Talk:An Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman

Scandinavia

"In Norway, the joke is about a Norwegian, a Dane and a Swede, the latter being the stupid." -- and, in Norway, we assume that the Swedes are smart enough to change it around when they learn the jokes. However, we have our doubts.

(I was about to deliver this line in the article, but stoppet just before pressing Save. Kind of proud of myself.) Marstr2 00:32, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

Actually, in Sweden it is a Norwegian, a Dane and a Bellman (instead of a swede), where the Bellman is the winning person. 83.176.233.64 12:49, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Huh?

What's a Paddy? Is that like a Goody? --76.212.169.116 18:20, 12 July 2007 (UTC) Paddy is a diminutive of the name Patrick (the patron saint of Ireland and a very popular name). It is commonly used throughout the UK as a reference name for an Irishman. Plutonium27 14:32, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

Russia?

I have never heard any three-person-jokes with the "An Ukrainian, a Russian and a Belarusian..." setting (probably Belarusian are rather close to be separated. However there are a lot of 2 man jokes Russian vs Ukrainian, mocking at their love-hate relationships). Generally three-person jokes in Russia are told about Russian and two Western people (An American, a German, an Englishman, a French can be used almost interchangeably). See Russian humour article (subsection “Russians”). A Russian usually depicted as a dumb, but he usually wins:

• An American, a German and a Russian were captured by a UFO. Aliens put them into isolated rooms, give two titanium balls to each and say that one who will surprise them most of all will be released three days later. When this time comes, they look at the American who juggles standing on his head and with eyes closed, then they look at the German who juggles with these balls behind his back and dances and sings at the same time. Finally, they enter into the room of the Russian, return back and say: “Sorry, guys, we release him” — “Oh, but what does he do?”, the American asks — “He broke one ball and lost another one.”, the aliens answered. —95.221.48.222 (talk) 00:39, 5 January 2010 (UTC) (from Russia)
• A Russian, French and Englishman are boasting about their cars and roads. "I come out at morning", - starts Englishman. - drive my Jaguar to the highway, put my right hand with a cigar out of window and my left hand only lightly holds the wheel. This is relaxing ride...". "I see", - answers French, - "Each morning i drive out my Renault to the highway, put my left hand out the window with a cognac flask, put my right arm around my lass hips, and only slightly control a wheel with my knee. That is relaxing ride!". "Oh, pity." - takes his order sad Russian, - "I don't have a lass, nor a cigar. But i also each morning drive my Lada to a highway, and i have a brick and a blanket. I put the brick over accelerator, set my alarm clock and lay down at the back seat to.. ahem... relax a bit.". "And the wheel?" ask frightened foreigners. " The wheel? Let the rut care for that damn wheel!" 85.90.120.180 (talk) 15:07, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

In Spain...

we also use (apart from the Englishman and the Frenchman) references to people from different communities inside Spain, joking about their stereotypical characteristics, ie, Catalans are greedy, Basques are brute, Andalusians are lazy, Aragoneses are stubborn, etc. ~~ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.55.148.138 (talk) 22:17, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

Also "In these cases, the two foreigners are always portrayed as cocky, stupid and naïve, while the same nationality person is smart, practical and, ultimately, victorious." is far from true in the Spanish case; it's more like the other way round. The Englishman and the Frenchman are portrayed as diligent and serious whereas the Spaniard is cunning, clever but lazy or "less civilized" than his European counterparts - and ultimately funny. --Belchman (talk) 21:37, 29 July 2010 (UTC)

In spain if this joke is explained with the englishman and the frenchman, the one that wins would be the spanishman, for doing something simplier and more efficient, but that the englishman and frenchman are not described as diligent and serious. But anyway, it's further common to use the joke with people inside boards, as it's said on top. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.98.216.60 (talk) 11:25, 24 October 2010 (UTC)

Truly guys, just few examples would worth lots of theoretical arguments! 85.90.120.180 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 15:10, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

Recursion

I thought it worth mentioning that the opening paragraph of this article is itself, to a British person's point a view, a hilarious joke; the punchline being that the Welshmen is only brought in when the joke requires a fourth person. The fact that the paragraph is (unintentionally?) funny, whilst at the same time typifying the humour it seeks to describe, is simply perfect. I thought it deserves mention here. It also touches on other elements of British humour; deadpan, self-referential, self-deprecating humour.94.6.96.150 (talk) 21:24, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

Perhaps mention non-national but similar jokes?

In my area (in the United States), a common joke type is "a blonde, a brunette, and a redhead..." where the punchline generally involves the blonde girl being the punchline and butt of the joke. I feel like this should be included or linked to in some fashion as a "variation" even though it isn't based on nationality. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.227.7.35 (talk) 03:36, 29 June 2011 (UTC)

Any relevant research?

I wonder if there even is any relevant research on this topic. It definitely is a very interesting one. There are many variations of the joke - not just 3 nationalities, but also the brunette/blond/ginger mentioned above, occupations (there's a page on mathematician humor), rabbi/priest/layman etc.

The most interesting aspect of these jokes is how a given nationality or group sees itself. As mentioned, Russian punchlines tend to revolve around the stupidity. Indeed these jokes in the slavic and eastern-european countries usually have a dark humor punchline actually making fun of the winner, be it the local hero or the foreigner (usually the local).

It would be great if some research actually exists! It could really give some insight.

Anyway I'm gonna add some jokes from our (eastern European) region:

• A Japanese, American, Italian and Slovak/Russian are in the bar. After some beers, the J tells the A: let's go out and fight! They go out, there are sounds of punches, the J comes back and says: that was kung-fu, ours. Then the J calls the I out, there are punches, J comes back and says: that was aikido, also ours. After a while, he calls out the S/R. They go out, there's a loud bang, S/R comes back and says: That was a Mazda exhaust pipe, also theirs.

• An American, Russian, Czech and Slovak stand on the top of a cliff. The devil is with them and tempts them to jump. He tells the A: Hey, jump, jump... I'll give you a million dollars! A hesitates: Well I don't know... Devil continues: But you'll be famous! A: Oh heck yea! and he jumps. Now the devil tempts the R: Hey, jump, you'll be famous! R: says, oh screw that. Devil continues: Well, then jump for the Mother Russia! The Russian jumps and screams: For the Mother Russia!! Now the devil temps the C: Jump for the nation! C: Oh go to hell. D: I'll give you a million dollars! C: Meh I won't jump. D: But the jump is free! C: Free? Oh yeah! and he jumps. Now the D turns to S: Hey, the jump is free! S: Meh I won't jump. D: For the nation! S: No. D: You'll be famous! I'll give you a million dollars! S: No and no. D (sarcastic): Well, don't jump then if you're scared. S: You call me scared? Just watch! And he jumps.

• A Swiss retiree gets up in the morning, has some cheese sandwich for breakfast and goes out to play tennis. A French retiree gets up, has a baguette and goes out to play golf. A Czech/Slovak/Ukrainian retiree gets up, takes his swiss drops (medicine), grabs his french crutches and goes to work.

193.110.186.126 (talk) 03:44, 8 January 2013 (UTC)

Please keep in mind this is encyclopedia, not a jokebook. We need encycliopedic content about6 the nature of this kind of joke. And what's important, we need references from releable sources (WP:RS policy) which support the added text. Staszek Lem (talk) 04:20, 8 January 2013 (UTC)

Oxford comma

Does anyone know if the original sources use an Oxford comma for this phrase? That is, do they use: "An Englishman, an Irishman, and a Scotsman" instead of (how it currently is): "An Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman"? Either way, it would be nice to include more references in this article. --Thorwald (talk) 21:04, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

American Perspective

This is a wonderful topic and lovely page to see--but it is terribly written and in desperate need of heavy copyediting. There are grammatical and typographical errors everywhere. Is this page being maintained by anyone??

As an Irish-American who has grown up living in both North America as well as Ireland and travelling the UK, one thing that always struck me about this joke format is that although Americans (particularly British Americans) will use the very same triad in a variety of related jokes, Americans never grasp the stereotype of the Irish as stupid. While Americans stereotype Irishmen as inebriated, belligerent, and generally having a poor or uninteresting diet (qv Denis Leary's entire performance career), the punchline that the Irish are stupid (which is sooo common in GB) is lost on virtually all Americans. I've had several of my English and Welsh colleagues in the American West and Southwest also comment on how stark the absence of this stereotype is from the American perspective. This is only surprising due to the fact that Americans generally recognize and share the other stereotypes of Irishmen, Scotsmen and Englishmen.

I wonder to what extent this is because in America, Irishness is a fundamentally *urban* identity (centered around Boston and NYC), rather than rural identity.

And sorry Welshmen, yep. Y'all would have to fall into the sea for several days before we'd notice y'all were gone ;) (this is a comment on "Recursion" above, please take in good humor).

Doc O'Kearney (talk) 19:16, 29 December 2015 (UTC)