The ability to find humor in taboo topics is actually a sign of cognitive flexibility and social intelligence.

It's not like people condemning the choice of the name are unable to find the humor. We do find it. We are briefly entertained. Then we pause and ponder. Is it a good idea to use a negative stereotype in a joke? Don't we run the risk of confirming the stereotype even more?

We then find out that our answer to that question is "no". And we bring up the issue with other people.

There is no "inability to find humor" at play here.

Finding humour in racism may indicate any or all of:

1) cognitive flexibility 2) social intelligence 3) racism ;-)

Dodgy Dick would have been funnier.

It's called stochastic terrorism, and a society built on top of terror and racism would probably tell you it's "actually a sign of cognitive flexibility and social intelligence."

I had the same gut reaction as you. I was going to defend the joke as not being racist. Until I thought about it for a few minutes, and came to the conclusion that it's obviously racist. Whenever you have a gut reaction like that, you NEED to look deeper.

The restrooms at my town's dive bar are full of scatological, sexual and racist graffiti. It must be a hot spot for local geniuses. /s