I had a fight with my wife tonight....

[Red Diabla]

Hell Man...if my bike wouldn't start...I'd be damned depressed,too. Especially if I had layed out my favorite black T....and already had my HD riding boots on. My chrome always has a mirror shine..and I'd rather ride than piddle with a wrench any day. Happily...my bike always starts..and the wife is on the back..and we're both grinning ear to ear...and I ain't jokin.

Every time my motorcycle hasn't started, I wasn't conveniently at home at the time. AAA and I have gotten to know each other way too well!

RD

 

[lolly_loisides]

"Pardon my ignorance but what has all of this to do with the price of vintage eggs?"

Indeed.

 

[casper]

A gentleman's motorcycle is a basic accoutrement for any person of quality, thus the message about my wife and I signifies a simple distinction between the mind of a gentleman and the mind of a lady. A gentleman will prioritise his day and duties in a particular way, a lady will do likewise with reference to her duties and position in our social hierarchy :eeek:

Casper

 

[lolly_loisides]

I didn't realise riding motorcycles was a gender specific activity. Sorry, my mistake.

 

[ButteMT61]

Interesting. How many other threads here have nothing to do with the golden era? Tons. Jeez folks, lighten up?

 

[lolly_loisides]

Interesting. How many other threads here have nothing to do with the golden era? Tons. Jeez folks, lighten up?

Perhaps we should get back on track then.

 

[thecardigankid]

Interesting. How many other threads here have nothing to do with the golden era? Tons. Jeez folks, lighten up?

It is interesting. Especially how some can participate so freely in some non golden era topics, and willingly. But the second it is subject matter that they don't agree with or if they find it offensive then it's all of a sudden "off topic" interesting...

On the other hand I found this joke quite funny. Gender specific scenario some cry? Hardly...I have been in a couple relationships where the women tend to over think things like in this situation. Hell I have been known to over think things like the female in this situation. This joke merely put the woman as the one shopping because let's face it women are more likely to be out shopping with the girls, it's not saying that that is only what women do. A lot of men tinker with motorcycles and mechanics. To those going nuts about it being gender specific roles and it being offensive I have this to say...lighten up, take it for what it is a joke. You could replace "Her Diary" with "Partner Ones diary" and "His Diary" with "Partner Twos diary" and then replace any gender specific text to make it universal and you know what? It'd still be funny because it is a joke.

Lighten up

 

[LizzieMaine]

The best thing anyone can do with a thread they don't like is ignore it.

Stereotypes are the foundation of most humor -- we might want to pretend otherwise, but it's the truth, and there will never, ever be a time, as long as human beings walk the earth, when there will be no stereotypes. Man-woman comedy wouldn't exist without stereotypes.

My mother well understood that the male identity is very often tied up in loud mechanical devices -- which is why, when she threw out her second husband, she demolished his motorcycle with a shovel.

 

[Drappa]

I find it more interesting that any time the offended party voices their opinion they get silenced with "lighten up - it's just a joke". The article wouldn't be "funny" if it was gender neutral because there is a long cultural tradition of depictiing women as dramatic, overthinking and hysterical whilst portraying men as calm and collected, ie. rational vs irrational, sensible vs unsensible, etc.
Having said that, it is also old news to be told to "lighten up" or "get a sense of humor" when pointing out stupid stereotypes, so no surprise there. The fact is, I find many things very funny, but not if they're ridiculous and silly misogynistic jokes at the cost of a whole group of people. Maybe those complaining about the thought police just need to develop a better, more nuanced kind of humor.

 

[Feraud]

It looks like everyone is missing an entire half a joke!
Does no one find funny the man's reaction to the fact that his motorcycle won't start? His moody, distracted, distant, non-verbal and introverted personality shift is as hilarious as the woman's reaction to the situation!

I think the missed humor in the joke says a lot more about our perceptions of sexism than all this noble granstanding.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

No matter how successfully vintage we may live admiring many things of past decades....most of us still must live in and deal with the present. Often jokes are exaggerated for effect to hit home with a bit of actual reality...reguardless of how we might like things to be. Some pick up on it with amusement..others dissect it with disdain. I imagine it wasn't much different during the true 'Golden Era'.

 

[Flicka]

Well, I think the whole 'humour' angle requires a degree of identification, right? I don't identify with this scenario, hence the humour simply isn't there for me.

A gentleman's motorcycle is a basic accoutrement for any person of quality, thus the message about my wife and I signifies a simple distinction between the mind of a gentleman and the mind of a lady. A gentleman will prioritise his day and duties in a particular way, a lady will do likewise with reference to her duties and position in our social hierarchy

It seems a right bother to be a lady. I think I'm just going to be a free and happy bounder instead.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Stereotypes were consciously used in the Era as quick shorthand -- you'll find handbooks on radio writing, for example, in which the would-be writer is urged to become familiar with the various stereotypes and to use them freely, because it allowed them to come to the point that much faster without having to fill in a lot of details to establish a character. This type of joke is no different. If you had to spend ten minutes explaining that this one particular couple has a needy, self-absorbed wife and a thick-headed wrench-turning lug of a husband, but not all couples are like that, before actually telling the joke, you wouldn't have a joke to tell. Hence, stereotypes. The necessary foundation of comedy.

The only real difference between now and then is that we claim to repudiate the use of stereotypes -- while at the same time creating a whole new crop of them that are really no different from the stereotypes of the past. They're just clothed a little differently.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Very well and honestly stated,Lizzie.

 

[Flicka]

If you had to spend ten minutes explaining that this one particular couple has a needy, self-absorbed wife and a thick-headed wrench-turning lug of a husband, but not all couples are like that, before actually telling the joke, you wouldn't have a joke to tell. Hence, stereotypes. The necessary foundation of comedy.

But implicit in jokes revolving around stereotypes, I have to insist, is recognition. We laugh at stereotypes because crude as they are, they supposedly contain a shred of truth and a degree of identification. Otherwise, you won't find them funny. That's why some jokes do not work outside of their cultural context (and, I tell myself, why I never laugh at French films).

 

[LizzieMaine]

I absolutely agree. As much as we might wish it weren't so, I'm sure every one of us knows someone like the man and the woman in this particular joke. Comedy stereotypes take a tiny granule of truth and stretch it into a caricature, the same way a drawn cartoon exaggerates physical reality. When you see a caricature of a politician in an editorial cartoon you laugh at the extent of the exaggeration, not the fact that said politician has big ears or an unfortunate nose.

In the Era, people understood this principle the same as we supposedly do today -- they laughed at the stereotype because they *knew* it was a cartoonish exaggeration of reality. People didn't actually think all Scotchmen were misers, but the lengths to which the stage Scot would go to hold onto a penny were so exaggerated you couldn't help but laugh. Jack Benny made a whole career out of taking old "cheap Scotchman" routines and aiming them at himself as an individual -- they were still stereotypical jokes, but he made the joke about himself rather than a nationality. He wouldn't have been able to do that if the audiences hadn't understood what a stereotype was and how it worked.

 

[toussaud]

i LOL'ed at the joke honestly. it was funny.

If it were a guy doing something crazy and the women being the better half while the man was the punchline, you'd have women saying "so typical of men".

The only thing not "golden era" is the way this thread is crawling with feminism. It's a freaking joke. Lighten up Francis.

 

[Edward]

Can some body please opine on "how much better the world was back in the day before women and ethnics got uppity"? I'm that one square away from a full house in Fedora Lounge Bingo.....

 

[Drappa]

The only thing not "golden era" is the way this thread is crawling with feminism.

You say that as if it's a bad thing...

 

[rue]

I thought it was funny and pretty spot on, but then again I also like blonde jokes