dehumour1-2, Exercise 3: Regional jokes in Germany and Britain

Model answer (check the details):

Targets in Germany: East Frisians (slow-witted), Swabians (thrifty to meanness), Bavarians and Prussians (each seen by the other as parochial or stiff), Berliners (cheeky), and after 1990 Ossis and Wessis.

Targets in Britain: the Irish in older jokes, the Scots (mean) and Aberdonians in particular, the Welsh, Geordies, Scousers, and the English by the Scots, with Glasgow and Edinburgh teasing each other.

Stereotypes: in both countries the commonest are slowness, meanness, and a quickness or cheek that is either admired or resented. The pairs are similar: the thrifty Swabian and the mean Scot, the slow East Frisian and the slow Irishman of the old jokes.

Who gets to tell them: the strongest convention is that members of a group may tell jokes about themselves (Scots about Scots, East Frisians about East Frisians), while outsiders risk giving offence, especially where there is a history of discrimination. Jokes against an ethnic group have become more contested in both countries, as Chapter 9 explains.

What it shows: the structure of the regional joke is shared, and what differs is the cast list and the language.