There is apparently some basis for the hormone oxytocin increasing distrust of outsiders, including among racial lines. I’ve posted some of the results I found below:
I think it’s likely that it’s humorous in a similar way to the kind of jokes you can hear on Comedy Central where a comedian is telling jokes about white stereotypes. If you’re inside a well respected group, (And I think we consider red haired people to be an insider of the well respected group in the U.S.) and you are hearing jokes about your own flaws, it is amusing,because it isn’t really a threat. On the other hand, if you actually suffer through prejudice as a result of your traits, hearing jokes about yourself from an outsider is not funny, because it feels like they are flaunting their superiority over you.
For public postings on the web specifically, I suppose you would want to consider that your audience is everyone. So some of the Red haired people will see it and go “Red haired Jokes! It’s a classic! Yes I do drink like a fish!” and some of them will go “More stupid Red haired jokes? Just what I need, another reminder of getting tripped on Tuesday and having it blamed on my alcoholism. I don’t even drink.” depending on whether they experience predjudice or not.
There is apparently some basis for the hormone oxytocin increasing distrust of outsiders, including among racial lines. I’ve posted some of the results I found below:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2011/01/11/no-love-for-outsiders-oxytocin-boosts-favouritism-towards-our-own-ethnic-or-cultural-group/
http://www.livescience.com/6570-love-hormone-lead-war.html
This link requires you to have journal access: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/328/5984/1343.1.short
I think it’s likely that it’s humorous in a similar way to the kind of jokes you can hear on Comedy Central where a comedian is telling jokes about white stereotypes. If you’re inside a well respected group, (And I think we consider red haired people to be an insider of the well respected group in the U.S.) and you are hearing jokes about your own flaws, it is amusing,because it isn’t really a threat. On the other hand, if you actually suffer through prejudice as a result of your traits, hearing jokes about yourself from an outsider is not funny, because it feels like they are flaunting their superiority over you.
For public postings on the web specifically, I suppose you would want to consider that your audience is everyone. So some of the Red haired people will see it and go “Red haired Jokes! It’s a classic! Yes I do drink like a fish!” and some of them will go “More stupid Red haired jokes? Just what I need, another reminder of getting tripped on Tuesday and having it blamed on my alcoholism. I don’t even drink.” depending on whether they experience predjudice or not.