Welcome to part 4 in an arc inspired by something KBar sent me, Burger's name stirs a beef. Part 1 of this arc dealt with the differences in Burgers. Part 2 offered that no one is going to be upset by a "Yankee CheeseBurger" and questioned the reason for the lack of concern.
Part 3 asked "If I don't like the words you're using, do I have to right to stop you from using them?" and gave an example of "It's not what is said, it's what is heard."
It's what people hear that offends them, not what is said. Here's another example, also a joke I heard in high school that still makes me laugh. It was told by Myron Cohen on the Merv Griffen Show, I think:
A cop turns a corner and sees a young Black man beating an old Yiddish man to a pulp. He runs over and pulls the young man off the old guy. "What's going on here?" he demands.
The young Black man points at the old guy and says, "He called me a black b?stard!"
The cop turns to the old Yiddish man and asks, "Did you really call him that?"
And the old Yiddish man replies (in a very thick accent), "Of course not! Why should I say such a thing? He looks like such a fine upstanding young man!"
"Then what happened?" the cop asks the old man.
"He asked me where the YMCA is. I told him, 'You're a block past it."
Budda-bump.
Language is a tool. In the Author's Foreword to Reading Virtual Minds I write "The author's bio states that I've been everything from a butcher to truckdriver to Senior Knowledge Architect to Chief Research Scientist. What's my specialty? My specialty is understanding why people don't capitalize butcher and truckdriver but do capitalize Senior Knowledge Architect and Chief Research Scientist, and why most people don't pay any attention to that fact until someone references it."
Another aspect of my specialty is knowing that the only people who will laugh at the Myron Cohen joke the first time through are those who think a certain way. Nothing to do with ethnic or cultural background. Lots to do with how certain minds think and brains are wired. Example: I'd laugh the moment I read that joke. My beloved wife would need a few seconds, maybe even a second or third read to get the joke.
And she's lots smarter than I am.
More to follow...
» KBar's Findings: Political Correctness in the Guise of a Sandwich, Finale from BizMediaScience
Warning: What You Read Might Not Be What I Wrote, Finale [Read More]
Tracked on: May 17, 2007 10:59 AM | Permalink to Trackback