The joke is not racist to me.  To me the joke makes fun of racists.  The supposedly foolish person (use any marginalized group: ESL, Finn, Polish, etc.) proves he isn't foolish by taking advantage of "the boss" by deliberately misunderstanding him.  The rewrite below isn't funny because the bossman isn't put in his place.  The original joke isn't sexist because you can rewrite it and reverse the sexes and it will still work (but probably didn't when the joke was first told).  

On Feb 18, 2010, at 8:47 AM, MARLOW, DAVID wrote:

Robert said: 

<You are absolutely right that the joke is racist; however, the humor is based on an interesting aspect of grammar that Haj Ross called sloppy identity.>

I’d suggest the humor is employs sloppy identity, but is based on racism & sexism… 
If we changed the original joke to avoid racist & sexist comments, it wouldn’t get repeated much … 

< Bob Smith calls his boss and says, 'Sir, I will not be coming to work today. I’m unwell and experiencing a headache, stomach ache and have pain in my legs. I will not be able to report to work today.’ 

The boss replies, 'You know something, Bob, I really need you today. When I feel sick like you do, I go to my wife and suggest we have breakfast at the café down the street. That makes everything better and I go to work. You try that.'

Two hours later Bob calls again. 'I took your advice and I feel great. I’ll be at work soon. The café has great food and your wife is a wonderful conversationalist.>


If we, as teachers and students of grammar, ignore the semantics behind our words & focus only on the syntax binding them together, we do our constituency a disservice and reinforce traditional and harmful social trends. 
Respectfully, 
Dave
David W. Marlow, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Linguistics and ESOL
Vice President/President Elect - Carolina TESOL 
Founder: South Carolina Language & Life Project
University of South Carolina – Upstate
800 University Way
Spartanburg, SC 29303 
864.503.5849


________________________________________
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Robert Yates [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, February 17, 2010 10:38 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Understanding Plain English

Bob,

You are absolutely right that the joke is racist; however, the humor is based on an interesting aspect of grammar that Haj Ross called sloppy identity.

Let's use a better example.  (1) has two meanings.

1) I love my wife and so does Bill.

The first meaning has to do with the elided verb phrase being indexed the same way as the first.

2) I love my wife and Bill loves his wife.

However, the second meaning (and the source of the joke) is that the elided verb phrase is EXACTLY the same as the first.

3) I love my wife and Bill loves my wife.

The interesting question for those on this list is what does this property of English (and I assume all languages) reveal about the nature of language.  This property of language reveals that meaning is not strictly related to grammar, but crucial requires a context (or pragmatic) component.

Bob Yates, University of Central Missouri

>>> "Miller, Robert" <[log in to unmask]> 02/17/10 7:43 AM >>>


Besides finding this incredibly racist (my wife is Chinese), the joke is
so old and been done in as many countries as I have/had had had had
travelled to in my small amount of globetrotting. How about leaving this
to grammar?!?



Bob Miller

From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Brad Johnston
Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2010 7:36 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Understanding Plain English



Hung Chow calls his boss and says, 'Hey, I no come wok today, I really
sick. Got headache, stomach ache and legs hurt. I no come wok.'

The boss says, 'You know something, Hung Chow, I really need you today.
When I feel sick like you do, I go to my wife and tell her to give me
sex. That makes everything better and I go to work. You try that.'

Two hours later Hung Chow calls again. 'I do what you say and I feel
great. I be at wok soon. You got nice house.


To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web
interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select
"Join or leave the list"

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/

________________________________


Spam
<https://ssl.ccbcmd.edu:7726/canit/b.php?i=51111976&m=c858df5e3de2&t=201
00216&c=s>
Not spam
<https://ssl.ccbcmd.edu:7726/canit/b.php?i=51111976&m=c858df5e3de2&t=201
00216&c=n>
Forget previous vote
<https://ssl.ccbcmd.edu:7726/canit/b.php?i=51111976&m=c858df5e3de2&t=201
00216&c=f>


To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at:
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/

To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at:
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/
To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list"
Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/

To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list"

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/