3 wishes

[Brian Ellis]

Two Palestinians and an Israeli were on a beach when they found a lamp. The genie came out and said that as there were three of them, they would get one wish each. One of the Palestinians immediately wished for all the arms to knock the bejabers out of Israel. The Israeli riposted and asked that Israel be surrounded by a hermetic wall, 1000 m high and 75 m thick, so strongly built that it would resist all attack. The genie then turned to the other Palestinian, who appeared pensive.

After a minute, he said, "Oh! Mr Djinn, I wish for Israel's wall be filled with water!"

[Jammrock]

Ah, a classic

I've heard this joke with various University athletic rivalries. Where one person wishes for a team that can trounce the other universities. Then the next wishes for a wall to keep out rivals. The third wishes for the wall to be filled with water. It's a pretty flexible joke.

[schmosef]

I don't understand you Brian.

You were critical of the publishing of the Mo cartoons on the basis that they might "offend our sensitive Muslim friends" yet here you are posting jokes like this and this.

Don't you think jokes about genocide or Jewish avarice are offensive? Where's your morally surperior self-censorship now?

Don't get me wrong, I firmly believe in free speech and that includes your right to tell whatever jokes you like (as long as they do not incite hatred or violence). I just don't understand YOUR hypocrisy.

Please explain.

[Mehen]

Finally, a Kirstie Alley-sized swimming pool.

[Brian Ellis]

I don't understand you Brian.

You never will; it requires a sense of humour to understand a sense of humour! What you have posted has been thinly disguised political propaganda. There is no propaganda in this kind of joke where a situation - of any kind - is taken ad absurdum, because both sides are equally lampooned. Stop seeing bogey-men round each corner and get a life.

[schmosef]

Brian, there's no logic to what you just wrote.

Who were the two sides that were equally lampooned in your joke about Jewish avarice? The dead and the living?

Stop vilifying me for asking you to elaborate on your logic.

Seriously Brian, you protest too much. I'm not now and have never before accused you of antisemitism.

Why were you against the Mo cartoons (many of which were not inflamitory at all) on the basis that they "might offend" and yet seem perfectly comfortable posting these jokes, which also "might offend".

I didn't say they offended me. They don't. I'm not complaining about the jokes. I'm asking why YOU think they are ok in light of what you wrote about the Mo cartoons.

It's a fair question.

[schmosef]

And, as for not having a sense of humour. I guess I just don't find jokes about genocide, no matter how whimsically it's brought about, funny.

What's next? A joke about Darfur? Kosovo? Tibet? Khmer Rouge? Maybe something more contemporary like Japan getting nuked by NK in a funny way? Hey, maybe you can make up a joke about the recent gang rapes in Israel? I'm sure there's some funny material there.

I'm not offended. I'm not laughing either.