Hezbollah v. Israel!

[Brian Ellis]

A fleeing Hezbollah fighter, desperate for water, was plodding through the desert when he saw something far off in the distance.
Hoping to find water, he walked toward the object, only to find an old Jewish man at a small stand selling neckties. The
Hezbollah asked, "Do you have water?" The Jewish man replied, "I have no water. Would you like to buy a tie? They are only $20."
The Arab shouted, "Idiot Jew! Israel should not exist! I do not need an over-priced tie. I need water! I should kill you, but I must find water first. " "OK," said the old Jewish man, "it does not matter that you do not want to buy a tie and that you hate me. I will show you that I am bigger than that. If you continue over that hill to the east for about two miles, you will find a lovely restaurant. It has all the water you need. Shalom." Muttering, the Arab staggered away over the hill.

Several hours later he staggers back. "Your brother won't let me in without a tie."

[schmosef]

I get the joke. I don't understand why it's supposed to be funny.

[Brian Ellis]

Well, your sense of humour - or lack thereof - has been commented on before.

[Dr Mordrid]

I got it

[jms]

lol

[TransformX]

There's a better one:

An Iranian airplane coming from the Mediterranean has one if his engines blown off mid air and fuel starts spilling out. Moments later, it's practically flying on fumes.
The pilot calls out in the radio, "Iran flight IT103, we're having trouble and need immediate landing, any non Israeli airport hearing us, pelase reply". The radio remains dead silent as the crew becomes more and more worried, "Iran flight IT103, we've lost our engine and most of our fuel, we are critical, I repeat - Critical. We seek immediate landing, any non Israeli airport hearing us, pelase reply". Radio remains dead silent.
A minute later, the pilot, with a trembling voice calls once more, "Iran flight IT103, we're going to crash. We seek immediate landing, help us please! Any airport hearing us, pelase reply!!!".
"Kchhhhhht!", the Radio suddenly comes to live, "Ben Gurion airport here, what's your status?"
"We've lost our engines and fuel, we must land immediately!", the Pilot says in reply.
"Kchhht!", the radio comes to live again, "Ben gurion airport over, starting emergency landing procedures, please repeat after me - Yitgadal veyitkadash shmey raba..."

[KvHagedorn]

might be better with a translation..

[TransformX]

Those were the first 4 words of the Kaddish prayer. A prayer said over ones grave, during mourning etc.

[schmosef]

Well, your sense of humour - or lack thereof - has been commented on before.

Really? When? Where?

I just don't see what's funny about a joke that plays off negative stereotypes on BOTH sides.

[Jessterw]

Hehe. Both were decently amusing.

I think I can speak for the Americans on here when I say I think we can find jokes like this funny because a lot of our own humour (thinking more along the lines of stand-up) is based on taking the negative and joking about it.

Black comedians do it about everyone, the other races do it about everyone but blacks.

[Nowhere]

schmosef, exactly - both. So it's not really a problem for it to be funny...

[az]

I think both are not funny - not because they're mean, but because they're just not good (or bad) enough. I knew the first one before where it was just a guy being parched and some other guy trying to sell him ties, and it wasn't funny then.

But black humour is always fine, and even stereotypical humour as long as it is clear it's still humour and you're not only firing in one direction.