Pat and Mike

For some reason, near about everybody used to make fun of the Irish.  I won't delve too deeply into the why's and how's of that.  It's a bit complex and it would take me forever to type with my thumbs.  A feller named Christie Davies has written a good bit about ethnic humor if you'd like to know more. 

Nowadays Irish jokes mostly deal with drinking (which might have something to do with St. Patrick's day), but most Irish jokes used to be what folklorists call "numskull" jokes.  The main characters in this country are Pat and Mike and most of the old anecdotes paint them as unbelievably ignorant immigrants. Fresh off the boat, they talk funny, and just don't understand anything about their new home. 

These jokes were spread around different ways, via vaudeville, minstrel shows, joke collections, newspapers, and of course, word of mouth.  Geo Evans' 1859 book of anecdotes (on kindle, free) is loaded with them, Joe Miller's Jest book from the 1700's even has Irish jokes.  Irish ethnic humor in this country most likely stemmed from the flood of Irish to this country at the beginning of the 1800's. 

Anyways, we have Irish Jokes in the WNC mountains too where they ain't a lot of Irish-Irish (Scots-Irish does not equal Irish).  Most of them follow the numskull formula, but some people even say "uncle Pat and uncle Mike" which is interesting.  The best jokes, like the one below, actually manage to turn the joke around on "us."   I learned this one from Ray, who got it from his father, born in the 1800s.

Well pat and mike were going through the country, and they come up on a creek baptizing.  By this time they had been in the United States long enough that it wasn't the first time they had seen such.  This skinny little preacher was leading in this big heavyset woman, and when he went to lean her back her foot slipped and his did too and they both went under.  When they come back up, the preacher just happened to be a-stradle her back.  Pat turned to Mike and said "Faith in me Christ! I've heard of leading em in and leading em out, but here they lead them in and RIDE em out!