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To: Wharf Rat who wrote (4221)	3/22/2002 2:24:57 PM
From: cosmicforce	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 21057

I think we should look at the role humor plays in our society, especially political humor. Humor can be divisive or unifying. I'm not condemning your joke because I don't find it offensive, however, I think it could be offensive to some individuals. As X said, it seems to rely mainly upon a mocking of "us" vs. "them" and puts that in religious terms (the 72 virgins mentioned in the Quran). I'm not religious (by most definitions) so no joke with a religious spin is going to offend me on the basis of a religious reference alone. The problem with the Hitler analogy is that this joke could be offensive to patriotic American citizens of Islamic faith, and therefore isn't really unifying. It could be deemed to be divisive because it expresses "patriot" in terms of a small group of unrepresentative individuals. I recently received a joke about Pennsylvanians. It was funny to a guy from Pennsylvania (the sender was) but wasn't funny to someone not familiar with the nuances of being from Pennsylvania. Your joke could be funny or not funny, depending upon your cultural status here in America. That means that this type of joke might best be kept to a more consciously selected group as opposed to being broadcast. But that is JMO.