1# @(#)README 8.1 (Berkeley) 5/31/93 2# $FreeBSD$ 3 4 Some years ago, my neighbor Avery said to me: "There has not been an 5adequate jokebook published since "Joe_Miller", which came out in 1739 and 6which, incidentally, was the most miserable no-good ... jokebook in the 7history of the printed word." 8 In a subsequent conversation, Avery said: "A funny story is a funny 9story, no matter who is in it - whether it's about Catholics or Protestants, 10Jews or Gentiles, blacks or whites, browns or yellows. If a story is genuinely 11funny it makes no difference how dirty it is. Shout it from the rooftops. 12Let the chips fall all over the prairie and let the bonehead wowsers yelp. 13... on them." 14 It is a nice thing to have a neighbor of Avery's grain. He has 15believed in the aforestated principles all his life. A great many other 16people nowadays are casting aside the pietistic attitude that has led them 17to plug up their ears against the facts of life. We of The Brotherhood 18believe as Avery believes; we have never been intimidated by the pharisaical 19meddlers who have been smelling up the American landscape since the time of 20the bundling board. Neither has any one of our members ever been called a 21racist. Still, we have been in unremitting revolt against the ignorant 22propensity which ordains, in effect, that "The Green Pastures" should never 23have been written; the idiot attitude which compelled Arthur Kober to abandon 24his delightful Bella Gross, and Octavius Roy Cohen to quit writing about the 25splendiferous Florian Slappey; the moronic frame of mind which, if carried 26to its logical end, would have forbidden Ring Lardner from writing in the 27language of the masses. 28 -- H. Allen Smith, "Rude Jokes" 29 30 ... let us keep in mind the basic governing philosophy of The 31Brotherhood, as handsomely summarized in these words: we believe in 32healthy, hearty laughter -- at the expense of the whole human race, if 33needs be. 34 Needs be. 35 -- H. Allen Smith, "Rude Jokes" 36