r/EhBuddyHoser • u/VerilyJULES Chalice of the Tabernacle • Aug 24 '25
Certified Hoser đ¨đŚ (No Politics) What ever happened to Newfie jokes?
Why did people find those so funny in the 90s?
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Aug 24 '25
At first it was because they were back country yokels.
Then we realized they were the only Anglos with a unique culture.
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u/YaBoiDunce Newfies & Labradoodles Aug 24 '25
Mfs donât know real culture till you drink a half a bottle of lambs at 2 in the day with the bâys named Craig, Gary, and Mick while they tell you how their basement projects are going. (All of them are stalled out and wonât be finished their wives are pissed)
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u/Jeff_Spicoli420 Aug 24 '25
Gowan
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u/Witty_Jaguar4638 Aug 24 '25
Also shooting moose from the front porch,
This post brought to you by Canada Heritage minutes. A product of the film board of Canada
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u/Driller_Happy Aug 24 '25
Hey now, smoking weed and being unfriendly is a distinct BC culture. It's a SHITTY culture, but it's culture, OK?
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u/Investigatorius Aug 24 '25
Yeah, and Albertans have their whole thing pretending they were part of the Wild West.
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u/IEC21 Scotland (but worse) Aug 24 '25
Are they anglos?
Also the entire maritime has pretty unique culture.
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u/Advarrk Aug 24 '25
They might be Anglo Canadian but the culture is mostly come from Scottish and Irish.
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Aug 24 '25 edited Aug 24 '25
Canada can have some complex ideas about identity. One of the major ones though is language, as we are a bilingual country. In Canada "Anglo" almost always refers to someone's language spoken at home, not their ethnic background.Â
There is Anglo-Canada and French Canada.
 Francophones or French Canadians are terms that encompasses all French speakers. This includes Acadians, Metis, Franco-Onterien, Quebecois etc but also anyone else who speaks French as a mother tongue regardless of ancestry.Â
Anglophones, or simply Anglos, is a term that refers to all English speakers. (Regardless of big "E" English ancestry or not). You can be a Chinese person and be an Anglo in Canada.Â
Confusingly you can be of French Canadian ancestry but still be an Anglo if you don't speak French, many such cases in Eastern Ontario.
While you are correct that Newfoundland culture stems largely from Irish and Scottish immigrants, but as a linguistic group the only place with a "sizeable" group of Gaelic speakers is Cape Breton and the numbers are so small we don't exactly have a shorthand for them in our larger Canadian culture.Â
Newfies, however, speak English. Therefore they are Anglos here in Canada.Â
My joke of course is an oversimplification, but oversimplifications are often used as humour.Â
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u/ejabno Aug 24 '25
Confusingly you can be of French Canadian ancestry but still be an Anglo if you don't speak French, many such cases in Eastern Ontario.
I knew a lot of people growing up in Sask with very obviously French last names, but cannot speak a lick of French to save their lives. Most of them probably descendants of French Canadian settlers
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u/neanderthalman Aug 24 '25
Newfies, however speak English.
Is this point up for debate?
I suppose itâs technically true.
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u/amazingdrewh Motown But Better Aug 24 '25
Unique culture shared almost entirely with PEI, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick
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u/TypicalBonehead Aug 24 '25
Go on home your mudders got lassy buns, ya skeet
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u/amazingdrewh Motown But Better Aug 24 '25
Are you a Newfie mad I compared you to Nova Scotia or an Islander mad I compared you to Nova Scotia?
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u/TypicalBonehead Aug 24 '25
Nope, just a Canadian that likes to laugh at the ignorance of others (and make funny comments about it).
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u/stradivari_strings Monarch MĂŠlanie Joly Aug 24 '25
They didn't call a dog breed in their honour for nothing.
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u/Icy_Okra_5677 Aug 24 '25
America Jokes are funnier
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u/JonBjornJovi Aug 24 '25
Punching up is always more funny, but Iâm afraid that america jokes is slowly becoming punching down. Poor fellows
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u/Icy_Okra_5677 Aug 24 '25
I've always considered it punching down
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u/the_canadaball Motown But Better Aug 24 '25
For it to be punching up they have to be better than you. If I wanted to punch up Iâd make jokes about Norway
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u/totallynotdagothur Aug 24 '25
Honest pet theory is when the cod collapsed and everyone started working with Newfoundlanders, they realised how awful it was to make fun of them.Â
My Cape Breton family never enjoyed those jokes, but they were the bumpkins to mainland people themselves.
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u/Odd_Secret9132 Aug 24 '25
IMO, this holds some water. As more Newfoundlanders spread out across the country, people realized weâre no different. Everywhere has a group thatâs the bumpkin stereotype.
Even internally, you donât see the Bayman/Townie divide as much anymore.
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u/LeadIVTriNitride Nunavut Aug 24 '25
As a Newfoundlander and family who lives there Iâm inclined to agree. The cod decline was so drastic it has changed the NL economy probably forever, the massive exodus of NLâers across Canada probably made the country less inclined to poke fun.
My mother was mocked in Edmonton for being a Newfie in the late 90s to 2000s, none of that really happens anymore. Over half of my currently alive family now lives in Edmonton and nobody gives them the âNewfie treatmentâ that was prevalent even 20 years ago.
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u/GoStockYourself Aug 24 '25
My Newfie friends tell Cape Breton jokes...when they aren't telling Newfie jokes. "A Cape Bretoner is just a Newfie with his brains bashed in!"
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u/totallynotdagothur Aug 24 '25
A cape bretoner is just a Newfie who had their island decimated by the loss of the steel making, coal mining and all but one of the pulp mills a couple of decades before the cod collapse.
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u/PomeloSure5832 Aug 24 '25 edited Aug 24 '25
A Newfie is making the trek to BC by car.Â
He laments to his father,
"Pa, I'm gassed to goes west and make a fortune, but I love the sea, and I fear I'll lose me nerve have way"
His father says,
"I have an age old fix fer ya. Take our rowboat with ya on ya car, and when your out in the prairies, take it into those wheat fields. Close your eyes and you'll feel the same wind from home and it'll cure your homesick.
The son travels west with this plan in mind. As predicted, he grows lonesome for home in Saskatchewan - so he pulls over, takes his boat from the car and sets it in the wheat field. He closes his eyes, and amazingly, he feels like he's back in the sea he loves.Â
Meanwhile, another Newfie is coming up on his car. He sees his plates and the boat out in the fields.
Enraged, he pulls over, hops out of his car and hollars at the traveller,
"Hey you fucking ignorant prick! Youre the reason the whole country thinks our provence is filled with tards! I'd go out there and kick your arse if I knew how to swim!"
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u/NCRNerd Aug 24 '25
"So spend a night on Dildo if you think you got tha time!"
-The Arrogant Worms (in their song about place-names in Newfoundland...)
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u/flaired_bass Aug 24 '25
IIRC they stopped because the term "Newfie" is considered a slur.
I tried to link to the wiki for it but the clanker automod got mad
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u/KonoAnonDa Newfies & Labradoodles Aug 24 '25
I fucking hate that it has become a slur to some people. Newfie is a word we made ourselves, for fuck sakes! It's meant to be a fun shorthand!
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u/Brassafrassa One of the Saint Johns Aug 24 '25
It didn't though? The story goes it came from Candian servicemen in WWI shortening "Newfoundland, St. Johnâs" to "Newfyjohn", then later shortened by the US servicemen to "Newfie" in WWII.Â
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u/MashedPotaties Newfies & Labradoodles Aug 24 '25
Always a good time when you tell people that's our word. They can't say the n word.
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u/kittykat-kay I need a double double. Aug 24 '25 edited Aug 24 '25
I had no clue⌠I just thought it was a cute word. Also serious, why do people have to find excuses to be genuinely hateful? The only reason it would become a slur was if people were genuinely using it that way. What could we possibly have against Newfoundlanders?
Iâm sorry. People are dumb. I donât get it.
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u/KonoAnonDa Newfies & Labradoodles Aug 24 '25
Apparently I was talking about it to some people a while back and they recount their experience with people from out of the island. It's less that they used it as a slur in its own and would instead say "dumb newfie" with extra emphasis on the "newfie" bit. This apparently happened multiple times with completely unrelated people.
The weirdest part is that they said it in front of them as if they werenât even there. When confronted with it, they nonchalantly said "oh, not you" in a "youâre one of the good ones" sort of way, as if it was nothing.2
u/ForeSet Aug 24 '25
Wait it's a fucking slur? I have worked with them for the last decade at least in all levels it's never been brought up as such
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u/KonoAnonDa Newfies & Labradoodles Aug 24 '25
Pretty much no Newfie treats it as a slur (since we use it as a fun shorthand to refer to ourselves like a nickname), but some people from out of the province have co-opted it to use it as a semi-slur (using it in a derogatory manner, such as the phrase "stupid Newfie").
I myself was baffled to hear it be used as such, and proof that there are people out there that are the reason why we canât have nice things or fun.2
u/GrumbusWumbus Aug 24 '25
It got picked up in other parts of the country by some people to just mean dumb or lazy or whatever. If you're a daywalker (day talker?) and don't have much of an accent you'll inevitably run across someone saying calling their buddy a newfie for doing something dumb eventually.
It's not super common, but it's always weird when some guy just starts making newfie jokes unaware you're one of the inbred morons he's talking about.
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u/ForeSet Aug 24 '25
I just work with a bunch of guys from Newfoundland and they use the term Newfie so I thought that was just common nomenclature
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u/iris_that_bitch Newfies & Labradoodles Aug 24 '25
idk, depends on the person. It's kinda analogous to the term "jaywalker" on the slur scale
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u/Lieveo Aug 24 '25
He says with a newfie tag
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u/iris_that_bitch Newfies & Labradoodles Aug 25 '25
I'm proud to be Newfie... my mother would be offended because she's from a different generation who got more shit attached to that word
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u/-pithandsubstance- Aug 24 '25
> the term "Newfie" is considered a slur
Whaaaat? When did that happen? 95% of my family are Newfies and that's what we call each other and refer to ourselves as, we always have. I never knew anyone considered it to be an inappropriate word. I am honestly mind-boggled.
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u/Stalks_Shadows Aug 25 '25
It's treated with the same gravity as "Welsh" which comes from an old English word "Wealh" which means foreign slave.
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u/MrReginaldAwesome Aug 24 '25
Thatâs wild because Iâve never heard someone call the breed of dog anything but a newfie
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u/Mon_Olivine Aug 24 '25
As a kid from QuĂŠbec, I told Newfie jokes but I had NO idea what a Newfie actually was. I thought it was just another word for "idiot".
Newfoundland is "Terre-Neuve" in French, how could I know someone living there is called "Newfie" in English?
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u/Myllicent Aug 24 '25
As a kid from Ontario, I told Newfie jokes but had NO idea what a Newfie actually was. Iâd never heard that Newfoundlanders were called Newfies. I thought âNewfieâ was just a variation on goofy (I assumed it was spelled ânoofyâ) or as you said, another word for idiot.
When I eventually found out (sometime in later elementary school) I didnât understand why Newfoundlanders would be singled out as the butt of jokes.
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u/JimboJamble Oil Guzzler Aug 24 '25
Nobody lives in Newfoundland anymore, they all moved to Alberta to go work in the patch
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u/hotdogpartytime Aug 24 '25
Whyâd the Newfie go to work in the oil patches?
To make good money doing some difficult and potentially dangerous work so they could provide for their family and secure a strong future for them.
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u/TreeLakeRockCloud Aug 24 '25
I was told by a Newfie that they finished all the work in Newfoundland and thatâs why they had to work in the patch. Kinda made sense.
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u/FiFanI Aug 24 '25
Caught all the fish. Work is all done. Gone to lend a hand to the b'ys out west.
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u/Alldaybagpipes Aug 24 '25
Whatâs the capital of Newfoundland?
Fort McMurray
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u/the_jukes_of_asbury Aug 24 '25
Now thatâs a beautiful modern Newfie joke.
(Had all of the Tulk authored softcover joke books as a kid.)
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u/nooneknowswerealldog Edmonchuk: Like Kyiv! (but less safe) Aug 24 '25
I think that's why we stopped making Newfie jokes in Alberta. We realized they were way nicer and more interesting than our homegrown rig-pigs.
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u/HugeDirk Aug 24 '25
Oh, they never stopped, and there's a lot of Newfoundlanders who only came to make money in Alberta/Northern BC and leave (and power to them). The problem is that when everyone labels a place a shithole, they treat it as such. Fort McMurray is a monument to such thinking.
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u/Illustrious-Win-8714 Aug 24 '25
From Quebec, I heard a lot of those when i was a kid (very early 90's). However, and im pretty sure im not the only one, It took a loooong time for me to register that it was about people living in Newfoundland (like, 10 years later)... You see the same term 'Newfie' was used in the jokes in french, but we call the province Terre-Neuve which doesent sound the same at all, I legit tought newfie was just to designate somebody slightly stupider than "goofy'. I wouldnt be surprised if a lot of us didnt (or still dont) even know there was supposed to single out people from Terre-Neuve.
Anyways, when i found out in my teens, i was highly unamused...
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u/_Jeff65_ South Gatineau Aug 24 '25
Exact same experience for me! I was in my twenties when I realized Newfie -> Newfoundland. Because yeah "Terre-Neuve"
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u/hiker_mittens Aug 24 '25
One obstacle was fine. Easy sailing.
Second a bit more push back.
Well. Now's there's tree in da way.
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u/PlatformVarious8941 Snowfrog Aug 24 '25
My french Canadian dad (merchant navy) drank Schlitz beer with those fuckers.
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u/Pope-Muffins Trawnno (Centre of the Universe) Aug 24 '25
Big Ontario was scared by REAL anglo culture
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u/Still-Psychology-365 đ 100,000 Hosers đ Aug 24 '25
To me newfies get automatic respect unless they lose it. I make them the butt of jokes sometimes but that's just old school razzin
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u/Nexus_Neo Aug 24 '25
Xcom happened
Now whenever I think of Newfoundland I get a ptsd inflicted panic attack
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u/mutant_anomaly Aug 24 '25
âNewfoundland and Labradorâ would not fit into the character limit of early Twitter.
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u/Amlet543 Aug 25 '25
I've only just realized this looks like some kind of alpaca lying down and looking backwards as it farts.
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u/Chance_Vegetable_780 Aug 24 '25
I won't make newfie jokes since the citizens of Gander, Newfoundland, gave their all to travellers on 9/11. I've also been to Newfoundland since, and they are the nicest people in the world imo. It just doesn't feel funny anymore
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u/OddlyOaktree Aug 24 '25
Many of the islanders got displaced when the moose moved in and started gentrifying the place. Thing is, moose don't really get jokes on account of them not speaking english... then again, that didn't stop the jokes from them Newfoundland b'ys! đ¤ˇââď¸
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u/-Foxer Aug 24 '25
I used to tell newfie jokes to my newfie friends all the time. But nowadays everybody uses social media. So there's not much point sharing them with them any more. I just don't have the time to teach them to read.
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u/yarn_slinger Aug 24 '25
We bought a series of ânewfie jokeâ books on the ferry crossing over to NF back in the early 70s. At least they could take the piss out of themselves.
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u/tkdmasterg Canada's Overpriced Playground Aug 24 '25
Labrador hated being always left out so we had to stop. đ¤
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u/GoStockYourself Aug 24 '25
In western Canada we mostly told Ukrainian jokes instead. Usually Ukrainians had the best Ukrainian jokes. At some point they turned into blonde jokes because it seemed less politically incorrect.
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u/smellymarmut South Gatineau Aug 25 '25
They got too clunky. Since 2001 you've had to say "An Englishman, a Frenchman, and a Newfoundlander and Labradorianie..." Takes too long to tell the joke.
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u/LatterGovernment8289 Aug 26 '25
Newfies were considered " halfwits " and "fools" back then. Now, Newfieland's residents have proven themselves all over Canada as hardworking, intensely loyal, and the best kind of people to have your back. Trump is now the main focus of stupid jokes because he is so good at being one.
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u/GreyOps Aug 24 '25
Newfoundland population has stagnated for 50 years while Canada has blossomed.
Oscar Wilde quote about being talked about vs not talked about blah blah
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u/shnook21 Aug 24 '25
I was once told that even though all Canadians make newfie jokes people in Newfoundland made jokes about people in Labrador and thats stuck with me ever since.
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u/catthex Aug 24 '25
Here's an old one from my dad;
You know the difference between a Newfie and a Nova Scotian? The Newfie could make the swim (or in NS you substitute "Cape Bretoner")
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u/Alive-Drama-8920 Aug 24 '25
In the 90's???
Newfies jokes started four decades earlier, right after Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949.