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R H Draney
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2005 10:17 pm
Post subject: Re: Why is the moment "blonde"? |
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Pat Durkin filted:
| Quote: |
"Martin Bonner" <martinfrompi@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1131627907.191272.229970@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
Nope, but they sound similar in spirit to "Mummy, Mummy" jokes. First
sentence starts "Mummy, mummy" and is a child to his mother, second is
the reply. For example:
Mummy, mummy, why do I keep walking in circles?
Shut up, or I'll nail your other foot to the floor.
We called them "sick" jokes, though not all of them began with "Mommy,
Mommy", or even rhymed. Back in the early sixties they were all the
rage. I believe the Brits had them, too. My English friend told me the
one that went
"What is it on the railroad tracks that looks like strawberry jam?"
It's only your poor father, dear, run over by a tram". (I think she
gave this genre a special name, and maybe it _was_ "Mummy, Mummy".)
I'm damned if I can recall any others (but I recall the walking in
circles joke).
Oh, and "Aside from that, Mrs Lincoln, how did you like the play?"
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Q: "Mummy, Mummy, what's a vampire?"
A: "Shut up and eat your soup before it clots."
They were also called "Shut-Ups" because that was the standard beginning of the
punchline....
Somewhere around the same time there was a wave of "elephant" jokes, often but
not always involving elephants but invariably piling one absurdity upon another
("what's big and gray and puts out forest fires?"--"Smokey the Elephant")....
Elephant jokes and topical sick jokes met in 1963 after Lee Harvey Oswald was
shot:
Q: "What did the Dallas chief of police say when an elephant walked into the
station?"
A: "Nothing. He didn't notice."
The "sick" jokes seem to have grown out of the rhymed "Little Willy" jokes of
the 1930s...those *always* rhymed:
Little Willy in the best of sashes,
Fell in the fire and burned to ashes.
Now although the room grows chilly
Nobody likes to poke up Willy.
Alas for little Willy
We'll never see Willy no more
For what he thought was H2O
Was H2SO4
Little Willy, from the mirror
sucked the mercury all off,
thinking in his childish error
it would cure the whooping cough.
Said the doctor to his mother,
when he finally came around;
Twas a chilly day for Willy
when the mercury went down.
Little Willy pushed sister Nell
into the family water well.
Alas, alas, the fall it kilt her
and now we have to buy a filter.
Stanley Holloway probably heard a few of these...Willy and his exploits share
much with the story of Albert and the lion....r
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Don Phillipson
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2005 1:50 am
Post subject: Re: Why is the moment "blonde"? |
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"EL" <el@abc.net> wrote in message
news:lpAcf.15765$Zv5.10110@newssvr25.news.prodigy.net...
| Quote: | What is the meaning of the word "blonde" in the expression "blonde/senior
moment" ?
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Most blondes and most seniors cannot afford epiphanies,
so moments are the best they can manage.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada) |
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Matthew Huntbach
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2005 1:58 am
Post subject: Re: Why is the moment "blonde"? |
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On Thu, 10 Nov 2005, james wrote:
| Quote: | Matthew Huntbach <mmh@dcs.qmul.ac.uk> writes
The stereotype does not exist, at least not to nearly the same level,
in England. If someone were to say "There was this blonde ..." in
England, I don't think the immediate expectation would be that what
follows is a joke about a woman who is not very intelligent.
Ho yes they would!
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I suggest only amongst people who have a familiarity with USA culture
(which, admittedly, covers much of the UK population) and who in some
way identify with it. As I noted, jokes from "blonde jokes" websites in
the USA are the sort of jokes that would be told about "Essex girls" in
England.
| Quote: | "Essex girl" is something similar, but not the exact equivalent, since
it has connotations not only of lack of intelligence but also of lack
of social charm.
All 'Essex girl' means is a sexually immoral lass. A charming trait. I
know one who hates 'Essex girl' and blonde jokes. Tell her you know one
and she has the amazing ability to place her feet over her ears.
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A classic Essex girl joke:
"What's the difference between an Essex girl and a supermarket trolley?
The supermarket trolley has a mind of its own".
I don't think this relies on the Essex girl being sexually immoral.
On the other hand, a joke about an "Essex girl" which didn't also
rely on the stereotype of her being lacking in intelligence and/or
social graces wouldn't work either.
Of course, girls who are really from Essex might not like these jokes,
particularly those from the rural/upmarket parts of the county who resent
its downmarket image. The stereotype image of the "Essex girl" refers
to those parts of Essex which are realy east London, or are the parts where
cheap housing was built to take in people moving out of east London.
Note also, Essex is the county on the north of the "Estuary" in "Estuary English".
Matthew Huntbach
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Mark Brader
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2005 6:13 am
Post subject: Re: Why is the moment "blonde"? |
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Matthew Huntbach writes:
I remember reading this one in Isaac Asimov's Treasury of Humor;
all the key details I can remember were identical, except it was
Jews instead of Sikhs.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | "Men! Give them enough rope and they'll dig
msb@vex.net | their own grave." -- EARTH GIRLS ARE EASY |
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Salvatore Volatile
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2005 6:46 am
Post subject: Re: Why is the moment "blonde"? |
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Richard Bollard wrote:
| Quote: | I remember "you dizzy blonde" being a bit of a cliche in the 1970s and
I'm sure it goes back way further.
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The stereotype is at least as old as _Josie and the Pussycats_ (1970),
which featured a smart redhead (Josie), a smart black woman (Valerie), a
smart yet jealous and vindictive brunette with a white streak in her hair
(Alexandra), and a dumb blonde (Melody).
For some reason I still remember this random bit of dialogue from an
episode of the offshoot series _Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space_:
Alex (Alexandra's brother) and Melody get transformed into children
somehow, and Alex says: "When I gwow up I wanna be a fireman!" and
Melody responds: "When *I* gwow up I wanna go to Cwevewand!"........s |
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Richard Bollard
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2005 8:06 am
Post subject: Re: Why is the moment "blonde"? |
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On 9 Nov 2005 23:00:14 -0800, "Raymond S. Wise" <mplsray@my-deja.com>
wrote:
| Quote: |
EL wrote:
What is the meaning of the word "blonde" in the expression "blonde/senior
moment" ?
Thanks!
In America, the current butt of jokes featuring stupid people is the
"dumb blonde"--nowadays most often referred to simply as a "blonde." So
the expression "blonde moment" means the person was temporarily stupid.
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The correlation betwixt blondes and light-headedness can't be all that
new. (Hey, there may be something there: light-coloured head =
light-weight mind; a bit of a pun, maybe?)
I remember "you dizzy blonde" being a bit of a cliche in the 1970s and
I'm sure it goes back way further.
--
Richard Bollard
Canberra Australia
To email, I'm at AMT not spAMT. |
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Charles Riggs
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2005 8:06 am
Post subject: Re: Why is the moment "blonde"? |
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On Thu, 10 Nov 2005 13:36:23 +0000, james <james@marage.demon.co.uk>
wrote:
| Quote: | X-No-Archive: yes
In message <Pine.LNX.4.61.0511100944290.27592@frank.dcs.qmul.ac.uk>,
Matthew Huntbach <mmh@dcs.qmul.ac.uk> writes
On Thu, 9 Nov 2005, Nate Branscom wrote:
I forgot to add that (in America, at least) blondes are joked about as
being "dense" or "dumb". You can find many blonde jokes in book form
or on the internet.
The stereotype does not exist, at least not to nearly the same level,
in England. If someone were to say "There was this blonde ..." in
England, I don't think the immediate expectation would be that what
follows is a joke about a woman who is not very intelligent.
Ho yes they would!
"Essex girl" is something similar, but not the exact equivalent, since
it has connotations not only of lack of intelligence but also of lack
of social charm.
All 'Essex girl' means is a sexually immoral lass. A charming trait. I
know one who hates 'Essex girl' and blonde jokes. Tell her you know one
and she has the amazing ability to place her feet over her ears.
Old Amos was reminiscing in the pub about the days when he was a railway
inspector. "One night I came across a girl tied to the tracks," he said.
"I cut her loose. We slid down the embankment together and had a
wonderful time together for about an hour. Wheelbarrows, grand slams --
the lot. She was fantastic."
"I suppose she was a blonde," commented a listener. "You always
did have a soft spot for them."
"Dunno what she was," said Amos. "I never did find her head."
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We used to say of the typical Virginia country girl, trip her and
she'll be underneath you before she hits the ground. Those were the
days.
--
Charles Riggs |
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