Blondes & Surdies

a frequent butt of jokes in the Anglo-Saxon world. Why did the blonde draw the curtains? Because she was afraid that the neighbours might see her change her mind.

Why pick on blondes? There is nothing to suggest that fair-haired women (male blonds are never the subject of jokes) are mentally deficient as compared with their brunette counterparts. So why this jokey creation of a popular myth about the blonde's brainlessness? The answer seems to lie in the perception that men find blondes more attractive than they do women of other hair-colouring. As the title of the Hollywood film has it, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

Whether or not this is true, there is another factor at work here. Quasi-scientific studies suggest that, in the next few decades, blondes may become an extinct species, thanks to the increasing incidence of inter-racial marriage or at least breeding which will gradually eliminate the pigmentationally weaker fair-haired gene in What do blondes, Jews, Sardars and Gujaratis have in common? The answer of course is that people make jokes about them. The supposedly 'dumb' blonde ipreference for the stronger dark-haired gene. This gives blondes a rarity value, and hence a real or imaginary advantage over other women in the mating game. This in turn leads to a subconscious envy of the blonde, who is made the subject of jokes so as to whittle her down to size: laughter is an antidote to anxiety and fear; we laugh at those who, rightly or wrongly, we perceive to be more powerful, more successful, or more desirable than us. Laughter is an antacid against corrosive envy, and a restorer of our self-esteem. Sure, blondes may be sexier (more successful in reproductive competition). But we darkies are smarter. So there.

Similarly, other groups of people who are, or traditionally have been, envied or feared find themselves an inspiration for barbed humour: the greater the envy they willy-nilly generate, the bigger the barb. Age-old moneylenders to the world, with the capacity to finance kings and king-makers, the Jews have in the Christian world always faced a deep current of anti-Semitism, the least objectionable of which are jokes at their expense (generally to do with their alleged meanness in money matters). In fact, Jew jokes cruel as they might sound against the murderous backdrop of the Holocaust could help to deflect more violent expressions of anti-Semitism. Better a 'kike' joke any day, than Auschwitz.

Immigrant communities people who have literally the get up and go to seek a livelihood in far-flung places are inevitably feared by the native populace who apprehend that the newcomers will take their jobs or businesses away from them through dint of greater energy, enterprise or acumen, or simply because they'll work for lower wages.

In India, arguably three of the most visibly enterprising communities, each in its own way, are the Sikhs, the Gujaratis and the Marwaris. The cartoon showing American astronauts landing on the Moon only to find a Sardarji who offers them an omelette from the tea shop he has already set up there, says it all. Wherever you are, wherever you go, the chances are a Sardarji has got there before you. If you can't beat 'em, you might as well join 'em. How? By telling a Surdie joke. What else?

Much the same goes for Gujaratis and Marwaris (respectively known in joke-lore as Gujjus and Marrus). The economic stature they have achieved, in India and abroad, is so great that the rest of us feel it necessary occasionally to lampoon them through the downsizing, distorting mirror of humour.

From blondes to Surdies, the subjects of jokes are invariably those whom people envy. So don't worry if the joke's on you. Treat it as a left-handed compliment. Indeed, it's only if you aren't being made fun of that you should worry. Are you really that unenviable?