I from the US, just learned about these today, and had a chuckle.
an essex girl was driving down the A13 when her car phone rang. it was her boyfriend, urgently warning her “treacle, i just heard on the news that theres a car going the wrong way on the A13. please be careful!” “its not just one car!” said the essex girl “theres hundreds of them!”
From the UK, actually born in Essex. Yes, 20-30 years ago people laughed at these, me included. These days you wouldn’t tell them in public, if at all. Same as for ‘Englishman, Irishman, Scotsman’ jokes.
Anytime you’re picking on someone for a characteristic that:
That’s a bad look. These days if you tell a joke like this at work you’re likely to get bad looks and your sudden employment will look bad.
This is probably true in your little social circle but crude jokes are still told most everywhere and they will by and large still get a good knee slap.
Doesn’t make it right though.