ABSTRACT
Innocent jokes are puns, wordplay, clever manipulation of ideas, and cute twists of logic. Tendentious jokes are the ethnic and dirty jokes and reveal our inner-desires to partake in activities. Gag effectiveness is influenced by structure. Rhythm and good timing maximize the perlocutionary force. The positions on the moral permissibility of iconic tendentious jokes fall along the lines of the Aristotelian triad. There will be those on one extreme who contend that the telling of these sorts of jokes is never ethically permissible. There will be those who argue for the other extreme, that there is no moral prohibition on any jokes, including iconic ethnic jokes. The cultural sensitivity position contends that all iconic ethnic jokes are morally problematic. Related to the nihilistic view is the cultural cohesive version of neo-Shaftesburianism.
