It raises for me some interesting points on the supposed dull seriousness of the left. A lot of humor seems to be a programmed reaction to comments embodying a presumed consensus -- that's really all Bob Hope's jokes were in his stand-up routines (that's where this thread started). So in the fifties and sixties, comedians' supposed exasperation over the wife shopping were received as funny, and feminist objections showed that they lacked a sense of humor. Feminist jokes, playing to a different consensus, struck non-feminists not as funny, but as "bitter".
Several of the Kos commenters overtly objected to the Nazi jokes. I felt a few twinges because based on the little I know about Ah-nult, there's no reason to assume Nazi sympathies, and it's politically loathsome to hold an American's place of national origin against him. I'd be really dull and serious and lacking a sense of humor in objecting to Taco Bell jokes about a Hispanic candidate. But basically, I found the use of German to club Ah-nult funny.
And again, it has to do with consensus: 1) there's no wide-spread anti-German or anti-Austrian discrimination in this country; 2) Ah-nult is successful in the ways that we describe success (celebrity, money, acceptance by the elite). So, the humor isn't reinforcing attitudes that outrage me.
There's also a venue issue -- is it useful to look for humor in Z magazine?
-- Gail, humming "Kalifornia, hier ich komme"
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