What the Wingnuts Find Funny

[Sheikh] Mishan receives us as honored guests. I am so at ease that I soon commit a faux pas: I tell an “Iraqi joke,” which, in my defense, seems safe because I have been told it by an Iraqi-army colonel.

This is the joke: In Saddam-era Iraq, an official of the Baath party is informed that he is to be transferred out of Baghdad to become head of one of the provincial party offices. His daughter is very upset because she is studying English and loves the teacher she has in Baghdad. Father promises to find a great new English teacher for her in their new home.

A few weeks after they move, the Baath official calls his men in and tells them, “Go find the man who speaks the best English in this town.” They leave right away. Several days later, the official realizes that he has never heard back about the best English-speaker, so he calls his men in and asks if they were able to find him. “Yes sir,” say the men. “We beat the confession out of him. He is buried in the back.”

My hosts and the other guests laugh and nod politely at the punch line. Then a Marine lieutenant takes me aside and says gravely, “Mario, think. The joke was told to you by an Iraqi-army colonel, which means that he was probably Shiite. And this is Baath country. Basically you just told a Shiite joke making fun of these people.”

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