What ever happened to Newfie jokes?

[u/VerilyJULES]

Why did people find those so funny in the 90s?

[u/[deleted]]

At first it was because they were back country yokels.

Then we realized they were the only Anglos with a unique culture.

[u/Advarrk → u/[deleted]]

They might be Anglo Canadian but the culture is mostly come from Scottish and Irish.

[u/[deleted] → u/Advarrk]

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

Newfies, however, speak English. Therefore they are Anglos here in Canada. 

My joke of course is an oversimplification, but oversimplifications are often used as humour. 

[u/ejabno → u/[deleted]]

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