"No tickee, no washee" - ethnic humor or racial slur?

After hearing the saying, "No tickee, no washee" for the first time a couple weeks ago, I felt a spark of curiousity to delve deeper into the origins and meaning of this controversial saying.

I found several cases arguing the actual connotation of this saying. Does it represent ethnic humor or is it a racial slur attacking a certain perceived stereotype? I found an interesting essay on the general topic of the differences between the two types, but it does not focus on the "No tickee, no washee" saying that I had in mind.

In an article I found on JSTOR, Wolfgang Mieder discusses possible contexts for which the proverb, "No tickee, no washee" could be used. The basis for this discussion is a court case in San Francisco where the proverb was used several times by one scientist towards an Asian-American scientist.

To my surprise, I actually found a short film (listed as a comedy) that was produced in 1915 called "No Tickee, No Washee". Even now, in a newly released film, The Departed, Jack Nicholson has uses a line toward a group of Asians where he is speaking about the payment for good and says, "no tickee, no laundry". I think they may be making more of a joke on the typical American in this case, being that he can't even get the saying straight.

So even today we joke about this old "proverb". I don't see it as being a racist comment unless, like in the court case that Mieder refers to, the proverb is used in a derogatory manner towards a person of Asian ethnicity (in a way to provoke them through verbal abuse).