I'm from the Inland Empire here in SoCal I have to make jokes or the sirens call of the inferno starts to eat away at ones mind.

Isn't that just Sunday?

"See no Evil, Hear no Evil" - 1989 Funney comedy, has my previous comment as a line in it.

Yes I think there are some differences between racism in the UK and the US

I mean, there's no way of knowing with any certainty from this image alone whether or not the guy is tending the fire competently...

But it is actually not as simple as 'just throw on another log'.

How long do you want the fire to burn?

How hot do you want the fire to burn?

Do you have an accelerant, or no?

Is your timber and kindling very dry or very wet?

Is your timber and kindling going to need to burn through bark or not?

How sappy is your timber and kindling?

How hot or cold or windy is it, is it expected to become?

All these things and more can and do affect the initial layout of the campfire, how to adjust it and maintain it to keep it going at the rate and intensity you want it to, especially if the desired goal state of the fire changes, and/or environmental conditions change or are expected to change significantly.

...

Anyway, the 'joke' could be more or less racially based.

I'd say yeah, you probably are more likely to find a random white guy that uh... knows all the stuff I just previously said, but thats because a random white guy (in the US, at least) is more likely to have come from a family that could afford camping trips, could send their kids to the scouts or something.

(This is basically the same root behind the 'black people don't know how to swim' uh, 'joke'.)

(Yep, turns out you're more likely to learn how to swim if your parents could afford to / were not segregated out of living in a community with access to pools or beaches)

Again though, there's no real way from the given context to determine... whether or not the image was made by someone aware of this, and is referencing that...

... or if they're just making a very basic, pithy, uninformed, surface level observation...

or somewhere in between this.

...

There could also be an element of sexism to the 'joke', if you interperet 'and I respect that' as completely sarcastic, sort of going along with your interpretation.

'Oh, clearly this dude doesn't know what he's doing, he's just trying to look like he knows what he's doing.'

...

So yeah, if your 'joke' is possibly racist, possibly sexist, unclear about whether or not it actually is, and generally illicits confusion when it is described or explained as a joke...

Then uh, I agree with you, its not a very good joke.

...

Also, to perhaps clarify younger / more modern slang:

'really fucks with', to maybe a millenial or older, would mean that you keep consistently interfering with or engaging with some person or process or activity.

But! To Gen Z / A, 'really fucks with' is closer to... 'spends their time' or 'engages at all' or even 'is seriously dedicated to'.

Like if I asked a Gen A if they knew person A, they could respond, 'No, I don't really fuck with person A'.

And that would basically mean that they don't know them that well, or at all.

Whereas if a millenial or older person said 'I don't really fuck with person A'... that would be more like a denial of bullying or harassing them.

The Gen Z/A usage of 'fucks with' is much more morally/intent neutral, wheras the Millenial/Older usage is more morally/intent negative.

Mmm, but what if a log falls over? Or all of one side of a piece of wood burns? Or someone decides they wanna make s'mores and they need a good spot for it?

Thx for the info!