The Informant is 22 years old, a senior at USC studying Theatre and Narrative Studies, and she’s originally from The Bay Area.

Me: So what is a 10-Yummy?

Her: It’s this tradition we have at PV (Performance Venues) where whenever there’s a shift that has food that the clients will let the staff eat after the event, we radio everyone and say, “10-Yummy!” which basically means, “There’s free food! Come stuff your faces!”

Me: How did it start?

Her: It was like 3 summers ago my friend Morgan who is a stage manager for PV liked to play on the radios a lot saying like “10-4” and “What’s your 10-20?” and stuff like that. Codes that we never use. But she wanted to sound badass. And then some people started getting sad whenever they’d miss out on the free food after an event, so we’d use a radio to let everyone know. But we wanted to come up with a kind of legit code so that we wouldn’t sound like idiots over the radio, and Morgan came up with “10-Yummy”.

Me: Who taught it to you?

Her: Morgan did. It’s like a huge tradition now. Whenever there’s a 10-Yummy all of PV that is working at the time meets up in one big place and we all eat leftover food together and make a mess. It’s great. Even if you’re not even hungry you have to go to a 10-Yummy.

Analysis:

This is an example of company folklore that manifests out of a professional environment while still aiding in the establishment of a company culture, proving that even in a bureaucratic  setting, folklore can still be created and found. In this sense, a type of folk phrasing developed out of the attempt to include everyone in a tradition that was already growing in popularity, but had yet to be tokened, or titled. The phrase “10-Yummy” developed out of the need for a name to the already growing ritual and has now become a placard for the Performance Venues company as a whole.