Author Archives: Antona Yost

Hungry Hugar

Informant is a 21 year old student at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.  He studies musical composition and business. His family tells a lot of stories, many of which he enjoys sharing with his friends at applicable times.

“A story from my mother’s childhood – her father had a thing he would do that I don’t quite exactly remember the story but I remember that it revolved around this fictional character called “Hungry Hugar*” who was a box or a bag.  Every so often when the play area got too messy Hungry Hugar would come and demand a sacrifice of one toy from each of the children.  And they would all go pick the toy that they were the least attached to and go sacrifice it to Hungry Hugar and then ferociously clean up so he wouldn’t come around again. The toys were returned to them at one point or another. It’s just a very different image from the seven kids skipping down the street** seeing them penitentially lined up before this .. pagan deity.”

*pronounced “Hooger”

**Reference to another story my informant told me in this interview

The informant says that, while this is a family story, he has shared it with friends and finds it amusing.  He says that his mother shared this story

Analysis:

This story is appealing because everyone’s family has traditions from their childhood

Viola jokes

Informant is a 21 year old student at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.  He studies musical composition and business.  A self-proclaimed pun-enthusiast, he also likes to frequently crack jokes.  As a musician, many of these are music jokes.  One of his favorite types of musical joke is “viola jokes”, a genre of musical jokes that makes fun of violas.  He shared one of his numerous viola jokes, seen below:

“Why should you never drive off a cliff with four violas in your car? … Because you could easily fit two more!”

Analysis:

More information on this genre of jokes was gained through unrecorded discussions with the informant.  Apparently, violas and violists are the butt of many jokes among musicians.  This has arisen out of the joking conception that violists are just former violinists who were not good enough to make it as a violinist.  This misconception could have arisen for several reasons: 1. Many violists did actually start out as violinists.  Violin is a more common instrument for children to start with. It is a good foundation for other stringed instruments.  2. There is a lot more solo repertoire for  violinists and they have a more prominent and audible part in the orchestra.  Why would anyone voluntarily give that up to play viola? 3. Viola is a middle voice in the orchestra and their lines can sometimes get lost in the texture, especially when everyone is playing.  Therefore, mistakes of former, “bad” violinists, would not be heard in the viola section.

This joke takes the violist joke genre a step further and makes fun of the instrument itself.  It encourages the destruction of as many violas as possible, even through the most ridiculous means (driving off a cliff with them in their car).  From my discussion with the informant, this theme of ridiculousness is common throughout many ‘viola jokes’.  This is to show that no one really thinks that violists are inferior and that everyone does appreciate them and the part they play in the orchestra.  It is just light-hearted fun.