Decoder Ring: Truly Tasteless Jokes
Note: This episode is about offensive material, and so contains explicit and offensive language.\nTruly Tasteless Jokes were a series of joke books that dominated the bestsellers list during the 1980s. An equal opportunity joke book: Truly Tasteless Jokes were collections of jokes ranging from Helen Keller, to dead babies, to sexist and racist jokes that from the vantage of 2021, seem entirely abject. For readers in the 1980\u2019s though, these books were ubiquitous.\xa0On this episode we dig into the history of these books and their author Ashton Applewhite. It\u2019s a story that involves the tangled history of 1960\u2019s free speech politics, conservative backlash, and the strange moment in the 1980\u2019s when left and right wing speech politics converged to help make these books mainstream.\xa0\nIf you love the show and want to support us, consider joining Slate Plus. With Slate Plus you can get ad free podcasts, bonus episodes, and much more.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices