My informant is Jackson, a 19-year-old male student at USC. Jackson is white and of Danish and Irish descent and grew up in a suburb outside of Los Angeles called Palos Verdes.

Jackson: “There’s a blonde, brunette, and a redhead and they are about to get executed by a firing squad. I’m not sure what they did but they messed up big time. They line them up against the wall and talk to each one. They ask the brunette first,

“Do you have any last words before we execute you?”

The Brunette responds, “Tornado!”, and as the firing squad turns around looking for the tornado she runs away and escapes. Next they call up the redhead and ask her if she had any last words. The red head screams “Hurricane!” and again they turn around and the red head escapes. Finally, they bring out the blonde and ask her for her last words. She looks at them all and yells at the top of her lungs “FIRE!”

Where did you first hear this joke?

Jackson: “Ohhh god I don’t even know probably like third grade. Everyone was telling blonde joke that’s just the only one I remember”

Did you pass it along?

Jackson: “Yeah I told people but back then everyone knew them so it was hard finding on no one had heard”

I find jokes are the easiest folklore to get out of people because although it takes time to remember a whole story or even a proverb, almost everyone has a joke they know. It is fitting that it was a blonde joke because these kind of jokes seem to have a format. There is a blonde, brunette, and red head and the blonde always ends up doing something stupid and being the butt of the joke. The variation comes from what the actual dumb thing is and what situation they are in but I grew up hearing many blonde jokes.