An “Indian” walks into a Tim Hortons - What a Joke.
January 25, 2007 · By Shane Edwards
This could be dangerous, but I’ll risk it.
For all you bleeding hearts out there, let me explain this joke to you.
It includes a joke about an “Indian” who walks into a Tim Hortons with a shotgun in one hand and a buffalo in the other.
The server refers to the native man alternately as “Tonto” and “chief.”
The native man drinks his coffee, then “blasts the buffalo with the shotgun, causing parts of the animal to splatter everywhere, then just walks out.”
The next day, the native man returns.
“Whoa, Tonto!” says the server. “We’re still cleaning up your mess from yesterday. What was all that about, anyway?
“The Indian smiles and proudly says, `Training for an upper management position in Canadian Government: Come in, drink coffee, shoot the bull, leave mess for others to clean up, and disappear for rest of day.’ ”
Object of the Joke: Politicians (not Natives).
Intent of the joke: to use exaggeration and familiar stereotypes to contrast another culture’s view of our own. In this case, the Native Canadian culture’s literal view of Canadian colloquialisms to describe their job. Note: this does not imply that Native Canadians are ignorant - only that they take literally colloquialisms that could be easily misunderstood.
Characters in joke: Native Canadian and presumably a server or bartender of “Canadian” extraction (by referencing Tim Horton’s, a common coffee and doughnut shop in Canada, rare in the USA). Note: both the Native and the server are caricatures of the typical “real” person of said cultures. The Native does not realize in Canada you don’t pack a rifle and wild animals into doughnut shops and that some phraseology is not meant literally. The server uses ’70s terminology to demonstrate his own backwardness and lack of understanding of the Native.
The absurdity of both caricatures sets up the joke. We both know they are fictitious, and their behaviours cannot be condoned in normal society. That is what makes it funny.
Last note: In fact, this joke is an example of a high view of Natives, not a low one. This Native is interested in employment at high levels of government. Such ambition is to be lauded and encouraged. To suggest that this is a racist mockery of natives is to suggest that such behaviour is unlikely or impossible. THAT is racist.
Wow.
Bounce your perspective off one of your native friends and see what they think… oh.
OK, well, ask someone you know that has a native friend… oh.
Your last sentence though, that’s the money quote.
OT, but Aaron closes comments after his “post” regarding science and homosexual parents is shown to be a complete farce?!
Seriously, don’t you guys fact check AT ALL?
I guess we should be thankful he didn’t say the “college” was endorsed by Al Gore… or Al Vidal.
Sometimes it’s easy to forget that we’re not reading the onion… and then it sinks in… you guys are serious!
Ah well, like Reagan said… facts are stupid things.
Boo hoo. When did Scott turn into such a whiny baby?
“Sometimes it’s easy to forget that we’re not reading the onion… and then it sinks in… you guys are serious!”
That was the best thing I have read on here in while.
Huh? Well by all means, share with me what you’d like to read…
Good post. It’s not hard to see why opposition MPs have no sense of humour left.
I’ll show this joke to my cousin tonight. He’s got a great sense of humour… I believe his nick name is chief. Some people are just to damned sensitive.
And if the MP’s “joke” substituted “Indian” with “Evangelical Christian”, and “Tonto” with “Wingnut”…. you’d feel exactly the same way.
You guys gotta take this act on the road.
I thought the punchline here was that so many people are getting so mad over the fact that an MP received an email forward and replied to it with a casual courtesy.
Tell ya what, Shane. I’ll admit that I’m not a big fan of sifting through an MP’s private e-mail to try an find examples of mildly racist jokes in order to end his career. Sure, he’s a bit of a jerk, big surprise.
In exchange, you stop insulting my intelligence by pretending that the joke does not make fun of Native people as ignorant and simple.
You know, it is really starting to bore me how pathetic it is that some commenters simply cannot read.
It is not dumb to be literal when dealing with colloquialisms. It is dumb to be racist. Who is being mocked here? The server. He displays his ignorance by using silly nicknames for the Native.
They are both caricatures. Do we fire cartoonists for caricatures of groups or classes in our culture? No. Why should we call for the head of a politician who finds a caricature funny?
You know what? I have seen many jokes that make fun of groups that I consider myself a part of. I have found them funny, and sometimes accurate even in their teasing use of parody. This is what is called “a sense of humour”.
Go ahead and substitute in “Native” for “evnagelical Christian”. Go ahead and substitute “chief” for Reverend and “Tonto” for “Moses”. I’ll still find it funny.
Get a life.
Silly names… like “chief”?
Actually Shane, I think the target of this joke is the government employee, although that’s beside the point.
It’s not that big of a deal, and like one of your other commenters mentioned, I find it in poor taste to muck-rake the fact of this email exchange for political gain. That is only slightly less disgusting that sycophants trying to normalize the subject for similarly politic reasons.
If this was a liberal MP, with the aforementioned substitutions of “evangelical” and “wingnut”, you’d be going going bonkers.
Be honest enough to admit that, at least, to yourself.
Shane, I asked you to stop insulting my intelligence, but you did anyway. I’m forced to concede that you may not be pretending to be stupid.
If you substitute “Christian evangelical” for “Native”, the reader would probably wonder why the evangelical couldn’t speak proper English, smiled all the time, and didn’t seem to realize when he was being insulted. The reader would probably conclude that the author felt that evangelicals were simple (or child-like, or unsophisticated).
As well, “ignorant” is in fact an accurate description of someone who “takes colloquialisms literally”. It’s not a synonym for ’stupid’.
I’m sorry if I bore you, so I’ll stop and just ask you to consider whether a Native might take particular offense at this characterization. On the other hand, if you genuinely believe that Natives are unsophisticated and child-like, you’ll probably just continue to not get it.
No matter who you substitute for what or what the true meaning of the joke is, at best, it is a really shitty joke.
This joke fits in with the “eats, shoots, and leaves” variety of comedy.
Get over yourselves and enjoy the humour. Intelligent people know that the caricatures presented in this joke are so exaggerated as to be completely comedic.
A panda walks into Tim Hortons holding a shotgun in one hand and a buffalo in the other …….
[...] pointing out the obvious,” but personally I find it kind of tacky. After the recent buffalo under the arm joke (and the fallout that accompanied it), one has to wonder whether our politicians have any real [...]
Holy Cow! What’s the big deal? Are we that sensitive about EVERYTHING? Come on, people… why are we so insistent on analyzing everything to understand underlying messages? Whatever happened to having a sense of humor? What if you changed “native” or “Indian” to “Chinese” or “East Indian”? We all have the tendency to poke humor at the simplest things. Don’t make such a big deal out of someone’s idea of a joke… take it as it is; A JOKE!!!