“I didn’t think there was a class system in the U.S.” (joke)
Entry in progress—B.P.
Google Books
The Nation
Volume 236
1983
Pg. 388:
An Oxford professor meets a former Ph.D. student and courteously inquires what he’s working on these days. “l’m writing a book,” says the other, “on the survival of the class system in America.”
“Really, how fascinating. l didn’t think they had a class system in America.”
“Nobody does. That’s how it survives.” As long as this joke (if it is a joke) has any point, it will be futile to dismiss Marx as “irrelevant.”
CounterPunch
NOVEMBER 29, 2010
The Rich Have Nothing to Worry About
Why Not Declare Class War and be Done With It
by DAVID MACARAY
(...)
There’s an old joke: An Oxford professor meets a former student and asks what he’s been up to. The student tells him he’s working on his doctoral thesis, whose topic is the survival of the class system in the U.S. The prof expresses surprise. “I didn’t think there was a class system in the U.S.,” he says. “Nobody does,” the student replies. “That’s how it survives.”
Google Books
Hitch-22:
Some Confessions and Contradictions
By Christopher Hitchen
London: Atlantic
2010
Pg. 217:
An old joke has an Oxford professor meeting an American former graduate student and asking him what he’s working on these days. “My thesis is on the survival of the class system in the United States.” “Oh really, that’s interesting: one didn’t think there was a class system in the United States.“That’s how “Nobody does. That’s how it survives.”
The Huffington Post
David MacarayLabor columnist, playwright and author
It’s Class Warfare, Plain and Simple
Posted: 09/26/2013 5:08 pm
It’s an old joke, but it bears repeating: An Oxford professor meets a former student on the street. He asks what he’s been up to lately. The student tells him he’s working on a doctoral thesis about the survival of the class system in the United States. The professor expresses surprise. “I didn’t think there was a class system in the United States,” he says. “Nobody does,” the student replies. “That’s how it survives.”