The majority of these jokes focus on the figure of Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. I make no claims as to whether these jokes are "funny" or not, but they all appear to have been sent as jokes, as their subject lines or messages indicate. Notably, the one about "the Canadian, Osama bin Ladin [sic] and Uncle Sam" is a retooling of a much older joke. After receiving this very time-specific, e-mail variant, I heard a UNC colleague tell the same joke--with different characters--at an English Department function.
In the colleague's version, the disputed territory was Texas, and the character asking to "fill it with water" was Mexican. As he told me in an e-mail exchange in which I asked him about the joke, "You got the Texan. He's the wall guy. Then you got the guy who asks for the water. He can be Coloradan, New Mexican, whatever. Then you got the extra guy, who can be anyone, but usually it's someone from Nebraska or some boring place so he won't matter, and he won't take the listener's attention away from the wall and water guys. I heard the joke long ago as a Texas joke. Really doesn't matter who else is asks for water, although New Mexican or Coloradan works well around here. Plus, the wall need only be ten feet tall. Texans are too dumb to climb trees." [Personal e-mails from February 25, 2002]
This nicely illustrates the ways in which traditional jokes maintain their essential structure while adapting their content to fit a more specific context. In this case, though, the version below--where Afghanistan is the disputed territory--seems much more pointed and racist. It's disturbing, to say the least.
The "Taliban Answering Machine" MP3 file, which I received from John Zimmerman, is one that Tama Dean-Greenhagen also collected as part of her 9/11 e-lore project. She commented that of the many jokes she received, this one was one of the least offensive, since it makes as much fun of U. S. telemarketers as it does of the Taliban. She felt it almost rendered the Taliban member sympathetic. That may be a generous interpretation, since there are, of course, the factors of the speaker's "foreign" accent and his "third world" lack of technology. It could, of course, also work as a parody of bad American TV shows.
Taken together, these jokes, and the ones on the following pages, represent some of the ways in which people were using electronic jokes to sort out their understandings of current events.
From: Mike and Tama Greenhagen
To: "'rvhatha@unco.edu'"
Subject: forward e-lore
Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2001 23:28:11 -0700 [earliest date of circulation
in deleted headers: October 3, 2001; misspellings in original text]
From Tama Dean-Greenhagen
-----Original Message-----
From: Greenhagen, Michael (N-Aerojet)
Sent: Thursday, October 04, 2001 7:48 AM
To: Tama Dean-Greenhagen
Subject: FW: Joke of the day
Subject: Joke of the day
A Canadian, Osama bin Ladin
and Uncle Sam are out walking together one day.
They come across a lantern and a Genie pops out of it.
"I will give each of you each one wish, that's three wishes total,"
says the Genie.
The Canadian says, "I am a farmer, my dad was a farmer, and my son
will also farm. I want the land to be forever fertile in Canada."
With a blink of the Genie's eye, 'POOF' the land in Canada was forever
made fertile for farming.
Osama bin Ladin was amazed, so he said, "I want a wall around Afganistan,
so that no infidels, Jews or Americans can come into our precious state."
Again, with a blink of the Genie's eye, 'POOF' there was a huge wall around
Afganistan.
Uncle Sam (A former civil engineer), asks, "I'm very curious. Please
tell me more about this wall."
The Genie explains, "Well, it's about 15,000 feet high, 500 feet
thick and completely surrounds the country; nothing can get in or out---virtually
impenetrable."
Uncle Sam says, "Fill it with water."
Date: Sat, 6 Oct 2001 17:09:00
-0400 (EDT) [date of earliest circulation in deleted headers: October
5, 2001]
From: Joyce Hathaway
To: Rosemary Hathaway <rvhatha@bentley.univnorthco.edu
Subject: FW: MORAL QUESTION (fwd)
Ah, the jokes are appearing.
Mom
---------- Forwarded message
----------
Date: Sat, 6 Oct 2001 11:10:02 -0500
From: Mark Glazer
To: FOLKLORE@listserv.tamu.edu
Subject: FW: MORAL QUESTION (fwd)
-----Original Message-----
I have a moral question for you. This is an imaginary situation, but I think it is fun to decide what one would do.
The situation: You are in the Middle East, and there is a huge flood in progress. Many homes have been lost, water supplies compromised and structures destroyed.
Let's say that you're a photographer and getting still photos for a news service, traveling alone, looking for particularly poignant scenes.
You come across Osama Bin Laden who has been swept away by the floodwaters.
He is barely hanging on to a tree limb and is about to go under.
You can either put down your camera and save him, or take a Pulitzer Prize winning photograph of him as he loses his grip on the limb.
So, here's the question and think carefully before you answer the question below:
Which lens and shutter speed would you use?
From: Mike and Tama Greenhagen
To: "'rvhatha@unco.edu'"
Subject: FW: Taliban TV Guide
Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001 17:37:37 -0700
More e-lore from Tama Dean-Greenhagen
-----Original Message-----
From: Greenhagen, Michael (N-Aerojet)
Sent: Tuesday, October 09,
2001 6:58 AM
To: Tama Dean-Greenhagen
Subject: FW: Taliban TV Guide
MONDAYS:
7:30 - "I Dream of Fatima"
8:00 - "Husseinfeld"
8:30 - "Mad About Everything"
9:00 - "Suddenly Sanctions"
9:30 - "The Brian Benben Bin Laden Show"
10:00 - "Allah McBeal"
TUESDAYS:
7:30 - "I Love Sheep"
8:00 - "Wheel of Terror and Fortune"
8:30 - "The Price is Right If Osama Says Its Right"
9:00 - "Children Are Forbidden From Saying The Darnest Things"
9:30 - "Afganistans Wackiest Public Execution Bloopers"
10:00 - "Buffy The Yankee Imperialist Dog Slayer"
WEDNESDAYS:
7:30 - "Talibantubbies"
8:00 - "U.S. Military Secrets Revealed"
8:30 - "When Northern Alliance Attack"
9:00 - "Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pita Bread"
9:30 - "Just Shoot Everyone"
10:00 - "Veilwatch"
THURSDAYS:
7:30 - "Hanging With Mr. Hijacker"
8:00 - "Matima Loves Chachi"
8:30 - "M*U*S*T*A*S*H"
9:00 - "Veronica's Closet Full of Long, Black, Shapeless Dresses
and Veils"
9:30 - "My Two Baghdads"
10:00 - "Diagnosis: Heresy"
FRIDAYS:
7:30 - "This Old Tent"
8:00 - Movie of the Week "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves"
8:30 - "Khalid and his Camel"
9:00 - "Captured Northern Alliance Rebels Say the Darnest Things"
9:30 - "Achmeds Creek"
10:00 - "No-Witness News"
From: John Zimmerman
Date: Thu, 22 Nov 2001 23:32:58 EST
Subject: Fwd: Fw: Extreme prejudice against Taliban
To: rvhatha@bentley.unco.edu
r-- a good one--john
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