1# @(#)README 8.1 (Berkeley) 5/31/93 2 3 Some years ago, my neighbor Avery said to me: "There has not been an 4adequate jokebook published since "Joe_Miller", which came out in 1739 and 5which, incidentally, was the most miserable no-good ... jokebook in the 6history of the printed word." 7 In a subsequent conversation, Avery said: "A funny story is a funny 8story, no matter who is in it - whether it's about Catholics or Protestants, 9Jews or Gentiles, blacks or whites, browns or yellows. If a story is genuinely 10funny it makes no difference how dirty it is. Shout it from the rooftops. 11Let the chips fall all over the prairie and let the bonehead wowsers yelp. 12... on them." 13 It is a nice thing to have a neighbor of Avery's grain. He has 14believed in the aforestated principles all his life. A great many other 15people nowadays are casting aside the pietistic attitude that has led them 16to plug up their ears against the facts of life. We of The Brotherhood 17believe as Avery believes; we have never been intimidated by the pharisaical 18meddlers who have been smelling up the American landscape since the time of 19the bundling board. Neither has any one of our members ever been called a 20racist. Still, we have been in unremitting revolt against the ignorant 21propensity which ordains, in effect, that "The Green Pastures" should never 22have been written; the idiot attitude which compelled Arthur Kober to abandon 23his delightful Bella Gross, and Octavius Roy Cohen to quit writing about the 24splendiferous Florian Slappey; the moronic frame of mind which, if carried 25to its logical end, would have forbidden Ring Lardner from writing in the 26language of the masses. 27 -- H. Allen Smith, "Rude Jokes" 28 29 ... let us keep in mind the basic governing philosophy of The 30Brotherhood, as handsomely summarized in these words: we believe in 31healthy, hearty laughter -- at the expense of the whole human race, if 32needs be. 33 Needs be. 34 -- H. Allen Smith, "Rude Jokes" 35