Thinking Sex: Representing Desire and Difference
A Feminist and Gender Studies Course
Bryn Mawr College, Fall, 2002

Archive 8: Sexual Humor Continued


Name:  Anne Dalke
Username:  adalke@brynmawr.edu
Subject:  Sexual Humor, Continued
Date:  2002-09-24 15:45:05
Message Id:  2883
Comments:
The "Sexual Humor" section got...too large (you can make out of this...whatever you like). So it...continues here.
Anne
Name:  LH
Username:  wizzywhirl@hotmail.com
Subject:  JOKES
Date:  2002-09-21 11:15:56
Message Id:  2823
Comments:
So I'm a big loser and I forgot to post by Friday night. Forgive me please.

So here are my sex jokes....

What do you call a lesbian Eskimo?
A Klondike

Have you head about the new lesbian sneakers?

They are called, "Dykies" and you can get them off with one finger, but they had to be recalled because the tongues weren't long enough.


Name:  LH
Username:  wizzywhirl@hotmail.com
Subject:  more
Date:  2002-09-21 11:40:44
Message Id:  2825
Comments:
So I can't get the sex joke told in class, "how do you make a little boy cry twice?" out of my head. I don't even want to repeat the answer. It makes me so uncomfortable to think that rape is a matter one would joke about, especially entangled with pedophilia. Think about the reaction one would get if s/he told the joke to a person who had been raped? Which very well could have happened in class Thursday- I don't know.
We talked in class about the eating a vegetable joke and how that made some of us uncomfortable. But what kind of sick twisted person comes up with the bloody dick joke? That couldn't even be considered a play on words, like the eating a vegetable joke could be. And equally as disturbing, who would laugh at this joke? The vegetable joke crossed a line for me, but the bloody dick joke sent me falling off the edge of a mountain. The difference I suppose is that a woman who is sexually abused in a vegetable state probably won't recognize what has happened and therefore won't be emotionally traumatized. But the little boy will. I'm obviously not talking about jokes anymore. I don't think a little boy has anymore rights than an elderly woman, but because he has the ability to feel and put into emotion what is happening to him he is more affected. I think. But I've never been a sexually abused little boy or a "vegetable" taken advantage of in a nursing home, so it's hard for me to speak for them.


So here is where the line is crossed for me.
ANY Racist or sexist joke that does not criticize racism or sexism.
Jokes about rape/sexual abuse of anyone, but especially sensitive are children/elderly/ or mentally incapacitated people.

I love sex jokes. I can handle most of those assuming they do not fall in one of the two categories.

So if I had to categorize the jokes I recall from class these would be the categories...

Feminist
Lesbian
Penis
Jokes that uncover the ridiculousness of Homophobia
Plays on words
Just down right sick


Name:  Monica Locsin
Username:  mlocsin@brynmawr.edu
Subject:  My joke and reaction to other jokes in class
Date:  2002-09-22 14:49:29
Message Id:  2844
Comments:
Hey everyone! Here's my joke, enjoy!

3 Sisters

Three sisters wanted to get married, but their parents couldn't afford it
so they had all of them on the same day. They also couldn't afford to
go on a honeymoon so they all stayed home with their new hubbies.That night the mother got up because she couldn't sleep.When she went past her oldest daughter's room she heard screaming. Then she went to her second daughters room and she heard laughing.Then she went to her youngest daughter's room and she couldn't hear anything.

The next morning when the men left the mother asked her oldest daughter, "Why were you screaming last night?" The daughter replied "Mom you always told me if something hurt I should scream." "That's true." She looked at her second daughter. "Why were you laughing so much last night?" The daughter replied "Mom you always said that if something tickled you should laugh." "That's also true." Then the mother looked at her youngest daughter."Why was it so quiet in your room last night?" The youngest daughter replied "Mom you always told me I should never talk with my mouth full."

I must admit that I laughed at most of the jokes said in class. To me a joke is supposed to be funny but when it comes to offending others and issues that should not be made fun of, I believe that the line is to be drawn between what is funny and what is not funny at all. Some of the jokes took me awhile to understand because I didn't know some of the slang used and it just took a while for me to figure it out. I made a comment in class saying that sometimes a joke may be funny in a certain language and once it is translated in English the context of the joke is not funny anymore. This actually happens to me a lot, and when asked what is so funny about it, it's so hard to explain!! Some of the jokes I heard in class were gross like the one about the two guys having sex with the dead body. I would have never guessed that was going to be the outcome of the joke. I thought that the two men would end up having sex with each other. I mean why couldn't the joke end up with the two men having sex? I guess the ending of this joke was a total surprise. It is always something unexpected that also makes a joke.


Name:  
Username:  Anonymous
Subject:  
Date:  2002-09-22 20:37:20
Message Id:  2852
Comments:
On the topic of lang. and sex, does anyone know (or think there are) differences between fucking, having sex, and making love? My friend's boyfriend said you fuck a one night stand, have sex with the person you're dating, and make love to the person you marry. I don't know how I feel about that. Any thoughts?
Name:  Tamina
Username:  tmencin@haverford.edu
Subject:  joke
Date:  2002-09-23 12:24:20
Message Id:  2858
Comments:
How can you tell time in Michael Jackson's house?

When the big hand touches the small hand.
Name:  Fritz Dubuisson
Username:  Anonymous
Subject:  
Date:  2002-09-24 01:34:26
Message Id:  2865
Comments:
Ok. My joke was: There was this Russian man and he found a genie. The Genie tells him he gets one wish and one wish only. So, the man decides and tells the Genie " everytime i take a piss I want it to taste like the best vodka I've ever tasted." The genie thoght this was a lil wierd but was like ok you have your wish. The man goes home pies in a cup and tastes it. It was indeed the best vodka h'e ever tasted. To make sure he calls his wife over and asks her to taste it. After tasting she commements " honey that was the best vodka i"ve evr tatsed." So the next day they do the same thing and the vodka was better than the day before. A couple of days later the wife walks up to the husband with her cup and asks when they are going to have their drink. The husband says "Soon, but you won;t need the cup." she goes "why?" He responds, "tonight you're drinking from the bottle."
Name:  HY
Username:  
Subject:  Jokes
Date:  2002-09-24 09:51:59
Message Id:  2866
Comments:
Joke shared in class: The Four Types in Bed
1. The positivist: "Oh Yeah! Oh Yeah!"
2. The Negativist: "Oh No! Oh No!"
3. The Pious: "Oh God! Oh God!"
AND
4. The Faker: "Oh Anne! Oh Anne!"

I thought about sharing another joke instead but ultimately chose the aforementioned one for abvious reasons. Here is the other one I considered. It is an old Bulgarian joke told to me by a good, old, Bulgarian friend:

Three women are sitting in a bar comparing how stretched out their pussies are. The first one says, "My husband can stick his whole fist up mine." The second one retorts, "Well, my husband can stick his whole arm up mine!" And the third one, well, she just slipped on the stool.


Name:  Jill
Username:  jneustel@brynmawr.edu
Subject:  LONG Joke
Date:  2002-09-24 12:31:15
Message Id:  2869
Comments:
A POW was just released from the war camp. He comes home as soon as possible, with one thing on his mind. All he wants to do is have sex with a woman.

When he gets to his home-town, he searches out the local pimp. The soldier tells the pimp his war stories, and he explains that he doesn't have much money, but he really wants to have sex with a woman.

The pimp tells the soldier that there is one woman he can hook the soldier up with for relatively cheap.

The soldier agrees, and the pimp directs him to a room on the top floor of the building.

When the soldier enters the room, the woman is already spread-eagle, naked on the bed. Assuming that this was the go-ahead, the soldier starts to do his business.

All of a sudden, this white substance begins to ooze out of every pore in the woman's body. This really frightened the soldier, so he ran downstairs to tell the pimp.

After a moment's reflection, the pimp yells to a guy down the hall... "The dead bitch is full again!"


Name:  Jill
Username:  jneustel@brynmawr.edu
Subject:  Humor
Date:  2002-09-24 12:38:12
Message Id:  2870
Comments:
In response to last Thursday's class, I left baffled. Jokes are integral to interaction, at least in my experience. I've maintained friendships on the basis of laughter. Also, at least from what I've observed, humor is part of what makes people attractive. Whenever I've been asked to describe my "ideal type", the ability to make me laugh has always been on my list. This is true for almost everyone.

It struck me as almost heartbreaking that most of our class had to search the internet for jokes. If people are too busy to be able to remember jokes, are they also too busy to laugh? What does this say about Bryn Mawr and Haverford?

It makes me sad.


Name:  Jill
Username:  jneustel@brynmawr.edu
Subject:  Nun Jokes
Date:  2002-09-24 12:52:07
Message Id:  2871
Comments:
#1
By some tragic accident, three nuns died all at the same moment. They arrived at the Pearly Gates, and St. Peter greeted them all cheerfully.

"Hello, ladies! Welcome to Heaven. There is just one thing that needs to happen before I can let you in. We've been getting some sketchy characters up here lately, so the Powers That Be have required me to ask each person a question before they can enter. I'm sure you'll all be fine."

With that, he turned to the first nun and asked her, "OK, so who was the first man on earth?"

She answered quickly and confidently, "Oh, that's easy! Adam!"

All of a sudden, an angellic glow descended, the gates swung open, and a gentle breeze carried her into heaven.

St. Peter then turned to the second nun. "Who was the first woman on earth?"

She also answered quickly and confidently, "Oh, that's easy! Eve!"

Again with the glow and the breeze and the swinging gates...

Finally, St. Peter turned to the last nun. "What was the first thing Eve said to Adam?"

This time, the nun did not answer quickly or confidently. In fact, she almost stuttered. "Oh... Gee... That's a hard one..."

All of a sudden, an angellic glow descended, the gates swung open, and a gentle breeze carried her into heaven.

#2
Four nuns were driving along in their nunmobile, out to do some community service. From out of nowhere, a huge mac-truck plows right into them, and the nuns all died instantly. St. Peter was there to greet them.

"Hello ladies! Welcome to heaven! Before I let you in, it is customary for me to ask if you have any final sins to confess."

The first nun stepped forward and embarrasingly admitted, "St. Peter, I saw a man's penis once."

St. Peter replied, "OK, that's no problem, what I'm gonna need you to do is just to wash your eyes out with some of this holy water."

The second nun stepped forward and bashfully admitted, "St. Peter, I touched a man's penis once."

St. Peter replied, "OK, what I need you to do is wash your hands in this holy water."

As soon as he was done saying that, he saw the other two nuns in an all-out brawl right in front of him. It was a mess, a total cat-fight. Habits were flying, hair was being pulled, the whole works.

St. Peter stepped in, "Ladies! Ladies! What's going on here?"

One of the nuns came forward, "St. Peter, I want to gargle with the holy water before that bitch has to sit in it!"


Name:  Chelsea
Username:  clphilli@brynmawr.edu
Subject:  Yet another joke...
Date:  2002-09-25 18:12:13
Message Id:  2897
Comments:
Ok, so this was inspired by a class discussion we had in Biology and I think it relates well...especially to that "Universe in Heat" article we read:)

What came before the Big Bang?

Big Foreplay!

Hehe...


Name:  HY
Username:  
Subject:  Forums #7 and #8: On sex and Humor . . .
Date:  2002-09-28 15:07:25
Message Id:  2969
Comments:
I had the privilege of taking Jane Caplan's college seminar, Laughter, last semester, and I was able to bring much of what we discussed in her course to our sharing and analysis of sexual jokes. This problematic and ambiguous "line" between what is a daring-but-good joke and a disrespectful and vulgar joke was an issue of discussion in our course. I would like to point out to Anne, who seemed so adamantly intrigued by this question of boundaries, that our discussions brought us no closer to understanding the subtle limits which are crossed in humor. Not that our efforts were in vain, although we (in Laughter) never came to a conclusive "definition" of this limit, discussing it was fruitful. However, similarly to our forum on humor, discussions in the Laughter course had a tendency to sterilize and remove the hilarity from jokes.
Nevertheless, I have some references that may be of interest to some or all of you. One is a book by a philosophy professor at the University of Chicago, Ted Cohen, entitled, Jokes: Philosophical Thoughts on Joking Matters. This is an easy and fun read that attempts to deconstruct the joke - and is filled with pretty good ones too. The last chapter, "Taste, Morality, and the Propriety of Joking" addresses the elusive boundary which perplexes us so.
The other reference is cultural. It is a study of the lexicon of a Western Apache tribe in modern day Arizona entitled Portraits of "The Whiteman": Linguistic play and cultural symbols among the Western Apache by Keith Basso. A portion of this book addresses the socialization of humor. Humor, among men especially, is a way of expressing intimate relationships that have reached a certain level of mutual trust, respect, and understanding. That is why elderly men are more prone to "risky" joke making than younger males - they have had more time to intimate their relationship. I found these two points particularly interesting during class when sharing jokes.
Name:  Deborah
Username:  dsosower@brynmawr.edu
Subject:  Lost posting
Date:  2002-10-11 13:29:31
Message Id:  3259
Comments:
Hey all, I had a posting that has been lost. It was about sexual humor, and it was a really cross-the-line sex joke that is one of the only ones that I still remember and still get grossed out; here it is.
A man goes into a whore house, and he is directed to go up to the top floor and the end of the hall. After climbing all the way up, the man was feeling very thirsty, and hungry to boot. He walks down the hall, and outside every door there are barrels of fruit. He gets to the end of the hall to his designated door, and is waiting and waiting for his turn. He finally turns to the barrel by the door and tries one of the fruit...he finds that they are delicious cherries! He keeps eating, and a few moments later the whore walks out to greet him. She stares at him in horror, and screams! "What the hell?!" exclaimed the man, "why are you freakin out woman?" ANd the whore can only gasp, "why are you eating those???" "What, these cherries?" the man replied. "Those aren't cherries, those are abortions!"
Name:  Kathryn McMahon
Username:  superkatra@hotmail.com
Subject:  sex joke
Date:  2002-11-22 15:07:27
Message Id:  3845
Comments:
Q: What did one lesbian frog say to another after they had sex?
A: We taste like chicken!

Alternative answer: We sure DON'T taste like chicken!

The first answer destigmatizes lesbian sex (revolutionary humor), while the alternative answer reiterates stereotypical disgust by implying that "women taste like fish and that's gross" (preservative humor). Or not. Maybe the second answer could be read as acknowledging sexual difference/preference without discriminating against it.


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