The foreskin joke reminds me of an old one my mother told me - an actual happening in Dublin in the 1930s. There was a HUGE garda who used to direct traffic in a particular spot in the city, Grafton Street, and he loved to stop Jewish motorists and make "jokes" at their expense.

Until the day when he stopped a famous doctor, an ex-rugger-player for Ireland, as it happened, not that this is apposite to the story - just a little atmosphere.

Anyway, the cop motioned for him to roll down the window, which the doc did.

"I've always wondered," the garda says. "When the doctor cuts the bits off the little Jewish boys, what does he do with them all?"

"Well, I'll tell you," said the doc. "He rolls them all up together and makes a huge big garda out of them, and he puts him at the top of Grafton Street directing the traffic."

Apparently that garda never, ever made any snide remark again, to anyone.