Ethnic jokes have been around since people first noticed they were different from one another, and ethnocentrism and a sense of ethnic identity appeared. Jokes feed upon difference and distinctions (not only ethnic, of course) and if one of the functions of ethnic jokes is to ridicule and depreciate these in-out groups, another function is to maintain and strengthen a sense of one’s identity in some in-group.

It may be that ethnic humour helps us deal with hostility verbally instead of physically, but these slurs also reinforce our stereotypes and sometimes lead to calls for violence..

Ethnic jokes are often considered to be offensive and as a form of hate speech.[citation needed] Perceived as such, they may sometimes be referred to as race jokes, or racist jokes. But the definition of what constitute a race, ethnicity or a social group varies from one nation or society to the next, about who is considered a racial minority or ethnic group.[citation needed]

Ethnic jokes come and go with social change, particularly with waves of immigration from one country to another, but it is also based on who the media in that particular country hates the most; for example, Polish jokes, which were common in the United States were unique in that sadly for Polish people there were powerful anti-Polish Bigots in Hollywood and the US TV media who introduced hateful Polish jokes to the American public in the 1960's in the hope that the American people would eventually have the same anti-Polish prejudice that Hollywood and media elites had. Hollywood, NBC-TV & CBS-TV for example did not tell the American public that so called "Polish jokes" aka subhuman intelligence jokes about Polish people, were hypocritically taken from Nazi propaganda despite the fact Hollywood and NBC-TV and CBS-TV claimed to be anti-Nazi (this is discussed on the Polish American Journal website) The tremendous power of TV and movie imagery was used to malign the image of Polish people as having inferior intelligence, despite the fact that Polish Americans are one of the most economically successful ethnic groups in the US. Kind of similarly, Irish jokes have become far less common in the United Kingdom as the social status of Irish people has risen with increased wealth in Ireland, the consequent reduction in Irish itinerant labour, and the absorption of Irish people into the community and therefore the UK media was more tolerant of the Irish.

But in other cases the ethnic jokes are addressed against those who are historically seen as the aggressors, like the multiple jokes published in Mexico about the Americans (also called gringos there). Similar jokes have also been published in Barcelona. However, Jew jokes and Italian American jokes in the USA have generated controversy on the level of how offensive they can be, though not as politically charged than, say, African American or black jokes told by non-blacks in the USA are viewed as rude, immoral and socially unacceptable.[citation needed]

As public awareness of racism has increased, racial and ethnic jokes have become increasingly socially unacceptable in recent years, and have become socially taboo to tell in public in many regions. This can however, depend on who is telling the joke. For example, it may be deemed offensive for a white person to make a joke about Asians, whereas it would be more acceptable for an Asian to make a similar joke about their own culture, or an Asian make a joke about white people can be variously funny or offending to some extent. Many comedians from diverse ethnic backgrounds do this on a regular basis, about whites, other groups and themselves.[citation needed]

It is sometimes held that such stereotypes must contain a grain of truth; research suggests that this is most often not the case. However, it is claimed by some that ethnic jokes have a basis in fact, and some ethnic jokes deliberately try to prove their point, for instance:

Ethnic jokes are often aimed at minorities within certain regions, or peoples from neighbouring areas. A common ethnic joke format is the "stupid person" joke, where the stock character, who is the butt of the joke, belongs to an ethnic group singled out for abuse. Such jokes are often interchangeable, with the stigmatized group varying from region to region (e.g. the English tell such jokes about the Irish, Canadians about people from the province of Newfoundland, or "Newfie"s). And in the USA, jokes about inhabitants of the state of Oklahoma, or "Okies" date back from the 1930s when many migrated to California as a result of the Dust bowl disaster.[citation needed]

In other ethnic jokes, the targeted ethnic group is one that has historically been associated with the privileged ruling class, as in the "Jan van der Merwe" jokes of South Africa, which make fun of Afrikaners (Jan van der Merwe being a stereotypical Dutch name). People with different skin colour may be singled out for offensive jokes, with Black people being an example of a common target in certain countries. People of Pakistani and Bangladeshi descent, who are a substantial minority group in England, are the target of similar jokes. Jews (and sometimes Poles as well) are also a common target of ethnic jokes within Europe and North America.[citation needed].

Some ethnic targets, such as the gallegos (people from Galicia, which could refer to either Galicia in Eastern Europe (Poland and Ukraine) or Galicia in Spain, are a target for ethnic jokes in Latin America (e.g. Costa Rica or Argentina), perhaps just for the name, not that such groups are of any notice in Latin America. In Costa Rica, there are Nicaraguan jokes, due to the influx of Nicaraguan immigrants (often illegal) looking for jobs. And Mexican jokes in the USA have became unpopular, due to social protest by Mexican Americans and immigrant rights groups.