In his Ethnic Humor around the World, Christie Davies charts the joking targets in 28 different countries. The ones given below are the most recognizable: Americans consider Poles, Italians, and Portuguese as stupid while Jews, Scots, and New Englanders to be tricky. Canadians consider Newfies as stupid and Jews, Scots, and Nova Scotians as tricky. Mexicans consider+ people from Yucatan as stupid and people from Monterey as tricky.

Nigerians consider Hausas as stupid and Ibos as tricky. The English, Welsh and French consider the Irish, Belgians, and Swiss as stupid, and the Scots and Jews as tricky.

Davies also said that the most common targets of ethnic humor, live on the geographical, economic, or linguistic edges of the society or culture where the jokes are told. They live in small communities, or rural areas on the periphery of a nation, and are immigrants concentrated in blue-collar occupations. “There is no evidence that the targets are stupid, but they occupy stupid locations.” Also, the marginalized groups learn about the mainstream groups, but the mainstream groups remain ignorant of the marginalized groups.

The joke tellers identify with the target groups by seeing them as comically stupid versions of themselves. The best joking relationship between two groups is when the groups exhibit both “attachment and separation,” along with “social conjunction and social disjunction.”