Var var det jag Laden

I’m not sure what’s going on in the old country. They want to put a priest in jail for reading the bible (hyperbole) and they’re publishing books of dirty jokes by children.

Children’s jokes—No game for Brio
“We cannot get behind a book with strong sexual humor”
The toy chain Brio has put the brakes on a book that was going to be sold in its 96 stores.
The book contains jokes by children and Save The Children, Sweden, The Nordiska museet, and the milk producer Arla are among its creators.
The jokes were sent in by children from all over the country, responding to a requet found on milk cartons from Arla.
One of the jokes inspired the title of the book, “What is the name of Osama’s lost brother? Where did I put that” [The word Laden sounds like the Swedish words la den or ‘put it’—Tr.]
The book can be found in Brio’s catalogue which will go out to 1.5 million households throughout the country in a few days. But Brio will not sell the book, and Britt-Marie Dierk, a teacher at the Ribbyberg school in Västerhaninge, doesn’t understand why.
“I am extremely surprised and a little disappointed for the children. This book has been very big for us. Nobody has complained, everything has been just fine,” She told aftonbladet.se.

“Doesn’t fit our demographic”
Britt-Marie’s 5th grade students have done all the illustrations for the book, which Brio thinks is appropriate for High School students.
“Some of the jokes are for teenagers. There is strong sexual humor that we cannot condone,” says Jessica Nyström, PR Chief for Brio. She also points out that the company completely supports Save the Children.
“We are sure the book is very funny. We do not want to detract from it. But it doesn’t fit our demographic, which is primarily children up to 5 years old,” she says.
Peter Norrbohm, who was the project lead for the book thinks that Brio’s concerns are blown out of proportion.

“Got cold feet”
“My guess is that someone is acting as taste police and they got cold feet,” he says.
“The book doe shave a number of jokes with sexist and rasist content, but they are very mild and they have been well edited by Ulf Palmenfelt a folklore researcher.”
Peter Nrrbohm also thinks that chlidren’s humor has to be controversial.
“Children’s humor mirrors what is controversial in the world of grown ups. You can’t deny it,” he says.
3,000 copies of the book are now on sale, including in the bookstore at the Nordiska museet and Save the Children, Sweden’s Web page.
But not at Brio stores, which Peter Norrbohm thinks will only raise interest more.
“The customers that have seen the book in Brio’s catalogue will of course be disappointed when the hear ‘we don’t sell it, you’ll have to go to a bookstore’. That’s like saying ‘no, we don’t sell child pornography, but you can go next door’,” he says.


Some of the offending jokes
--Why do all blondes have bruises around their bellybuttons?
--I don’t know.
--Blonde boys aren’t very smart either.

A black man had been to the acupuncturist. The doctor accidently left two needles in his forehead, so when he got on the bus, an old lady stared at him.
--You’ve never seen a black man before? He asked.
--Sure, said the lady. But never a remote control one.

What did the dick say to the condom?
Cover me, I’m going in.

[I don’t get this one—Tr.]
--What’s you’re name?
--Erstin.
--Are you horny then?
--Yeah, a little sometimes.

There were two pieces of shit playing soccer. Along came some diarrhea and asked to play too.
--No, said the shit, this game is only for hard guys.

A priest and a raggare sat next to each other on the train. The priest opened up his bible and read. The raggare read his porno mag. After a while, they swapped. After the priest had looked at the porno for a bit, he asked:
--what is a dick?
--It’s a tie, said the raggare.
--What does ‘on the rag’ mean?
--That’s when you get red in the face, answered the raggare.
--But what the heck is group sex? The Priest wondered.
--That’s when everyone laughs and has fun together, said the raggare.
The next day the priest got on the bus and saw the bus driver’s tie.
--What a nice dick you have, said the priest.
All the passengers began to laugh.
--Are you having group sex? Asked the priest. Can I join in?


Karin Henriksson
11/10/2005

http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/nyheter/story/0,2789,727688,00.html