Really Dumb Jokes
By Jeffrey Page
So here’s Chris Christie, the pugnacious new governor of New Jersey, basically announcing that the state’s teachers, and many other public workers, are the chief cause of high taxes in the Garden State.
So he wants to freeze teachers’ pay. You can imagine what the teachers think of this.
Though teacher contracts are worked out by the New Jersey Education Association and the local districts, Christie has a lot to say about teacher pay because he decides the extent of state aid to the school districts.
This is a man that any intelligent person would want to deal with very carefully. But the NJEA has stepped into a bucket and can‘t get its foot out. Here‘s Joe Coppola and several other officials of the NJEA pulling a stupid stunt that makes the union look like a bunch of out-of-control jackasses, gains sympathy for Christie, and creates an atmosphere in which an aide to the governor can ask the legitimate question: “How [does the union] explain themselves to the children?”
At issue of course is the infamous NJEA memo about how the union will slug it out with Christie, but winds up with a prayer that Christie calls dangerous, the union calls a joke, and most everybody else calls idiotic. As reported by The Record of Hackensack, it goes like this: “Dear Lord: This year you have taken away my favorite actor, Patrick Swayze; my favorite actress, Farrah Fawcett; my favorite singer, Michael Jackson, and my favorite salesman Billy Mays. I just wanted to let you know that my favorite governor is Chris Christie.”
The joke got out to the public, and the union was left stammering that it was a joke, that it was never meant to be made public, that it was inappropriate, that union officials would never wish anybody dead, and blah blah blah. The union could be using its time to better advantage than explaining the jest.
By the way, NJEA couldn‘t even get the joke right. The Lord didn‘t take Swayze, Fawcett, Jackson and Mays this year. They all died in 2009, but the union never thought to update the list.
Why do otherwise intelligent people forget that words have meaning and that many in the public take those meanings at face value?
Here‘s another moronic joke told recently, this one by a Qatari diplomat. As Mohammed el-Madadi was leaving the bathroom on a Washington-Denver flight, an attendant smelled smoke and confronted Madadi who said he had not smoked but had been trying to set fire to his shoe.
Madadi said it was a joke. I wonder what the other passengers thought as they recalled Richard Reid, the original would-be shoe bomber. I wonder what the Air Force thought as it scrambled some jet fighters to intercept Madadi‘s flight. I wonder what the FBI thought as it entered the case.
Here‘s another. The Times Herald-Record reported this week that Sullivan County Judge Frank LaBuda ordered a lawyer to perform 100 hours of community service. Why? Because the attorney, William Brenner, had told LaBuda that there had been no plea deal talks for his client.
“In fact there had been several,” the Record noted dryly and went on to present a great quote from LaBuda to Brenner. Community service would be a reminder “to put your mind in action before your mouth.”
I‘m reminded of the never-ending battle between New Jersey environmental officials and people who love bears. The bear population is growing and the state has on occasion sanctioned a bear hunt. At a demonstration in Vernon, few years ago, one of the anti-hunt people carried a sign that said: “DROP McGREEVEY, NOT BEARS.”
McGreevey was the governor. You know what “drop” means.
The leader of the bear defenders was outraged when the wording on her protest sign appeared in the newspaper the next day. It was a joke, she said. Not to be taken literally, she said. She would never wish anybody dead, she said.
The most intelligent perspective on how to deal with political foes came from Bob Dole when he ran against Bill Clinton in 1996. Dole said he was shocked at Clinton’s personal conduct and went on to predict that the House would impeach him.
And Dole left it at that, saying of Clinton: “He‘s my opponent. He‘s not my enemy.”
But that of course was before politics became a blood sport.
Jeffrey can be reached at jeffrey@zestoforange.com
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