Quick Thoughts Between Final Assignments

I'm reading a lot about jokes right now. Many jokes, and especially the ones I'm researching, center on unsavory topics. Racist, sexist, sexual, offensive jokes.

I wonder if jokes, like The Aristocrats and dead baby jokes, that seem to aim to be as horrible as possible, are an attempt to appear bullet proof. "No. Not that. Not even that will bother me." If I laugh at it, it can't hurt me.

When people can't take a joke, they are accused of having no sense of humor, ridiculed even. The joke teller hasn't hurt them. They are allowing themselves to be hurt by not laughing. But, just yesterday I read that although it is human to have a sense of humor, it is also human to be offended (Paul Lewis in A Decade of Dark Humor).

Life is hard. It is probably good that we can laugh most things off. But we aren't bulletproof. A few barbs sting. (I've been finding my own amidst the many I've been reading.) I say, let them. It is human to be vulnerable.

The Folklore Around Growing Up

I was thinking recently about one of the rhymes my friends and I used to say during hand-clapping games when I was in elementary school.

Miss Susie had a steamboat.
The steamboat had a bell.
Miss Susie went to heaven.
The steamboat went to...

Hello, operator,
Please give me number nine.
And if you disconnect me,
I'll kick you from...

Behind the 'frigerator,
There was a piece of glass.
Miss Susie sat upon it,
And broke her little...

Ask me no more questions.
I'll tell you no more lies.
The boys are in the bathroom,
Zipping up their...

Flies are in the meadow.
The bees are in the park.
I saw two people kissing,
In the D-A-R-K, D-A-R-K,
Dark, dark, dark!

Dark is like a movie.
A movie's like a show.
A show is like a TV.
I know, I know, I know.

I know I know my ma.
I know I know my pa.
I know I know my sister,
With the eighty meter bra!

First of all, notice how sound-reliant this is. "Naughty" words are implied at the end of most sections. We know what these words are thanks to the context and the expected rhyme. But then the next section begins with a word that sounds similar.

What I also think is interesting about this rhyme is that it reveals some of the curiosity children have about growing up. It is exciting just to see people kissing. Big sister wears a bra and would probably be embarrassed by the suggestion that it is eighty meters long. Or maybe it just seems that big compared to the training bra of a pre-teen.

This got me thinking about other child folklore that is specific to this transitional age. There is a joke I remember from my childhood that I've wondered whether I would hear from a student. Of course I haven't. It is too "dirty." I'm sure some of them know, if not this joke, one like it. But they aren't about to repeat it to a teacher. (Probably a good thing for them and for me).

An American traveling in a foreign country came to a city ruled by a king. The king had one daughter and no other children. He was very concerned with continuing his family line. So, he had decreed that whomever could get his daughter pregnant could marry her and become the next king.
The American thought he would give it a try. The king spoke some English and they were able to make the arrangements. The daughter did not speak English, but she understood what was going on, so the American figured that wouldn't be a problem.
He spent the night with the king's daughter. They started having sex and the young woman cried out, "Na-panly!" [The joke-teller makes up a foreign-sounding word.] The American didn't know what that meant, so he kept going. She cried out again, "Na-panly! Na-panly!"
In the morning the king asked the American how the night went. The American answered that everything seemed to be fine and he expected he would prove to be the next king. But, he did have one question. The king's daughter had repeatedly said, "Na-panly." He wondered what that meant.
The king gave the American a critical look and told him he would certainly not be the next king. "Na-panly" means "wrong hole."

As an adult, I find this joke fascinating. It relies entirely on an inexact knowledge of sex for it's humor. With the exception of those so mystified by the female anatomy they honestly believe someone could mistake one orifice for another, most adults realize this mistake simply doesn't happen. But a tween who knows just a little bit about sex could totally buy it.

Children who are on the cusp of growing up seem to create their own category of folklore that allows them to "talk" about slightly uncomfortable topics without really talking about them. They aren't getting good information this way, but maybe laughter is helping to ease their tension.

The White House

I love jokes because they are an element of modern folklore that still circulates by word-of-mouth. When I teach folklore, in addition to reading (and telling) folktales, I talk about jokes and urban legends. I have the students tell me jokes.

I hear some of the same jokes from year to year, some new ones, and some that have been around since I was a kid.

I do have to coach the students not to tell jokes that are culturally insensitive. I'm not talking about viciously racist jokes. I'm talking about jokes that make fun of how someone talks. The kids haven't quite figured out yet that that is inappropriate. Also, do consider the fact that all jokes are making fun of someone (maybe even the listener!), so for a young person it might be difficult to distinguish when it is harmless to make fun of another person and when it is hurtful. I'm willing to help them to start considering these things.

One particular joke came up this year that was interesting to me because I think it has been around for a while, and it wasn't so much about race when it originated, but it kind of is now. How offensive the joke is also depends on how it is told.

The blue man lives in the blue house.
The red man lives in the red house.
The orange man lives in the orange house.
Who lives in the White House?
Answer: The President

This is, I think, the original version of the joke. You could make an argument that it always had some racial undertones, since it is referring to people by color. But it seems mostly harmless.

Now that we have a President "of color" it is a little more problematic, though. Because the joke is setting the listener up (this is one of those jokes that is "on" the listener, by the way, since it is trying to trick you) to say, "The white man." And, in fact, the man living in the White House is not white.

What is even more problematic is when the joke is told like this:

The blue man lives in the blue house.
The red man lives in the red house.
The orange man lives in the orange house.
Where does the brown man live?
Answer: The White House

I really heard the joke told this way and didn't have time to stop it. I thought I knew what was coming. I was wrong.

The question is, did the child partially remember the joke and mix up the ending? Or, are people telling it this way, now, too?

What does it say about our society when we expect the white man to be in the White House and "joke's on us" when he isn't? Even worse, what does it say about us when we expect the brown man to be in the brown house?

I don't think my students meant either version of this joke in either of those ways. But jokes don't just tell us about the individuals who tell them. Jokes tell us about the folk groups in which the jokes circulate. Someone out there telling these jokes probably does know that they aren't that nice.

Modern Oral Tradition in Action

This is a story from when I was working in the Children's Area of the Athens-Clarke County Library:

There were two sisters who befriended me and my coworker and who came to the library to see us once or twice a week. They were 9 and 11 years old. One day, when only the older girl was there. The three of us started telling silly jokes. I told them the joke about the duck that walks into a bar:

One day, a duck walked into a bar and asked the bar tender "Do you have any duck food?"
The bar tender said "No."
The next day, the duck walked into the bar and asked the bar tender "Do you have any duck food?"
The bar tender said "No."
The next day, the duck walked into the bar again and asked the bar tender "Do you have any duck food?"
The bar tender said, "No, I don't have any duck food, and if you ask me again, I'm going to nail your little webbed feet to the bar."
The next day, the duck walked into the bar and asked the bar tender "Do you have any nails?"
The bar tender said "No."
"Good," said the duck, "Do you have any duck food."

My coworker and our friend both thought the joke was pretty funny. A few days later, both the girl and her younger sister were visiting us. The older girl decided to tell this joke to her sister. This is how she told it:

One day, a duck walked into a barn and asked the farmer "Do you have any duck food?"
The farmer said "No."
The next day, the duck walked into the barn and asked the farmer "Do you have any duck food?"
The farmer said "No."
The next day, the duck walked into the barn again and asked the farmer "Do you have any duck food?"
The farmer said, "No, I don't have any duck food, and if you ask me again, I'm going to nail your little webbed feet to the barn floor."
The next day, the duck walked into the barn and asked the farmer "Do you have any nails?"
The farmer said "No."
"Good," said the duck, "Do you have any duck food."

This reveals something of how our minds remember stories and jokes we hear. She remembered the heart of the joke, what made it funny, and filled in the rest with what made the most sense to her. An adult hears this joke and is immediately reminded of other "bar jokes":

Bacon and eggs walked into a bar and the bar tender said, "We don't serve breakfast."

A rope walked into a bar and the bar tender said, "We don't serve your kind."

The rope walked back outside, tangled himself up, ruffled his ends, and then walked back in.

The bar tender said, "You're not a rope, are you?"

"Nope, I'm a frayed knot."

(My new favorite from my sister, who is a piano teacher.)

C, E flat, and G walked into a bar. The bar tender said, "We don't serve minors."

So, E flat left and C and G shared a fifth.

No, what a child thinks of when she hears the joke is something more along the lines of, "Old MacDonald had a farm..."

So that's how she tells it, as a farm joke, not as a bar joke.

The best part is, it's still funny.

Saying it Makes it True

There are a group of jokes and urban legends that get passed around that center on the concept of "vagina infinita."

Exemplum gratia:

A man gets lost in a vagina and is wandering around for days when he finally runs into another man. He asks, "Hey, do you know the way out of here?"
The other man answers, "Not exactly, but if you help me look for my car keys we should be able to drive out."

The lead cheerleader acrobatically makes her way to the top of the human pyramid and once she is up there the class rings of the entire football team fall out of her skirt.

Now, it's bad enough that men tell these stories, thereby perpetuating the belief that the vagina is a mysterious and frightening place, but even worse, some women are starting to buy into this mindset, as well. They don't tell the stories the same way, but they have the same message:

My friend knows this girl who had sex with a tampon in and then afterwords she couldn't find the tampon.

Women, seeing as how they possess the equipment, should know better. What is it that lends these stories enough credibility that women start to be suspicious of their own bodies? I think it is that they are primarily passed around by word of mouth.

It is true that urban legends and jokes are widely circulated on the internet. However, they are usually outside the context of a conversation. People send e-mails that consist only of jokes or have only "this story that you need to read because it could happen to you!" I don't know about you, but when I get an e-mail like this the first thing I do is check it out on snopes. These e-mails are also easy to disbelieve because they often aren't very personal. A friend has forwarded the story to you and 100 of her other closest friends after receiving it from someone else who also forwarded it to 100 people.

But, when you are having a private conversation with a girlfriend and she says, "listen to what happened to a friend of mine..." Or maybe you're even talking to a guy friend who says, "you won't believe what happened to my buddy who dated a cheerleader..." You don't automatically go into skeptic mode. Talking to another person is more intimate than e-mailing them and it is this intimacy that makes what you say more believable. And regardless of what might be scientifically accurate, if you believe a story, in some ways it becomes true. When you treat your body like it is something beyond understanding, you won't understand it.

Practical Storytelling

On the one hand, story-telling is a pastime or a form of social intercourse, associated with leisure, gregariousness, and travel. On the other hand, it may have a practical application, enforcing a point and enlivening a discourse with a parable or example. Because wit and humor add an extra seasoning to the sauce of narrative, the humorous anecdote has always been effective for the purposes of homiletic or forensic illustration, as demonstrated by the popularity of collections of stories and jokes for speakers. Thus the medieval Latin collections of exempla, or illustrative stories for use in sermons, which drew upon the storehouses of classical legend, fable and merry tales, served as a link between the folk literatures of ancient and modern times as a forerunner of the jest-book. (from A Treasury of American Folklore edited by B. A. Botkin, page 407)

Anecdotes and jokes make up an important part of the folklore for any culture. When most people hear the word 'folklore' they probably think 'folktales.' They think of Johnny Appleseed or Brer Rabbit; characters with full length stories attached to them. Anecdotes and jokes are different in format from folktales and it is because they serve a different purpose.

Botkin describes this purpose as illustrating a point. Anecdotes and jokes are not meant to be used alone, but woven into a larger argument. For example, if I am making the argument that jokes are funnier when told aloud, I might illustrate my point with this joke:

'Ask me what the secret to comedy is.'
'What's the secret to...'
'Timing. '

My argument would conclude: part of what makes a joke (or anecdote) effective is how you tell it. And in making this argument I have demonstrated how jokes and anecdotes are meant to be used in a larger context.

Notice that Botkin specifically mentions the use of anecdotes and jokes in speeches. This book may have been published in 1944, but there are plenty of professions in which public speeking is an essential skill today. In his introduction to 'Anecdotes and Jests,' Botkin goes on to talk about Abraham Lincoln as a lawyer and polititian. Plenty of writting goes into lawyering, but once a case is in the courtroom, it is effective storytelling that is going to sway the jury. And as for polititians, they have to convince us to elect them, and alot of that convincing is done in speeches.

I have previously stated that some words mean more when they are spoken aloud. Jokes do. And when someone is trying to earn our trust, tyring to get us to believe in them, their words do, too.