Retired General James Jones, who is a senior national security advisor to the Obama administration, told a joke at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, regarding a Jew in the desert of Afghanistan who outwitted a member of the Taliban. The joke plays upon stereotypes of Jews being sharp in business.
I had received that joke via e-mail from someone a few weeks ago, and like so many e-mailed jokes, put it in the electronic trash bin. While I can’t remember who sent it, it clearly was not sent to me intended as an insult, but rather, some light-hearted humor.
I have no problem with the joke. I think we have to be able to laugh at ourselves, including laughing at stereotypes; in humor we often expose the stereotype rather than build upon it.
That said, this is another one of those “can you imagine” moments. Substitute blacks or latinos or gays or almost any other group for Jews, and the joke playing on old stereotypes never would have been told by Jones. And if it were, Jones already would be gone from the administration.
The predictable response will be condemnation, but I think a little introspection more is in order.
Why have we reached the point that good-natured, non-malicious joking around is a career killer? Why can’t we laugh at ourselves anymore?
And without further ado, the video (via Breitbart via Drudge):
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmUb_cXI5aI]
By the way, did you hear the one about the Priest, Minister and Rabbi who ….
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Comments
So a priest, a minister and a rabbi walk into a bar. The bartender says "What is this, some kind of joke?"
(Ba-da-bum!)
It is a good joke. Unfortunately, everyone has decided to make a big deal about it. We have enouth issues with which to flog Obama without adding this.
It is a lot funnier if the guy selling the ties is an A-rab, and the second guy is selling watermelons.
yes, i agree with david7134 … it's much ado about badadu … nothing. maybe bad taste, given the context, but not antisemitic as some claim. what is life without humor? it's a 17 min response by an empty suit to a question from the audience about too much taxes. smile.
Of course, the standard question is, "What if a Republican had done this?" That person would be front-page, in-your-face 24/7, with every Dem requesting his/her resignation. And……they would resign, unlike any Dem/Lib/Leftist.
The glaring hypocricy continues.
"Substitute blacks or latinos or gays or almost any other group for Jews, and the joke playing on old stereotypes never would have been told by Jones. And if it were, Jones already would be gone from the administration."
More proof there's no difference between the left & right in the USA. Both parties are totally brainwashed by Political Correctness & Cultural Marxism. Both the left & the right fail to recognize that race IS NOT a social construct and neither is sex/gender. There are differences and they are to be celebrated!
Both parties are major ass kissers of the Khazars that have taken over the govt.
What is this? Thinkprogress?
I dunno. I'm more troubled by the double-standard, situational ethics aspect of it than the content.
Make this an "R" administration and the wolves would have been howling for GEN Jones' liver. But because it's a fringe left "D" running the show, those same wolves may growl a tiny bit, but they'll otherwise remain quiet and demand nothing.
Considering that Breitbart's first claim to fame was a faked video, I'll hold out until actual real evidence comes out – from honest people.
I heard/read this joke months ago and at the time thought it was quite humorous. And I still do which is the way I voted today over at the poll at hotair. If there is any offense to be taken by this joke, it's going to be the Taliban and their supporters that are offended! I do think there is another message in this joke and that is: Don't screw with the Jews!
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Well the joke is pretty tame as far as anti-semitic jokes go.
Why the uproar? In this case it context. Obama billed his administration as the first 'post racial' one. So the bar was set pretty high by the CiC from the beginning. In which case Jones fails.
There is another aspect to this. Whereas the GOP is continually skewered when one of their own fall from the grace of God and Family. We now have the case of the DNC being skewered by the ethnic relativism of their cause.
A big deal? No. But it goes to motivation and it is ugly.
Speaking as a Person of Polish Surname, I don't really understand the joke. Could someone please explain it to me v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y?
Thanks.
Speaking as someone with an Irish surname…..and I still laugh at most of the jokes!!
Seriously the joke was funny.
Why have we reached the point that good-natured, non-malicious joking around is a career killer?
Ask (1) Liberals, the breeders of political correctness and (2) Saul Alinsky, the breeder of the methods used by Liberals to impose their political correct fascism.
How can you ask this question?
It's an old joke I heard twenty years ago, just modified to today's situation.
Question is why did it apply to the speech?
I first heard the joke set in the desert around Las Vegas and with no ethnic reference. The tie store and the restaurant that required customers to have a tie, with the snooty maitre D' are standard humor material. The problem was shoehorning in the ethnic references and emphasizing them.