Am I un-American?

I've always had this creeping feeling that there is buried deep within me a traitor to this great land. It comes out in little ways like my total non-interest in baseball, football or basketball.

A couple years ago I found yet more evidence in a NPR piece about national senses of humor. The Monty Python fans out there know that the world's funniest joke is serious business. Indeed, in the wrong hands, it can be a weapon of mass destruction. However, a crack team of sociologists had braved the dangers of dying laughing to find out what kind of jokes seemed funniest to different nationalities. With careful narrowing of the field, they arrived as a funniest joke for various countries -- one which exemplified their preferences in humor.

Here were some of the winners:

United States
A Texan walks up to a Harvard grad and asks, "Hey there, stranger. Where're you from?"

The Harvard grad response, "I'm from a place where people do not end their sentences with prepositions."

The Texan responds, "All right. Where're you from, asshole?"

England
Two ferrets at sitting at the bar in a pub. After a few drinks, one of them begins to shout at the other, "I slept with your mother!"

The patrons all stare, waiting to see if a fight will break out, but the second ferret remains calm.

After another drink, the first ferret starts shouting again. "I slept with your mother!"

Again patrons stare, but the second ferret remains calm.

Finally the first ferret knocks back his stool and shouts right in the face of the second ferret, "I slept with you mother! Do you hear me? I slept with your mother!"

The second ferrets pats him on the shoulder and says, "Go home, Dad. You're drunk."

France
"The other day, when having dinner with my mother in law, I had the most terrible Freudian slip. I meant to say, 'Would you please pass the butter' but instead I said, 'You've ruined my life you silly old cow!'"

-------

Now, I have to confess, I find the French and British jokes way funnier than the American one.