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Alright I got one: So it's a chilly Thursday morning in Brno, and everybody's in line to buy meat. They're waiting and waiting, and the line's not moving at al
by smogcutter 7y ago
Alright I got one:
So it's a chilly Thursday morning in Brno, and everybody's in line to buy meat. They're waiting and waiting, and the line's not moving at all.
Eventually a Party official comes out and says "Due to the conspiracy of wreckers, there isn't enough meat. All the Jews need to get off the line".
So the Jews all get off the line and go home, but still everyone's waiting and there's no meat. Hours pass, and eventually the Party official comes back: "I'm sorry to report that there's still not enough meat. Everyone who's not a Party member needs to get off the line."
So all the non-party members get off the line and go home. But still all the Party members are waiting and waiting, no meat. After another two hours waiting in the cold the official comes back and says, "We're sorry but there's no meat today. Everybody get off the line."
As they're walking away from the line, one of the people who was waiting turns to the other and says: "You see? The Jews always have it the best!"
- fao_ 7y agoEDIT: I misread the punchline of the joke. Ignore this. That's amusing, but at the same time it is horrifically anti-semitic. Especially given what the Jewish people went through in the years leading up the the Russian Revolution (One toddler was torn apart by a fascist mob, in another town a number of months later Jewish people were forced into a church and then the church and people burned alive).
- sb057 7y agoA toddler being torn apart by fascists several years before fascism was first espoused is rather remarkable.
- fao_ 7y agoDo you think that fascism was created by the Nazis? Just because the manifesto was not written, does not mean that there were people without fascist beliefs, even if they couldn't call themselves fascists yet.
- afro88 7y agoI read the joke as making fun of anti-semites, not being anti-semitic.
- stcredzero 7y agoRight. If anything, it's the minorities and the common people who are the long suffering heroes in the story. It's the party insiders who are portrayed as the anti-semitic and comically dim villains.
- okusername 7y agoHow's this anti-semitic? I doesn't portray jews in a negative way. If anything, it points out antisemitism.
- rat87 7y agoAlso as Jew born in Ukraine at the tail end of the Soviet Union I'm at least 90% sure this joke was created by a Jew
- fao_ 7y agoThe punch-line of the joke is "the jews have it better, once again"
- ceejayoz 7y agoThe punch line is that the anti-Semitic bigotry had the accidental effect of benefiting the Jews, who didn't have to stand in the pointless line as long. Today, the joke would be accompanied with the "congratulations, you played yourself" meme.
- smogcutter 7y agoThe punchline of the joke is that the Jews were treated the worst, and the antisemitic party members are going to resent them no matter what.
- fao_ 7y agoThat's a fair reading, I guess.
- distantaidenn 7y agoThat's the only reading.
- DevoidSimo 7y agoThey have it better because they got to leave first. Party members had to wait in line for hours. That was my reading of it
- serf 7y agoDid you read the joke before commenting? If you did, did you think that you understood it fully? If you didn't, what compelled you to comment? The way the punch-line was written?
- cobbzilla 7y agoThere is a board game called Kolejka [1] from a non-profit in Poland that simulates the adventure of waiting in line for staples. It’s actually quite fun, and you get a taste of life under such a regime. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolejka_(game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolejka_(game)