Date: Tue, 9 Feb 1999 22:31:54 -0500 (EST)
From: ricinger-AT-inch.com (Richard Singer)
Subject: Re: SMILE


I don't know why this one popped up, whom it's referring to, etc., as I
haven't been following the list of late (hey, can you blame me?), but I
might as well say a couple of words:

At 10:35 AM 2/5/99 +0500, Ali Kazmi wrote:

        
>Hi Rosa,
>
>Here is another joke that we single arab students pass around while not
>studying. :-)

        Did this Rosa call you an Arab?  Is that why there's a smiley face?
Otherwise, I don't get it -- I thought you were Pakistani.

>
>Once upon a time, in a land far away, a beautiful, independent, self assured
>princess happened upon a frog as she sat, contemplating ecological issues on
>the shores of an unpolluted pond in a verdant meadow near her castle.
>
>The frog hopped into the princess' lap and said:  Elegant Lady, I was once a
>handsome prince, until an evil witch cast a spell upon me.  One kiss from
>you, however, and I will turn back into the dapper, young prince that I am
>and then, my sweet, we can marry and set up housekeeping in your castle with
>my mother, where you can prepare my meals, clean my clothes, bear my
>children, and forever feel grateful and happy doing so.
>That night, as the princess dined sumptuously on a repast of lightly sauteed
>frog legs seasoned in a white wine and onion cream sauce, she chuckled to
>herself and thought:  I don't fucking think so.
>

        That joke, I'm afraid, is as old as the ponds.  By the way, it's a
good thing that she was an "independent, self assured princess" and not a
wage slave or a serf.  If she were a wage slave or a serf and had just
turned down the opportunity not to slave for her economic masters (of one
kind or another) for the rest of her life (in exchange for taking on those
traditional wife's duties, admittedly), then the choice might have been a
bit more difficult -- she might not have eaten those frog's legs with such
relish (so to speak).

        I imagine this joke was made mostly by and for affluent NOW-type
feminists.  I myself am very much a believer in equality between the sexes,
but I never found this joke to be very funny -- maybe because when I hear
about an "independent, self assured princess," I immediately want to see a
few of the downtrodden peasants cook her up in onion sauce too.   



Richard Singer