I actually considered writing “cardiologists” instead of “pianists” :-).
I think what’s needed is some sort of context in which the thought “group X are all criminals” is salient (even if only as a deliberate exaggeration). For someone who has strongly anti-black attitudes, that thought may be salient all the time when X = black people. For someone who’s just heard about some statistics saying that pianists commit a bit more crime, it’s probably salient enough because they’ve specifically been thinking about pianists and crime. But e.g. a few years after that criminologists’ conference, when everyone’s aware that pianists commit a bit more crime but no one particularly hates pianists as a result or anything, I don’t think they’d find the joke funny.
I actually considered writing “cardiologists” instead of “pianists” :-).
I think what’s needed is some sort of context in which the thought “group X are all criminals” is salient (even if only as a deliberate exaggeration). For someone who has strongly anti-black attitudes, that thought may be salient all the time when X = black people. For someone who’s just heard about some statistics saying that pianists commit a bit more crime, it’s probably salient enough because they’ve specifically been thinking about pianists and crime. But e.g. a few years after that criminologists’ conference, when everyone’s aware that pianists commit a bit more crime but no one particularly hates pianists as a result or anything, I don’t think they’d find the joke funny.