Indignation and uproar

It is curious then that so much offence is taken at jokes, so much indignation wasted on them, so much effort put into censoring them. In totalitarian societies a whispered joke can lead to the savage persecution of the joke-teller and of any listeners who failed to report it. Even in western democratic societies a joke told in private and overheard by an informer can lead to the end of a politician's career as happened with Earl Butz, President Ford's Secretary of State for Agriculture who lost his job over a joke. There was a further row when it was reported that President Reagan had shared in the telling of the classic ethnic joke:

How can you tell a Pole at a cockfight?

He's the one with the duck.

How can you tell an Italian at the same cockfight?

He bets on the duck to win.

How can you tell if the Mafia are present at the cockfight?

The duck wins.

For a politician in America and for many other merely semi-public figures even jokes told in private can mean disaster for the hopes, plans and expectations for an individual who is sent into the wilderness carrying the indignations of others. Reagan survived only by making the absurd claim that he was Irish and only told jokes about the Irish.  More recently complaints were made that President Clinton was overheard telling jokes about lesbians and oral sex.

However the most stringent censorship of jokes, at least in Britain, has always been found in broadcasting where jokes defined as undesirable are treated as if they were dangerous, polluting and fearful.

All these points can be illustrated by reference to a by now largely forgotten event which caused great excitement at the time, the death of Princess Diana in a car accident in Paris caused by her drunken French chauffeur. As is usual on such occasions jokes on the subject emerged within hours, possibly even minutes of the television reports of her death. Soon there were several hundred jokes in circulation in what was probably the biggest disaster joke cycle of all time. Jokes were independently invented in Britain, America and especially Australia as can be seen from the different forms of English they employ and there were also Dutch, French and German jokes that play on local meanings:

What was the cause of the accident?
Fitting a Mercedes with parts from a second-hand 1961 Princess.

What would Diana be doing now if she were still alive?
Trying to scrabble out of her coffin…that's why they put land mines round it.

Yesterday a ferryboat leaving Haiti capsized and drowned three hundred people. Fortunately a tragedy was avoided when it was discovered that none of them was a princess.

Diana, Queen of Hearts? More like off with her head.

Today we can all memorialise the sainted Mother Theresa and the beloved Princess Diana by eating curry and then sticking our fingers down our throats.

Who was Diana's favourite companion?
A full-length mirror.

Quelle est la definition d'une soirée idéale pour une Anglaise?
On dine au Ritz, on file a l'anglaise et on fini en boîte.
(What is an English woman's ideal night out?
Dine at the Ritz and then sneak away and end up in a nightclub/ box.)

Was ist der Unterschied zwischen Diana und Honecker?
Honecker hat die Mauer uberlept.
(What is the difference between Diana and Honecker [the last ruler of the old communist East Germany). Honecker survived the wall.)

Hat der britische Geheimdienst Diana getötet?
Nein der französische Untergrund!
(Did the British secret service kill Diana?
No, the French underground did.)

What is the difference between those who don't like Diana jokes and a puppy?
Eventually a puppy will stop whining. (Australian)

It is obvious that none of these jokes were or could be told on the mass media. No newspaper would have printed them and no broadcaster would have ventured them into the ether. They were the product of the creative ingenuity and sense of humour of ordinary people. Those who seek to control us probably screamed 'that's not funny and it's not clever' on hearing them. But they must be funny otherwise they would not have circulated so widely and so quickly throughout Europe and the English-speaking world. They are still out there on the Internet. Also they are clever. Someone has skilfully produced a surprising and shocking punch line. Curiously though the punch line may well have been invented first and the rest of the riddle joke later. Also a skilled joke-teller could without difficulty turn each of them into a longer narrative joke with more suspense, more pretence of realism and more 'jablines' on the way than can be done in a riddle joke. No one remembers jokes word for word. Individuals remember the punch line and the theme and then create a new version when they tell it, often a version suitably adapted for a new audience. Jokes are of the people. There were no humorous references on television to the very dead Diana until Rory Bremner did a celebrated comedy sketch in 2000 about an inane Tony Blair talking to her ghost. Jokes come from the people and are told by the people even when they are strictly forbidden. Those who told and enjoyed the death of Diana jokes were neither callous people in their everyday lives nor were they trying to 'cope with grief' for they were not smitten by it. They had not lost a mother, a wife, a sister or a daughter, merely a television icon.