Decoder Ring

Truly Tasteless Jokes

Dec 7, 2021

50:28

Highlights

AI Chapters

Episode notes

I Can't Take It Back, I Can Act More Righteously

01:46

Race's Humor Is Not New

03:25

I Changed the Culture if There's Only One Lies You Can Hear

01:29

Introduction

5min

What Are the First Words Adam Said to Eve?

2min

Ashton's Joke - I'm a Loser

2min

What's the Difference Between Garbage and a Girl From New Jersey?

5min

What Happened at Berkeley in the Sixties?

2min

What's the Difference Between Garbage and a Girl From New Jersey?

2min

The Little Things Make a Big Difference

2min

Book Review - A Book Review

2min

Truly Tasteless Jokes

2min

10.

The True Tasteless Jokes

5min

11.

Race's Humor Is Not New

3min

12.

Slate Plus Membership - 25 Dollars Off Your First Year

3min

13.

Writing a Book About Women's Divorce

2min

14.

The Joke Book

2min

15.

The Only Jokes I Feel Bad About Are the Racest Ones

2min

16.

I Changed the Culture if There's Only One Lies You Can Hear

1min

17.

I Can't Take It Back, I Can Act More Righteously

2min

18.

The Joke That Cuts Me to the Quick, and That's Life

2min

19.

Dekotaring Podcast - Mhissus Dekotering

2min

Note: This episode is about offensive material, and so contains explicit and offensive language.

Truly Tasteless Jokes were a series of joke books that dominated the bestsellers list during the 1980s. An equal opportunity joke book: Truly Tasteless Jokes were collections of jokes ranging from Helen Keller, to dead babies, to sexist and racist jokes that from the vantage of 2021, seem entirely abject. For readers in the 1980’s though, these books were ubiquitous. On this episode we dig into the history of these books and their author Ashton Applewhite. It’s a story that involves the tangled history of 1960’s free speech politics, conservative backlash, and the strange moment in the 1980’s when left and right wing speech politics converged to help make these books mainstream.

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Decoder Ring

Truly Tasteless Jokes

I Can't Take It Back, I Can Act More Righteously

Race's Humor Is Not New

I Changed the Culture if There's Only One Lies You Can Hear

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Save anymoment

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