Sporty Superstitions

My sister is a sailor on the Stanford women’s team, the number one ranked women’s sailing team in the country. She’s starting in regattas as a freshman, so one would assume she knows what she’s doing. Although I couldn’t get any specific advice on how to make that happen—sorry to those hoping—I did manage to squeeze out some of what she considers to be a part of her “luck” factor. Before any race, and whenever she’s feeling nervous on the water, she does a specific breathing exercise that her coach introduced to the team.

This breathing exercise, which she plainly calls “our breathing exercise,” is recorded online as “5-in-5-out.” Funnily enough, she never really learned it “formally,” she told me:

“It’s just something that our coach told us one day. No real explanation, no official name—I don’t even think he gave us instructions beyond ‘do this when it feels right.’”

Still, from what I found online, the method follows the exact same steps she described:

  1. Sit up straight or cross-legged.
  2. Relax your shoulders.
  3. Inhale quietly through your nose for a count of five.
  4. Hold your breath for a count of five.
  5. Exhale quietly through your nose for a count of five.
  6. Repeat for 10 minutes.

She did however note minimal flexibility in how she practices it:

“I don’t really care about sitting a certain way or how long I do it for. Most of it is just up to whatever I think is best at the moment.”

At the end of the day, she does it however and whenever she feels she needs it.

Breathing exercises are one of those things that I’m not sure folklore has fully claimed yet. I feel as though it is typically regarded as more medicinal than folkloric, but we all know those two things go hand in hand. If I had to classify it, I’d say this kind of ritual has two hands in the folklore cookie jar—one reaching into sports superstitions, the other into traditional yoga and meditative medicinal practices.

When it comes to luck in sports, superstitions are everywhere. Baseball players wear the same jersey without washing it, Serena Williams famously wears the same pair of socks throughout a tournament, and my sister practices this breathing ritual before racing. It’s fascinating that humans try to “cheat” natural physical systems by invoking rituals, almost like tapping into forces beyond the physical—maybe an over-dramatization, but I think my point stands.

The interesting thing is that these seemingly kooky practices often have real benefits. If you believe you are lucky, you can sometimes manifest that luck into something real, whether it be confidence, composure, or performance.

Historically, these breathing techniques have deep roots. The Box Breathing method—famously taught to Navy SEAL snipers to maintain calm and focus—is a modern example. Yet, these practices aren’t new. Yogis developed Box Breathing over 5,000 years ago, originally calling it Sama Vritti Pranayama.

Despite their very real effects, breathing exercises like Box Breathing and 5-in-5-out don’t quite fit within traditional academic “science.” They exist in that murky space between folk wisdom, practical ritual, and physiological effect.

I’ve always loved the idea of trying to cheat chance and manifest luck. Whether it’s for tests, sports, or life in general, it’s only human to strive for perfection and victory by any means necessary—no matter how strange.

Fecal Expressions

Some expressions have a way of perfectly capturing a sentiment with crude efficiency. When thinking about what to collect for this project, I was reminded of our first lecture in class and how we managed to get on the topic of toilet humor and remembered two great examples that my friends love to quote.

  • Version 1: “Does a bear shit in the woods?!”
  • Version 2: “Does the Pope shit in the woods?!”

Both are used in response to an obvious question, a kind of rhetorical jab meant to emphasize just how ridiculous it is to ask in the first place. I actually laugh at how they both have the same quote just with a little twist, even more funny is the fact that they both know of the other version, they just prefer their one over the other.

One of my informants initially heard “Does a bear shit in the woods?!” at summer camp, a natural folklore printer. They recalled older campers saying it to younger ones whenever they asked something obvious:

“I think I first heard it when I asked if we were eating lunch after swimming[something they had already done three days straight], and some older kid hit me with, ‘Does a bear shit in the woods?!’ I was definitely too young to even process what they meant…”

My other informant, on the other hand, swears they picked up “Does the Pope shit in the woods?!” from their dad. I personally believe this as their dad is one of the funniest dads of our friend group and has no filter whatsoever. Although they don’t have an exact recollection of their first encounter with the expression, it was ingrained in their brain enough to make that joke at least once a month.

Both expressions are used in familiar settings—ones where you’re comfortable enough with someone to respond to their obvious question with something ridiculous. There’s an inherent risk in using these because they can come off as crass or even a little aggressive. It’s interesting to reflect upon the fact that my friends instinctively knew it only worked best in close circles, no one ever explicitly told them that they couldn’t say it otherwise, it is just a known fact that these kinds of statements are almost seen as taboo in casual conversation. It only works in situations where there’s an unspoken understanding that humor is at play(with your mates).

Expressions like these rely on shock value and taboo humor. This is typically why you only hear these kinds of jokes or expressions within specific contexts. Crude humor, especially potty/toilet humor, is one of the oldest and most universal forms of comedy. It is easy to understand why as everyone relates to this in some way, whether they like it or not. Toilet humor is inherently human: bodily functions are funny and that is a fact. Folklorists have long noted that humor isn’t just about a good set-up and a well thought-out punchline; it can emerge in irreverent, subversive, and random ways.

Humor has long had the ability to push boundaries and create social bonds. The shock factor in jokes like these is what makes them memorable. They’re designed to make you laugh precisely because they play with expectations, dancing around what can be considered taboo or appropriate. This is the same mechanism behind the formula of “dark humor”, including disaster jokes and internet meme culture.

In Of Corpse: Death and Humor in Folklore and Popular Culture, Christie Davies explores how jokes often emerge in response to tragedy or social discomfort, acting as a form of defiance against rigid norms. Just like disaster jokes challenge how we’re “supposed” to react to tragic events, these fecal expressions challenge conversational norms by responding to simple questions with something wildly inappropriate.

This also explains why phrases like these tend to stay within friend groups, families, or tight-knit communities—they require shared humor and an understanding that the crudeness is part of the joke, not the insult. These communities showcase specific examples of the folk and their lore and give a good example of potential contention between what people find funny.

Expressions and their Etymology

Regional expressions often reveal a lot about the culture and history of the places they originate from. My friend, who was born in Wisconsin and lived there until middle school, shared some of the expressions they grew up with.
When I asked about any distinctive phrases from their childhood, they immediately started listing expressions they had heard growing up in Wisconsin. As the conversation continued, they ended up reflecting on how their understanding of these expressions has evolved over time, especially after moving to California and listening to our expressions. The list they left me with was just a snip-it of their favorites:

  • “When you assume, you make an ass out of u and me.”
  • (In response to an obvious question) “Does a bear shit in the woods?!”
  • “What’s the difference between a buffalo and a bison? You can’t wash your hands in a buffalo.”
  • “You betcha.”
  • “It’s wicked cold.”
  • “That’s a whole ‘nother story.”
  • “Cripes.”

The funniest thing, outside of the shitting bear, was that even just reading these phrases in my head, I could hear them and their Wisconsin accent slipping through. On top of small pronunciation quirks, like saying “roof” as “ruff,” a good chunk of these expressions seemed to carry distinct regional markers that tied them to the Midwest.

While my informant initially thought certain phrases were unique to Wisconsin, or at least etymologically tied there, they later realized that many of them have broader roots. Specifically saying:

“I always thought ‘wicked cold’ was ours [as in, a Midwestern phrase], but after hearing it more, I started to notice a connection to the East Coast. Remember Kennedy [our history teacher—he lived in Philadelphia for most of his life]? … There’s definitely some kind of shared element that links this to whatever its true origin is.”
Expressions like these serve as linguistic time capsules, carrying regional identity, history, and even migration patterns within them. Some of these phrases, like “you betcha” and “cripes,” are deeply Midwestern, reflecting the dialect and cultural quirks of the region. Others, like “wicked cold,” despite being more strongly tied to New England, have still found their way into Midwestern vernacular.

This overlap highlights how language evolves and spreads across different regions, often blurring the lines between what people consider uniquely theirs versus fractured connections that are a part of a larger, more interconnected linguistic tradition. It’s fascinating to see how someone’s perception of language shifts when they move to a new place and realize that what they thought was a local expression might actually have roots elsewhere.

In the end, whether Midwestern, East Coast, or somewhere in between, these expressions serve the same purpose—they bring people together through shared understanding, humor, and a sense of cultural belonging. 

They serve as one of the many subtle distinctions in the plethora of “folk” that make up our shared cultural landscape, showing how language evolves across different regions while still preserving elements of its origins.

What’s Black and White and Read All Over?

The riddle is phrased as follows: “What’s black and white and read all over?

The classic answer is “a newspaper.” The humor comes from a play on words—while “black and white” describes the color scheme of a traditional newspaper, “read all over” sounds like “red all over,” creating a pun. Other playful variations exist, such as “a sunburned zebra” or “a blushing penguin,” which lean into the pun by replacing “read” with “red.

I first heard this riddle from my classmate Jon, who shared it with me as a joke during a class conversation. He said it was one of the first riddles he learned as a kid and that he remembers telling it to his younger siblings to see if they could figure it out. Jon mentioned that while the riddle is widely known, it has lost some of its relevance because newspapers are no longer as central to daily life as they once were. He also pointed out that kids today might not immediately associate “black and white” with print media, making the joke less obvious to younger generations.

This riddle reflects the role of wordplay in oral tradition, using a pun to create humor and challenge the listener to think outside the box. The structure follows a classic pattern of riddles, where a seemingly straightforward description leads to an unexpected answer that hinges on a double meaning.

Historically, this riddle likely gained popularity when newspapers were the primary source of information in daily life. It reinforces how humor and language evolve with culture. While it was once an intuitive joke, it may now require explanation for younger audiences unfamiliar with print media. This shift highlights how language, humor, and cultural references change over time as technology and media consumption habits evolve.Beyond its immediate entertainment value, the riddle demonstrates how simple linguistic tricks can teach reasoning and lateral thinking, encouraging listeners to consider multiple meanings of words. It also shows how oral traditions, even in the form of simple jokes, reflect cultural shifts, making this classic riddle both a piece of folk humor and a small artifact of historical media culture.

Date of performance: 2/11/25
Language: English
Nationality: American
Occupation: Student
Primary Language: English
Residence: Los Angeles.

Time Flies Like An Arrow, Fruit Files Like A Banana

The phrase is structured as follows:

“Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.”

This phrase plays on linguistic ambiguity and misinterpretation:

  • “Time flies” can mean both that time moves quickly and, in a literal sense, refer to “flies” (insects) related to time.
  • “like an arrow” uses a simile to indicate the speed at which time passes.
  • “Fruit flies” can refer to both the insects (fruit flies) and a subject-verb structure where “fruit” is the noun and “flies” is the verb.
  • “Like a banana” is where the humor solidifies—it forces the listener to reprocess the second phrase, realizing that “flies” is now a noun rather than a verb.

I heard this joke from my classmate C. We were having a conversation about jokes that rely on linguistic tricks, particularly ones that make the listener momentarily confused before the humor clicks. C mentioned that this kind of joke, which plays on multiple meanings of words in a single sentence, is similar to classic wordplay found in old Vaudevillian comedy routines.

This phrase is a great example of a garden path sentence, which is a sentence that leads the listener to interpret it one way before forcing a re-interpretation. The humor arises from the way English grammar allows multiple meanings depending on syntax and context.

The first part sets up a familiar phrase, while the second part twists expectations, making the listener realize that “flies” has been reinterpreted in an unexpected way. This kind of humor requires cognitive flexibility as it forces the brain to reconsider its initial assumptions about meaning.

Beyond simple wordplay, this phrase reflects the fluidity of language and the human enjoyment of wit and mental puzzles. It also highlights the role of misinterpretation in humor, which is a common theme in folklore, riddles, and even literary traditions. Additionally, it shows how oral traditions evolve, as variations of the phrase have been passed around, modified, and adapted for different contexts.

The joke’s endurance across generations suggests that linguistic playfulness is a universal human trait and that humor based on language is not just entertainment but also a demonstration of how deeply people engage with words and meaning.

Date of performance: 2/11/25
Language: English
Nationality: American
Occupation: Student
Primary Language: English
Residence: Los Angeles