Hi shigbig,
I know that due to cultural differences it is not uncommon that jokes are misunderstood sometimes. Let me assure you that in no way the use of "Jew" in this joke has anything to do with anti-Semitism. You raised an important issue that’s more important than any AIM issue will ever be. AIM-talk can wait. I’ll take the liberty to elaborate….
In the same way that Belgians do not express anything anti- Dutch, nor Dutchmen express anything anti-Belgian, Dutch-Belgian jokes are told to achieve what we call one-upmanship to restore a skewed start-off. In fact, such jokes deliver maximum punch in Dutch/Belgian company. Jokes express something that makes people laugh at themselves...these little stories accentuate how people are, and usually have to do with outdoing each other in a friendly way...a bit like the stories about the big fish that got away are not stories about big fish but stories about people who talk about the one that got away!
In jokes the issues are the way how people see themselves in relation to the other, not only on a personal level but on a national one as well. In a few lines one tells it all!
In my joke I accentuate how Americans and the Dutch see themselves,through my eyes, mind you, not only as people but also as a nations: The Big Picture is what counts for Americans, and a Texan is the extreme of that self-image. Details are secondary. If a Texan buys a herd of 600 000 cows he doesn’t care one way or the other that there might be 300 donkeys and 50 horses in the lot. Stretched to the limit he doesn’t even care is there are no cows at all: he simply wants to have the biggest herd in the world! This symbolizes Americans in general. Against this mighty 6 ft – 7 in giant the Dutch have to think of being smart instead to make the scales balance and create equality when we drink beer with Yankees, or are fishing with them. The Dutch survived being drowned by the sea by building dikes. Being a tiny country we thrived on wheeling and dealing. We buy oil from the Arabs and sell them plastic Tupper Ware… we did not invent Tupper Ware but we sell it just the same.
In the joke the Dutchman had to be smart to get rid of the junk in his basement, instead of powerful, and when the Texan tried to take revenge he was still a Texan that only saw the big picture, and got taken again on missing the details…what I might have added in the story is that the Dutch can be too smart for their own good:… after the Dutchman picked up the garage the Texan found a painting of Rembrandt in the junk he imported from Holland, and he bought a bigger garage than he had, as well as a few of the biggest, fanciest cars he could find.
I hope that you will get it now, or in the future, that anti-Semitism is not expressed in such jokes. I even hope that you might come to a point that you can appreciate jokes about Jews and tell us a few. Jewish friends of mine told me a few good jokes as well, about Jews, of course.
Conrad
Conrad
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