Damien

There is a difference between telling a joke about yourself and telling a joke about someone else. You are always allowed to be more deprecating about yourself than someone else, from someone else it will seem quite hostile. This is pretty obvious so I am not sure how people always bring this up to highlight a hypocrisy, it's a understandable one that apples to all people irrespective of race and faith.

I.E I am relatively Short, I can make jokes about it, my friends can make some jokes about it and it's fine. I know it's a joke. If some random person started making jokes about it I would perceive it as a insult.

So as with anything these types of joke depend on a situation and trying to make it a simple case of "he's allowed to say it, why can't I?" is flawed.