Posted on 11/17/2018 11:11:52 AM PST by billorites
When former Dartmouth Professor of Government Ned LeBow cracked a joke on a San Francisco elevator, nobody could have foreseen the international firestorm it would spark. The resulting story of p.c. overreaction and academic idiocy left everyone except the 76-year-old professor looking ridiculous.
But not, apparently, quite ridiculous enough. The p.c. pinheads have censured the professor again.
The story began at an academic conference in San Francisco when Professor Lebow, currently of Kings College London found himself on the same elevator as Simona Sharoni, a professor of womens and gender studies at Merrimack College in Massachusetts. When Professor Sharoni courteously asked her fellow riders what floor they needed, Lebow joked Ladies lingerie, please.
And thats where the courtesy ended.
Sharoni claims she was offended by the joke, as well as the laughter of the white, middle-aged men on the elevator. In her formal complaint to the International Studies Association, the organization hosting the conference, Sharoni said: After they walked out, the woman standing next to me turned to me and said, I wonder if we should have told them that it is no longer acceptable to make these jokes!'
The ISA responded to Lebows lame joke, not with an eye roll, but with a rebuke. They ordered him to apologize for his offensive and inappropriate remark. When he refused, they formally censured him.
Now the story has taken another turn, as recounted by Professor Lebow in the Valley News:
I discovered that she [Professor Sharoni] had not grown up in either the U.S. or U.K. where saying ladies lingerie in an elevator is a well-known gag line so I explained in the same email the meaning of my remark and how it was in no way directed against women.
"I further suggested that I considered a complaint of the kind she made damaging to efforts of women to combat serious and unacceptable mistreatment.
"She complained to the ISA, this time about my having contacted her, and I was censured a second time."
Comedy is in the eye of the beholder and it may be that Professor Sharoni simply didnt like Lebows attempt at humor. But why complain over an attempt by the gentleman to explain the comment and clear up any confusion over its offensiveness? Complaining the first time was embarrassing enough. Why complain again?
Anda more significant questionwhy would an (allegedly) serious academic institution like the ISA pile on with a second censure? Professor Lebow has a theory:
What ISA officials want is not an apology but a capitulation .giving in to their demands would further chill free speech among younger colleagues and students who are far more vulnerable than I am to sanction by their professional organization.
Somebody in this story is getting bullied. How many people believe its the gender-studies professor from Massachusetts?
[ I discovered that she [Professor Sharoni] had not grown up in either the U.S. or U.K. where saying ladies lingerie in an elevator is a well-known gag line so I explained in the same email the meaning of my remark and how it was in no way directed against women. ]
That’s correct. We did that joke in the elevator way back in the 1980’s. And I’m sure somebody was using it before then. Political-Correctness will be the death of the Western World.
Can everyone at least agree that Professor Lebow was most likely expressing any carnal thoughts about Professor Sharoni?
Should be***MOST LIKELY NOT*** My old eyes ain’t what they used to be.
“i am in my 60s and have never heard that joke either. ( PS... im not offended , but how is that even funny? )”
Thanks.
I’m in my 50’s (not a millennial Cobra).
I’ve never heard that ever.
—
Of course the woman and academic society doing this are psycho PC fascists - I’m just addressing this as a well known gag.
Fixed it
[Simona Sharoni, a professor of womens and gender studies]
Good catch. Nothing more need be said.
O
M
G.
That is such a standard elevator gag from forever. My mother used to say that. Its not sexist or anything! My mother want trying to get into the panties of anyone riding the elevator, she was making a freaking joke.
The joke is a take on the 1930s elevator operators in NYC department stores who would shout out the different departments as the elevator stopped on that floor. ladies lingerie just happens to be the funniest of the departments. Jeez Louise.
Am I allowed to say Jeez Louise, or does it have to be Louis now?
It’s a funny one-liner for normal people because men don’t ordinarily go into the ladies lingerie department. It is just too embarrassing for them. There is a long history of comedy revolving around men being uncomfortable by such things. But I guess the joke is not funny because so many young males now want to dress up as women.
All I’m saying is I never heard this gag.
What is it? Where’s it from?
I think most people wouldn’t get it as a joke.
It's a take on a Bugs Bunny cartoon! Back when, when I was a kid, department stores, like Marshall Fields in Chicago, Macy's and Gimbels, in Manhattan, were 7 or 8 floors. It was a pre-recorded message, in the days before Musak.
The Looney Tunes short "Hare Conditioned", 1945:
Bugs Bunny: Fifth floor! Rubber tires, sugar, bourbon, butter, and other picture postcards!
The Monkey King in Jackie Chan Adventures:
"Third floor: housewares, ladies' undergarments, puppets!"
Marlon Brando, of all people, worked as an elevator operator. He quit because saying "lingerie" out loud embarrassed him.
The offended "Gender Studies" idiot need to be be lobotomized as a brain upgrade. It will improve her intelligence.
Last time I heard about Merrimack was I think the 2016 election. The school had an Ecuadoran grad student going around stealing Trump sign off the lawns of private dwellings.
In a sane world, she would have been deported, and perhaps the school being required to post bond for its future foreign students for a number of years.
In an elevator I have to restrain myself from saying room for one more honey lest someone lives who has not seen one of the all time great episodes of twilight zone
“No one would know what you were talking about.”
I knew exactly. There used to be elevator operators who would announce the floor by what was on that floor. Later when elevators were “you push the buttons” people would jokingly say what was on the floor as the door opened. Ladies stuff or ladies unmentionables. Old people get it. Young progressive PCers have no idea... about a lot of stuff.
I’m pretty sure Jack Benny used the elevator joke at some time in his radio or TV career. Maybe others like the Marx brothers, the Three stooges or Abbott and Costello. It was probably used a lot from vaudeville comedy.
Maybe he was wanting to buy a nightgown for his wife.
That’s kind of why I added the question mark.
Because I believe they believe their in charge.
And if they actually were ..they wouldn’t allow us to live..for any minor infraction from their nutso book of imaginary offenses.
Blame white men for developing comedy.
Yes, I saw that episode, too. I also refrain from saying that because of it. Only because it evokes images from it.
I’ve seen every Bugs Bunny.
Love Bugs Bunny.
I’m getting the picture. It’s an east coast urban thing from a long long time ago.
And there’s no one source for it per se.
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