{"id":44033,"date":"2011-07-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/journalist-finds-one-universal-joke-making-fun-of-others\/"},"modified":"2011-07-04T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-07-04T00:00:00","slug":"journalist-finds-one-universal-joke-making-fun-of-others","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/journalist-finds-one-universal-joke-making-fun-of-others\/","title":{"rendered":"Journalist Finds One Universal Joke: Making Fun of Others"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Lance Morrow, an award-winning journalist with <em class=\"citation\">Time<\/em> magazine, once set out to write an article asking if there was one universal joke, told everywhere around the world. Here&#39;s what happened:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>I sent out a query to all of <em class=\"citation\">Time&#39;s<\/em> bureaus around the world&mdash;Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo, Sydney, New Delhi, Jerusalem, Rome, Bonn, London, Paris, Rio, Buenos Aires, and so on. I asked the correspondents to tell me one or two jokes then current in their part of the world.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>It turns out there is a universal joke. It was what Americans refer to as the &quot;Polish joke.&quot; Except of course that everywhere, the role of [Polish people] in the &quot;Polish joke&quot; is enacted by some appropriate other group. The Flemings have Walloon jokes, for example. The English tell Irish jokes, and vice versa &hellip;. The people in Tokyo have jokes about the people in Osaka. I was once on the tiny island of Grenada (133 square miles) and was told that people on one side of the island had a large stock of vicious jokes about people on the other side of the island; and vice versa.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>In the universal humor, as in universal evil, you need the Other. The Other is the butt of your joke, or the butt of your evil.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3436,3726,3822,3867,3929,3976,4124,4171,4192,4311,4417,4484,4616,4693,4704,4761,4930,5087],"tax_ctp_topics":[388],"class_list":["post-44033","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-arrogance","tax_ctp_tags-culture","tax_ctp_tags-division","tax_ctp_tags-enemy","tax_ctp_tags-factions","tax_ctp_tags-fear","tax_ctp_tags-hatred","tax_ctp_tags-hostility","tax_ctp_tags-humility","tax_ctp_tags-judging-others","tax_ctp_tags-malice","tax_ctp_tags-mocking","tax_ctp_tags-peacemakers","tax_ctp_tags-prejudice","tax_ctp_tags-pride","tax_ctp_tags-racism","tax_ctp_tags-self-righteousness","tax_ctp_tags-strife"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Journalist Finds One Universal Joke: Making Fun of Others - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/journalist-finds-one-universal-joke-making-fun-of-others\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Journalist Finds One Universal Joke: Making Fun of Others - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lance Morrow, an award-winning journalist with Time magazine, once set out to write an article asking if there was one universal joke, told everywhere around the world. 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