does anyone need another example of positive ANYMORE?

[Jonathan Lighter]

Funny. (I mean "peculiar.")  When I first heard the joke ca.1970 the teller explained that the laff was on the Lone Ranger because Tonto's consciousness had been raised and he wasn't gonna shuffle and scrape no more for the Man.

  I always thought Tonto and the Ranger were a team and the Ranger was in charge only because he had the mask and the horse and the bullets and the suit and the TV show.
  Tonto never seemed like a dope or a second-class individual. Well, I guess I'm just no good after all.

  As for Tonto's name, the Tonto Basin was named for the Tonto Apaches, who are still so designated.  Their Apache name, according to Wikipedia, seems to mean "people with high-pitched voices,"  so maybe they can't win either way.

  Of course, in _English_, which I talk, "Tonto" simply means "Tonto."

  JL

Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: does anyone need another example of positive ANYMORE?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I heard the punchline ca.1944 as "What you mean, 'we,' white man?" And
no mention was made of weapons. Of course, such jokes have many
different versions. I heard it in Saint Louis from a white neighbor
boy and I took its point to be that, when the deal goes down, white
people can not trust the non-white and I didn't find it humorous at
all.

-Wilson

On 2/14/08, James Harbeck wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
>
> Poster: James Harbeck
>
> Subject: Re: does anyone need another example of positive ANYMORE?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> >BTW, I am indeed white. I've only been called paleface in Makah, though,
> >never in English. BB
>
>
> The line "Whaddya mean 'we,' paleface?" is from a joke -- I thought I
> had mentioned it here before, but I am perhaps mistaken. It goes like
> this: The Lone Ranger and Tonto are holed up in a high crag, on the
> run from large numbers of highly irritated Indians who, perhaps, have
> wearied of being targets for LR's bullets. The look to the north:
> Indians. To the south: Indians. To the east: Indians. To the west:
> ...uh... yup, more Indians. LR turns to Tonto and says, "Well, Tonto,
> looks like we're surrounded." Tonto turns, reaches for his weapon,
> and says, "Whaddya mean 'we,' paleface?"
>
>
> James Harbeck, who is probably even paler than you (and occasionally
> beyond the pale). Even if he did grow up on and near an Indian
> reserve.
>
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Sam'l Clemens

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