Conference quark::mennotes-v1

517.0. "Jokes about men: when are they insulting?" by TLE::FISHER (Work that dream and love your life) Fri Sep 28 1990 12:28

A joke sent to me:

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A friend sent me this, it comes from  a comic strip called "Eyebeam":
 

Woman: Why don't you ever see sunroofs on pickup trucks?
 
Man: Well, a truck cab sits higher up than a car, so the aerodynamics are
	more affected by fluctuations in surface area ...
 
W: I see.  Why do most people seem to dislike the phone company?
 
M: To depend on such a corporate intrusion into the home causes a
	psychological conflict with the instinct for, uh, habitat protection.
 
W: I was afraid of this ...
 
M: What?
 
W: You have the Male Answer Syndrome.
 
M: Oh no!  I must have caught it at the office ....  What do you mean, I have
	"Male Answer Syndrome?"
 
W: It's the compulsion to provide an answer to any question, even if it means
	resorting to pure speculation.
 
M: I knew that ....
 
W: It's a very widespread phenomenon.
 
Woman2: I wonder what causes it?
 
M: Cause?  Well, society has chosen male role models who always exhibit 
	total control ... if a male says "I don't know," he's admitting 
        to conversational helplessnes and failing to live up to that
	societal standard ....
 
W: Pretty pitiful, huh?
 
W2: And I always thought they learned it all in "Shop" ... Rod, do you know
	what "Male Answer Syndrome" is?
 
Rod: It's the principle that before you receive the answer to a letter, you
	wind up discussing everything in it over the phone.
 
W2: No ... the masculine inability to say "I don't know."  And I think you have
	it.
 
R: Oh, don't be ridiculous!
 
W2: OK, why do they put tags on pillows saying "do not remove under penalty of
	law?"
 
R: I don't have to answer that - I'm in control ....
 
W2: Oh.  I guess I was wrong.  Sorry.
 
R: ... So the government can search your home and easily determine whether you
	have criminal tendencies.
 
W2: You know Sally, every since you told me about "Male Answer Syndrome," I've
	seen it all around me.  Where did the term come from?
 
W: A guy came up with it.  I found it in this old column by David Stansbury.
 
W2: Imagine - a male having the astuteness to detect a trait like that in his
	own kind!  How does he do it?
 
W: Hey!  Let's call him and find out ... (on phone) Yes, hello?  I'm one of
	your readers, and I wanted to ask where your insights come from ...
 
Stansbury: Well, brain patterns, like water patterns, sometimes act in unison
	to create waves, which the conscious filters into ideas, which in turn
	are ...
 
W2: How sad.
 
W: I guess they've all got it ...
 

I usually push back on people when they send me jokes that are 
devaluing of people.  However, with this one, I laughed and didn't 
find it insulting or devaluing.  Just a generally true perception.

Was I wrong?  Is it insulting to you?

(I have this same judgment problem with the two gay guys on "In Living 
Color."  It's sooo stereotypical, but it's  soooo true and sooo 
funny.)

When does it all cross the line to being "devaluing"?

(For what it's worth, this is not a rhetorical question.  I don't have 
the answer to this question.  Sometimes I laugh.  Sometimes I get 
insulted.)


							--Gerry

    Gerry --
    
    Some jokes are insulting to men, but regarding your basenote, nah.
    It's generalizing, somewhat whimiscal and often true.  Sometimes I find
    myself rattling on about some topic, often to a throw-away, retorical
    question, and I stop and say to myself, "Larry, what the hell are you
    taking about."  Then I say what I shuold have said from the beginning,
     "I don't know."
    
    Re: "In Living Color".  I fully understand your point.  I find myself
    laughing and squirming at the same time.  It's a dangerous tightrope
    they walk but I think they manage it.  In other hands, that routine
    would be horribly insulting.
    
    Rattling again,
    Larry   

    isn't any male response to this topic self-incriminating?  8-)

    Stereotypical jokes ver offend me.  I think living color is a scream. 
    (S)He who cannot laugh at oneself is going to have a long road ahead of
    (her)himself.  But then again what the heck do I know.
    
    
    
    Mike

>    isn't any male response to this topic self-incriminating?  8-)

I guess it was male of me to want to analyse it, too!  :-)


							--Ger

    
    	Well the reason why, Gerry, is...   oops! :-) 
    
    	[I loved it too, even though I know people from both genders who
    	display the same 'male' (Arghh, it's not MALE) trait].
    
    	-Erik