Americans have a strong sense of humor.
Because everyone has ancestors, family and friends of every possible race, color, creed and national origin, and because sensitivity to such differences has reached unprecedented tenderness in recent years, it is considered rude to tell a joke that perpetuates an ethnic, social, religious, sexual, or racial stereotype. Nevertheless that still leaves plenty of material for humor, such as occupation, political persuasion, or region of origin. For example:
A Texan was boasting to an Arkansan about his ranch. "Why, my ranch is so big," he said, "that if I start out in my truck in the morning to drive around it, it's night by the time I get home." The Arkansan nodded understandingly and said, "Yep. I had a truck like that once."
The only group detested enough to be a suitable butt for barbed humor is lawyers. Lawyers are unpopular because they're only consulted in times of distress. Any lawyer joke is sure to draw a laugh.
"Did you hear that medical laboratories have started using lawyers instead of white rats? There are more of them and there are some things even a laboratory rat just won't do."
Politicians are also fair game, but since approximately two-thirds of the nation's congressional representatives are law school graduates, such jokes are really just a subset of the 'lawyer' canon.
By Stephanie Faul
美國人是很幽默的。
由于各人的祖先，家庭和朋友都有各自不同的種族，膚色，宗教信仰和民族淵源，又由于人們對(duì)這種不同之處的敏感在近幾年來已經(jīng)達(dá)到空前微妙的地步，因此，講帶有民族，社會(huì)，宗教，性或種族類別的笑話就被認(rèn)為是很不禮貌的事。盡管如此，能構(gòu)成幽默的素材仍然不少，如職業(yè)，政治信仰或出身地等。例如：
有一個(gè)得克薩斯人對(duì)一個(gè)阿肯色人吹噓自己的牧場(chǎng)?！班?，我的牧場(chǎng)可大了，”他說，“要是我早上開著卡車出門饒它走一圈，回到家時(shí)就是夜晚了。”那阿肯色人點(diǎn)了點(diǎn)頭，滿理解的樣子，說，“是啊，我有過一輛卡車也是那么大?！?BR> 的一幫不討人喜歡而適宜當(dāng)諷刺幽默靶子的人是律師。律師之所以不得人心是因?yàn)槿藗冎皇窃跓赖臅r(shí)候才去找他們。任何有關(guān)律師的笑話肯定是引人發(fā)笑的。
你聽說了嗎？醫(yī)學(xué)實(shí)驗(yàn)室已經(jīng)不用白鼠而開始用律師了。律師比白鼠多。而有些事就是實(shí)驗(yàn)室的老鼠也做不了的。
政治人物也是被諷刺的對(duì)象，不過既然約三分之二的國會(huì)議員都是法學(xué)院的畢業(yè)生，這些笑話也就是“律師全集”中的“分冊(cè)”而已了。
曉羽 選譯