At a Communist Party Congress it is announced that Communism has triumphed all over the world. Even the United States has elected a Communist as President. The delegates dance in the aisles, cheering like mad, except for an old man, who sits in the corner with a glum expression on his face. “Comrade,” asks a delegate. “Why are you not happy?”
“Because,” " says the old man, “I wonder where we are going to buy our wheat next year.”

This joke deals with the reality behind the five-year plans and glorious statistics always announced by the East European governments. Without America, and other Capitalist nations, the joke tells us, Eastern European Communists countries would starve.

Earl Butz's Ethnic Joke In 1974, Earl Butz, who was the Secretary of Agriculture, told a joke that almost led to him being removed from office. When politicians tell ethnic jokes, they court disaster and often end up being destroyed, politically. Butz told a joke "off the record" to a number of reporters at a private breakfast in New York. The joke involves a response to a statement by the Pope Paul VI about world hunger. After the Pope's statement, the joke, which is not very funny at all, goes as follows:

After the Pope's remarks, an Italian woman is overheard saying "He no play-a the game, he no make-a the rules."

This "joke" caused a furor. Catholics and Italian-Americans were outraged. Butz was called to the White House where he got a severe reprimand and was forced to issue an apology. Ethnic humor is no longer considered acceptable in America, especially when it is told by public officials. We can see that even twenty years ago it was considered distasteful. It is still found in folklore, but it has been pretty well banished from the airwaves and media.

Ronald Reagan's Bombing Russia Joke

In 1984, President Ronald Reagan was preparing for his