🚀 go-pugleaf

Much has been amde recently of a joke about a prostitute finding
she has been paid in counterfeit money and exclaiming that she
has been raped.  My own reaction is that it's not a great joke,
but that it is mildly funny.  The response that it is offensive
apparently stems from a perception that the punchline trivializes
rape and that the joke is meant to convey the message that claims
of rape are usually false.  I think those interpretations are a
little silly, though honest.  I feel the same way when I hear
someone complain that any use of the word "holocaust," for anything
other than the Nazi atrocities, is trivializing.

Suppose the joke were told like this:

This guy goes into a bank, fills out a deposit form, goes up to the
teller, says he wants to deposit a thousand-dollar bill.  The teller
takes the bill, looks at it, holds it up to the light, finally says,
"I'm sorry, sir, but I can't accept this bill.  It's counterfeit."
"Oh my God!" says the man, "Somebody stole my car!"

It's not a tremendous joke, though not a lot worse than the original,
to my ear.  Now let's try another telling that could be seen as
offensive using a construction similar to that in the first version:

This guy goes into a bank, fills out a deposit form, goes up to the
teller, says he wants to deposit his paycheck.  The teller
takes the check, looks at a list on the counter, finally says,
"I'm sorry, sir, but I can't accept this check.  That account
has been closed."
"Oh my God!" says the man, "I'm a slave!"

Again, the punchline is based on the realization that a past
situation, which has not changed, has not been what it was
thought to be.  Some people might consider this offensive
because it trivializes the notion of slavery and implies that
one could be a slave without knowing it.  I think that's
stretching things, just as I think it's stretching things to
read the original joke as a commentary on rape in any sense.

-- 
scott preece
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