The only people you can joke about are, let’s see, women, the Irish, the Italians,fat people …

The previous post got me thinking of one of the most annoying victim-card whines, one I’ve heard over and over again through the years: “X are the only people you’re still allowed to make fun of in America!”
X, depending on who’s talking, is, let’s see, white Southern males (according to Ron Hart), Italian Americans (said an online columnist some years back), fat people (say some of my friends), Catholics (I forget who). The PC police have shut every other form of humor down, but X, in an outrageous miscarriage of justice, are still fair game for ethnic/cultural jokes and stereotypes.
To some extent, this argument is not without merit: White southern males do get a lot of stereotyping. But the “only” part? If all these groups are still fair game, where does “only” come into it?
And, of course, it’s not at all true that blacks/women/gays/Jews/Muslims, etc. have been miraculously protected from stereotyping and ethnic jokes in the 21st century. Just look at the Repub jokes about Obamacare (portraying him as a witchdoctor with a bone through his nose) or showing him and Michelle as chimpanzees. Or the shots at women mentioned in my previous post. It may be a comforting illusion that nobody makes jokes like that any more but nobody apparently excludes a lot of people.
And really, the kind of stereotypes Xs have to deal with are not at all in the same league as the others. The Italian columnist grumbled about how Italians are portrayed as being Mafia, but that isn’t half as common (though I admit it exists) as the stereotype of Black Man as Gang Banger or Latino as Drug Lord, to take a couple of examples.
That doesn’t excuse stereotyping, but if Xs want to claim they’re the only persecuted minority left——well, cry me a river.