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Two Cannibals, one said to the other: 'I don't like your mother in law...'
The other cannibal says: 'That's alright.... just eat your chips'
The same two cannibals.
One cannibal says 'I'm going on my holidays'.
The other cannibal says 'Are you? I hope you have a lovely time'
A week later they meet and the first cannibal says: 'Did you have a nice holiday?'
He said 'I loved it'
He said 'Where's your arm?'
He said 'I went self catering'.
Marie Gillespie
Marie says
Cannibal jokes have a long history in western culture. Images and stories of cannibalism date back to the mid 16th century. Tales of oral sadism and of boiling people are also common in a variety of popular culture genres: from Boys Adventure Stories, to jungle movies, comics and cartoons - especially tales of hungry cannibals with a voracious appetite for white settlers and missionaries.
So the image of the cannibal is part of a racialised system of representing black people as wild and savage, as warriors, head hunters, devils and monsters.
The fact that such jokes persist today shows how cultural symbols that can be read as racist are powerful and difficult to dislodge. Eating human body parts by accident is also very much part of humour and humorous urban legends. It's breaking a taboo.
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