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Man walks into a Bar Association
Why does California have the most lawyers and New Jersey the most toxic waste dumps? New Jersey had first choice. Lawyer jokes. They've been around forever. From ancient Greece to the New Testament to the plays of Shakespeare, lawyers have been viewed derisively. Jokes about them as sharks and snakes and the primary tenants of hell are mainstays at cocktail parties and for keynote speakers looking for laughs. Now, a law professor from Wisconsin has taken a scholarly look at the jokes and what they say about how lawyers and the justice system are viewed by the public. Marc Galanter's book "Lowering the Bar: Lawyer Jokes & Legal Culture" examines the history, the humor and the increasingly hostile tone of about 300 jokes. The book will be released in November by University of Wisconsin Press and sell for $45. Lawyer jokes aren't just good for a laugh, he says, but also are a way to understand general perceptions of the justice system. "You can learn from them, you can see what is bothering people. ... The jokes are a screen on which people project their feelings about lawyers and the law," said Galanter, who teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Among Galanter's observations: Lawyer jokes have gotten nastier in the past 25 years. Where jokes about lawyers used to include some grudging admiration for the work they do, they have become increasingly mean. They are largely an American phenomenon. Other rich, industrialized countries are more likely to joke about politicians and clergy than attorneys.
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