American here: when I read that in my own accent I didn’t get it, so I backed up and read the punchline in an English accent and I laughed. Funny how that works

they haven’t aged well

This sort of humor in general hasn’t aged well. I think this sort of thing is still funny when it’s a surprise, ie used sparingly.

There was an advert in Australia in the early 2000s with that joke too for a car insurance company.

I think so; except leaning more heavily on promiscuity?

They definitely are!

I had a thought about finding similarly themed jokes about men, but haven’t had any luck yet. It’s true that a good number of blond jokes could be gender agnostic so long as they are just about intelligence.

Many probably are adaptations of old jokes. I've heard that one in a neutral version, in my native language, and now here. But yeah, not nice to target women.

The fact that it's usually women doing the dumb thing is problematic, but these jokes are easily mapped onto whoever you want to denigrate. As a Montana, these were often jokes about North Dakota, and as the scion of a large Norwegian clan, I also often heard these as Sven and Ole jokes.

To me the latter is actually a funnier way to approach them, because it's two characters who everyone knows are dumb (and who are stand-ins for those people in your life who act this way) and you're not just blanket insulting a whole group of people.

You're right. But add rich and disconnected too. I've never been, but I think Essex is Beverly Hills with bad weather.

Edit: I love being corrected here. I can't believe how wrong I was. If anyone is interested in the post-mortem of this disinformation, I love British panel shows and hate reality TV. So jokes about The Only Way is Essex completely blend together with Made in Chelsea. I think I thought they were the same because my brain turns off when reality TV comes up.

Holy shit it's a joke. You take the fun out of everything, if you don't like it that's ok, just shut up

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.

It's tricky to define but it has to do with proximity to London (Capital city) and the developing existence of influencers or (it girls) as they were known, combined with poor education and you had a generation of glamorous idiots, that were identified as being from Essex early. Think early Kim Kardashian such as Jordan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katie_Price

I would say Essex is stereotyped as being relatively affluent but lacking class, and is often a source of jokes.

I tried to find a succinct explanation but couldn't so if you want a long read