My informant told me this joke one night when we were both freshmen in high school. He later told me that he heard it from a soccer teammate, who was excessively proud of the quality of this joke. My informant says he still finds the joke funny four years later. In his words:

“A blonde, a brunette, and a redhead are stuck on an island 4 miles from shore. The brunette swims all the way across. The redhead swims one mile, gets tired, and swims back. The blonde swims 3 miles, gets tired and swims back.”

Again, this joke uses the brunette-redhead-blonde stereotypes to its advantage. The Rule of Three is also present, a typical Western aspect of folklore. If anything, this makes the joke funnier, because the three examples provide both buildup and punchline to the joke. As we discussed in class, this joke can also be categorized as a blason populaire as it stereotypes all three hair colors (the brunette is the most successful, while the redhead fails but still does better than the blonde, and the blonde fails altogether because of her stupidity). One thing that I think is really interesting is the lack of male blonde jokes; the stereotype seems to apply mostly to women, especially regarding jokes.