kathy Freeman runs into a chemist, and keeps jogging on the spot as she reaches the counter.
"You've got to do something for me. I just can't stop running. Is there something you can give me?"
As she keeps jogging on the spot, the chemist lays out a couple of lines on the counter and says "Here, snort that up."
Kathy Freeman eyes it suspiciously and says, "That's not cocaine is it?"
And the chemist says "No it's Omo. Stops colours from running."

In case that joke is lost on anyone, Kathy Freeman is a successful Australian Olympic Runner who is Aboriginal. Omo is a washing detergent with the slogan 'stops colours from running.'

I don't consider that joke to be particularly offensive. While it contains connotations of a persons colour, it doesn't actually play to negative stereotypes like many others in my repertoire; it just sets up the punchline. But it got me thinking. We have had plenty of other jokes on that board that I consider would have more potential to offend; like the naughty priest joke, and sexist joke categories that I opened with.

It is my perception that racist jokes in general have much more potential to offend than many of the other categories. Again, I'm not sure exactly why. You can make jokes about African Americans. You can make jokes about Aborigines. You can make jokes about Asians in general. They are likely to find them to offensive. But…

Are the Irish immune? I have been hearing Irish jokes for many many years. Irish are dumb. They invented the solar powered flashlight, and a screen door for submarines. What is Irish and has an IQ of 120? Ireland. The stereotype is that they are completely stupid. We have had plenty of those on our notice board. What I have never heard is an Irishman taking offense to these jokes… maybe they are just too stupid to realise?

This is really a rambling post, with no real point, just some musings. It does seem that some races/ethnicities are more sensitive to racial jokes than others. I'm not sure how it started, but Australians joke about New Zealanders having carnal relations with sheep, and apparently they use the same joke about us. I'm certainly not offended. I think Australian men are also joked about as being underperformers in the bedroom, but that might just be a sexist joke within Australia (i.e. our women say it about our men). Again, I'm not offended.