[Humour] Is this joke offensive?

[birthofanorange]

If you didn't know their names? Perfectly plausible.

Big English/Irish lads may be visually quite similar, apart from the ginger hair of course.

I wonder if that's why commentators take the trouble to learn the names, as most fans do, rather than rely on clumsy (and possibly inappropriate) descriptions.
Imagine how it could play out in a tussle between Salah and Son....the mind boggles.

 

[birthofanorange]

So why can't pacemaking be considered specific?

It's a rather specific talent that one nation is overwhelmingly involved with.

I bring you back to my question re: swimming. Would you really need to specify an American or Australian? Of course, if you mentioned them by name, that's fine, as I'm sure there's plenty of jokes involving Phelps or Thorpe.
How about naming a Kenyan pacemaker, instead? Would that work for you?

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

I bring you back to my question re: swimming. Would you really need to specify an American or Australian? Of course, if you mentioned them by name, that's fine, as I'm sure there's plenty of jokes involving Phelps or Thorpe.
How about naming a Kenyan pacemaker, instead? Would that work for you?

What if people don't know a specific Kenyan runners name you could just say Kenyan then ?

I mean is there any joke that could be told in the world where by Kenya or Kenyans are referenced in your view?

 

[wellquickwoody]

I wonder if that's why commentators take the trouble to learn the names, as most fans do, rather than rely on clumsy (and possibly inappropriate) descriptions.
Imagine how it could play out in a tussle between Salah and Son....the mind boggles.

So in your world use of visual identification is not permissable if colour is the obvious parameter used?

And your use of Salah and Son is just whataboutery of the highest order.

 

[birthofanorange]

So in your world use of visual identification is not permissable if colour is the obvious parameter used?

And your use of Salah and Son is just whataboutery of the highest order.

Is it, is it really?

 

[birthofanorange]

What if people don't know a specific Kenyan runners name you could just say Kenyan then ?

I mean is there any joke that could be told in the world where by Kenya or Kenyans are referenced in your view?

If there's a joke to be made about Kenyans, then yes, I expect there's plenty. However, the Kenyan aspect in the OP is completely irrelevant to the point of the joke, as has been explained multiple times.
You do seem rather fixated on the need to include it, and, as you've said, it makes it 'funnier' to you.
That's cool.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

I wonder if that's why commentators take the trouble to learn the names, as most fans do, rather than rely on clumsy (and possibly inappropriate) descriptions.
Imagine how it could play out in a tussle between Salah and Son....the mind boggles.

You do realise that commentators refer to players nationalities too?

NBA commentators call Giannis Antetokounmpo the Greek Freak and nobody bats an eyelid.


Or when they reference a Ecuadorian wunderkid they should drop the nation where he comes from and just have the utterly dull wunderkid bit?

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

If there's a joke to be made about Kenyans, then yes, I expect there's plenty. However, the Kenyan aspect in the OP is completely irrelevant to the point of the joke, as has been explained multiple times.
You do seem rather fixated on the need to include it, and, as you've said, it makes it 'funnier' to you.
That's cool.

The pacemaking aspect of the joke it vital to the punch line. Associating the world's most famous pacemakers with the joke is relevant as it lifts it up from the utterly bland version you'd offer up.

 

[Robinjakarta]

229 posts!

Not offensive. Not funny.

 

[bhafc99]

229 posts!

Think we’ve got few laps still to go…

 

[wellquickwoody]

Is it, is it really?

So in your world use of visual identification is not permissable if colour is the obvious parameter used?

You seem to have conveniently left this question unanswered?

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

These days…..

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

This thread is funnier than the joke. What a tangled mess of over analysis and naval gazing.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

This thread is funnier than the joke.

Which isn’t difficult.

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

This thread is funnier than the joke. What a tangled mess of over analysis and naval gazing.

Portsmouth is good for naval gazing. Current ships in the harbour, and the Mary Rose and the Victory as museum pieces.

 

[HastingsSeagull]

Not for me. Complimentary and positive.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

People do that shit all the time though. Think of football. Two teams playing, one with a very big white player up front (we'll call him Wout Weghorst) and one with a very big black player up front (we'll call him Adebayo Akinfenwa). In the stands there will inevitably be people who refer to Weghorst as the big lad up front and Akinfenwa as the big black lad up front. Why? It's totally unnecessary. It's not some kind of woke yoghurt knitting to point out this disparity, you literally get small, almost insignificant, casual racism in the stands of this sort all the time. Is it enough to get the game called off and people thrown in jail? No, of course not, that would be ridiculous. It's just enough to put off a BAME fan at their first game from returning, or a copper overhearing it, stopping and searching an innocent black youngster because they were on the large side and wearing a hoody.

The "joke" isn't offensive, per se. Nor is it particularly funny. It is, to quote Pink Floyd, just another brick in the wall.

My thoughts entirely.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Would it be OK to mention colour if Weghorst and Akinfenwa were playing in the same team alongside each other?

I think the answer is.....

If that was the case, wouldn't you simply use their names, in the same way as Dunk and Duffy, rather than the big English lad/big Irish lad?

...this ^^

 

[Hamilton]

It works because Kenyans are the best pacemakers in the world and pace making is associated with Kenyan runners.

Not little men in shorts.

If you're telling a joke you need to use language that to a broader audience will associate with the best known example of that.

Remove the joke aspect and turn it into a trivia question.

Which nation produces the best pacemaking runners in the world?

The answer is Kenya.

Is that racist?

If it's not racist then the joke has referenced a widely held view. That is indeed a fact.

Mate, you are clutching at straws.

The idea that everyone knows that Kenyans are the best pacemakers in the world and that this is what makes 'the joke' work is much more laughable than 'the joke' itself.

 

[wellquickwoody]

I think the answer is.....




...this ^^

Not if you do not know their names it isn’t