Someone posted this pic and i think it was their project bike they have bought and i am afraid i couldn't help myself but to me it looked just like the second pic which i duly posted....but couldn't help posting a second pic all done in jest and good humor but no a mod had to delete it....it is a Us biker forum is it they just dont get it...or am i just a bad man.
US bike forums can be like that. A US-based colleague (long time ago) invited me to her Rolling Thunder forum and I posted a sarcastic message about her HD. She got it and thought it was hilarious as she's one of those US rarities - someone who has travelled outside of the US and\or realises that senses of humour are sometimes different in other parts of the world - but the rest of them..... You'd have thought I had personally insulted them, their mother, the flag and whichever flavour of church they belonged to as they flamed me for weeks! It didn't help that I kept baiting them of course but man they just could not see the irony of it and would not stop. Debbie had to ask me to walk away eventually as they had started taking it out on her which was unfair. Bloody funny but still unfair. She told me they calmed down about a month later and that it was the best laugh she'd had in years.
There is them, and then there is the rest of the motorcycle community in the U.S. Where I live most of the "Village People" won't give the rest of us the time of day. And the rest of us are pretty OK with that. Just one of those wierd culture things. But the H-D crowd take it very seriously. I think it is kind of funny myself. . ...J.D.
I am glad one of our American friends here can see the funny side ...its was completely in jest ...the annoying thing is that i have seen far more serious stuff that was not in good taste posted but that remains..guess i just hate double standards.
Got to admit, I have my hostility on this subject. I will take it no further. We all usually want the same things out of life, no matter where we are. Sometimes we rub each other the wrong way. Too bad the world is in the awful state it is in. Go in peace. Be safe. ...J.D.
The united states is a diverse place and humour is a reflection of this. I had a 3 month stint working with the USAF and Air National Guard, the humour usually got lost between themselves let alone with a British, deadtone, sarcastic knob in the mix. Sometimes we just have to acknowledge that 99% will enjoy the humour but there is always 1% who don't. In this case, he/she was the 1%.
90% of the people online are either jackasses or idiots, I’m just glad we’re part of the other 25%. On a side note, now I really want a candy necklace and I’d ride the hell out of that pink bike.
Talking of sense of humour failure & double standards... Many moons ago I was a member of a one make/one model forum. One of the guys started a thread similar to Havits "This made me laugh" thread. Except in the main it became an area for different nations to poke fun at each other. The Irish got all the thick jokes The Scots got all the jokes about being tight. The Welsh got every sheep shagger joke known to man. The Americans were getting stuck into the Canadians. The French were ripping the pi$$ out of the Belgians etc etc. All of it was based around tongue in cheek racial stereotypes. Nothing offensive & 1000's of us were laughing along with the childish gags. Then somebody posted a joke about your house always being worth more to a Pakistani if it's on a corner? All Brits will get that joke. Next thing the site admin/owner was demanding that the guy who posted it offer a public apology. I chipped in & pointed out it was no different to what we'd all been laughing at for months. He took the attitude that I should keep my mouth shut as he was in charge & therefore what he said was law! Of course, I didn't take his advice Eventually another forum member joined in on my side. Everybody else kept quiet including the guy being told to apologise. The upshot was myself & the guy supporting me got banned. Then the guy who was being told to apologise crawled out from under his stone. Kissed a lot of arse & slipped back into life on the forum! I the same circumstances, I'd do exactly the same again. All it taught me was that doing the right thing doesn't always pan out as it should. Unfortunately for the tyrannical forum owner. Myself & the other guy he banned. Put far more info into his forum than we took out. So there were no winners apart from his ego
Funny what people get thier shorts on a knot over. Being a native of Southern California [very out of step with the rest of the US], my experrience with other cultures stems from the early 70's, working in what we called in that day "foreign car garages". A wierd time when those shops were largely staffed by European's. Some country guys, a few hippies. We got on together pretty well. I learned you had to be careful with jokes. They may not see the humor. Some of those guys had seen some rough times in Europe during WW-2. We worked together on everything with wheels while listening to american country music. A very odd picture by todays standards. ...J.D.
There's something about tassels...... I have to deal with folk with no sense of humour quite often. A thankless task. But when they take the piss, they really don't like it when you fire it right back. At the end of the day, if you canna take it, don't hand it out. (and, I don't mean @Tricky-Dicky when I say that. Obviously gives as good as he gets! )
As an American I can tell you we're a fecked up people. We're under this constant barrage of political correctness, racial sensitivities, bleeding heart men who should have had a sex change at birth and women who want to save the planet from men, and on and on it goes...
Occasionally the surprise goes the other way. Back in the mid 1990s, I was sent to Iceland to run a 3-week IT training course. It seemed a laid-back kind of place and I was perhaps a bit too relaxed and unguarded about things on the first morning. Just before introductions, the class spokesman said, "welcome to Iceland, the land of Vikings, where men are men". I heard my mouth say out loud, "yes, the land where men are men... and the sheep look worried". I couldn't believe I'd said it and thought I'd just sign my death warrant, but after a second, the whole class erupted into howls of laughter. I'd fortunately stumbled straight into their down-to-earth sense of humour and we all got along pretty well after that.
Well, there are Americans and there are Americans that own HD. The former, on the whole, are fairly normal. We get and appreciate humor, and are pretty open minded. The latter, while very “tough” looking, are quite sensitive, in fact down right weepy, if anyone makes any remark that remotely insults their beloved brand. Yeah, I don’t get it either.
Funny even HD marketing doesn't get it. Make lots of loud noises, and leave a trail of sparks at a 15 degree lean angle, lots of chrome, lots of accessories, and lots of appearal (so you appear the same, but different). Lone individualists riding in large groups. The impression of power! I am pretty sure this is best described as oxymorons. BTW when i called to insure my bike in the USA i was asked if the standard $5000 USD allowance would be enough to cover my accessories. So freck i am paying to insure $4985 worth of accessories i don't have, and won't get reimbursed for if something should happen.
Trick-Dicky. No you are a Bad Bad boy. Isn't that a Harley. If we didn't have a laugh and joke then they may aswel lock us all up in the asylum. Regards Joe.
