The paper deals with ethnic stereotypes in British jokes. The focus is on the
pragmatic properties of such stereotypes and their role in intercultural and
interethnic communication. The specific characteristics of ethnic stereotypes about
the Scottish and Irish people in the British culture are considered. It is argued that
most ethnic stereotypes found in jokes are negative, which can be explained by the
nature of this genre, as well as by the functions of intergroup differentiation and
positive social identity that the stereotypes perform.