Maybe VFR is a humor free zone after all

Dimitri K. writes:

Here is a new joke (my translation, sorry for bad English):

Americans wage two major wars—with terror and with obesity. Especially lucky they are if they happen to catch an obese terrorist.

LA replies:

I don’t get it … Either it’s too sophistated for me, or it’s too simple. :-)

Dimtiri replies:

Probably too simple.

LA replies:

I’m too intellectual. :-)

Dimitri replies:

It seems that Americans don’t get this joke. From my point of view, you Americans are too serious. But maybe that is the other side of your virtues.

- end of initial entry -

Donald W. writes:

I think Dmitri’s joke is hilarious! But I have been accused of having a weird sense of humor.

Van Wijk writes:

I’m active on a forum where there are many Russians and Eastern Europeans. Apparently the Russian is to the American as the black man is to the white man; Russians are always thinking about America and are convinced that the reverse is also true. The Russians on the forum are fond of saying that Americans have no sense of humor, are too puritan, and see things in black-and-white terms, while the Russian mind is far more nuanced.

My response: if more nuance will make America more like Russia, they can keep it.

Emily B. writes:

I love Dmitri’s harmless joke. There was no call for Van Wijk to be so insulting to the Russian people: “My response: if more nuance will make America more like Russia, they can keep it.” The joke was funny and Dmitri observed Americans were too serious, but qualified it by saying maybe it was a good thing. Van Wijk proved that Dmitri probably had a point.

James P. writes:

Emily B. writes:

“I love Dmitri’s harmless joke. There was no call for Van Wijk to be so insulting to the Russian people”

I like the Russian people just fine. Like Van Wijk, I wouldn’t want to live in Russia, though, and I wouldn’t want America to become more like Russia.

One of the ironies of recent history is that since 1991 the American political elite has desperately striven to make Russia a friend, but the Russians remain obsessively convinced that America is an enemy and that America sought to destroy Russia in the 1990s.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at October 02, 2009 01:35 AM | Send