TAN: Cultural presuppositions

> Date:         Wed, 2 Jun 1999 20:10:17 -0600
> From: Ed Heil <edheil@...>
> Just to clarify what was probably opaque, there's an old joke where
> Tonto and The Lone Ranger are surrounded by hostile Indians.  The Lone
> Ranger says, "We're in trouble now, Tonto!" and Tonto says, "who's
> 'we', white man?"
Let's have a show of hands: How many list members outside the US (and
maybe Canada) found the joke less opaque after that explanation?

(For myself, I happen to 'know' that the Lone Ranger is the hero (of
European descent, presumably) of some sort of popular Western story
(TV show? comics? juvenile novels?) in the US, and that Tonto is his
American Indian sidekick. But that knowledge was initially only a
guess based on then obscure references in US fiction and jokes, now
confirmed in so many different instances that I don't doubt my
inference anymore. I still haven't seen or read a Lone Ranger story).

Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS Dep) <thorinn@...> (Humour NOT marked)