Two jokes that even celebrities can't tell on American TV

Walt has lifted the following passage from "The Age of Intolerance", by Mark Steyn, writing in National Review Online.

Here are two jokes one can no longer tell on American television.... First, Bob Hope, touring the world in the year or so after the passage of the 1975 Consenting Adult Sex Bill: "I’ve just flown in from California, where they’ve made homosexuality legal. I thought I’d get out before they make it compulsory."

Second joke from the archives: Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra kept this one in the act for a quarter-century. On stage, Dino used to have a bit of business where he’d refill his tumbler and ask Frank, "How do you make a fruit cordial?" And Sinatra would respond, "I dunno. How do you make a fruit cordial?" And Dean would say, "Be nice to him."

Badabing, badaboom!

If you haven't already guessed why such jokes are now politically incorrect, read the article. Mark Steyn is currently at the top of Walt's list of must-read socio-political commentators, and it's high time I let you know where you can find him online.

I also want mention, for the second time in recent days, his excellent book After America (Regnery Publishing, 2011). It should be read immediately after Matt Taibbi's Griftopia (Spiegel & Grau, 2010), reviewed here last week. That's what I've been doing this weekend. I have the bad habit of dog-earing pages on which I find something that needed saying said well, [Hello! Remember me? Do you need some help this morning? Ed.] and about every third page of After America has been so treated.