Re: metonymous factors (or not) in humour

Blue Sow wrote:
> FCS wrote:
> 
>> I'm sure most regular posters will have heard this particular one
>> before but I'm not sure it's ever been here as a topic. Here's a
>> paraphrase of it:
> [excised]
> 
> You might want to bear in mind that in its original form, this joke was 
> what would now be considered unseemly.
> 
> It targets the alleged ignorance and drunken habits of a certain 
> nationality of individuals, represented in the joke by the two men.
> 
> The 'joke' is that the two are 'too stupid' (because of their ethnicity)

> to realise that any bus can go anywhere or that the displayed numbers 
> and destinations can be changed on any bus.  Instead, they believe that 
> they must steal the particular bus which services the route that p***** 
> near their homes.
> 
> The joke has existed at least since the fifties and seems, on the basis 
> of the version you posted, to have been cleaned up in terms of no longer

> identifying a particular nationality of individual.
> 
> There is nothing in the joke which depends upon guided trans****t, trams,

> trolley buses etc., rather it is a simple 'racist' joke told by almost 
> every child at secondary school.
> 
> For reference, the persons referred to would have been supposed to have 
> been natives of the British Isles but not natives of the United 
> Kingdom.  That should narrow the field sufficiently for you.
> 

Cor is this humour?