Monthly Archives: May 2011

Shaggy Dog Story

Nationality: English
Age: 52
Occupation: Journalist
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/22/11
Primary Language: English

The informant is a caucasian female in her 50s. She was born and raised in England. She, and her three siblings, were raised as orthodox jews. After university, the informant moved to Northern California for graduate school. She later moved to Los Angeles, where she now resides. The informant trained in school as a biologist, but switched to journalism and now works for a large newspaper. She is divorced with one child.

The informant used to tell shaggy dog stories very often. Shaggy dog stories are really long jokes with a usually very disappointing punch line, which makes the audience groan. She used to tell them in grade school, especially with her two brothers. She would tell them among the family or among friends. The stories would usually be told while walking around or during free time. They used the stories to fill the time and amuse themselves during free time. The informant had more time to fill as there was not a television in her family and she and her brothers did not participate in more structured entertainments or activities, such as sports or clubs. She and her brothers would walk to school and back and around town and told these stories during the journeys to fill the time. And in every telling the details and exact structure of the story would change.

Shaggy Dog Story (transcribed as it was told):

This story is about a man and one day he goes to a pet store. He fancies buying a pet. And so he’s looking at the cats, looking at the dogs, and he’s looking at the birds and the rabbits and all the other animals in the pet store and then he sees this really weird little small furry thing. And so the little was about two inches, with round furry feet, you could barely see it because it was just a ball fur. And he went up to the store owner and says, “What’s this?” And the person says, “Oh. Oh, yeah though. Oh, yeah, you don’t see many of them. I call it a rarie.” And so he, um, said, “I’ll buy it. It’s only five pounds.” So he took it home with the rarie food, and was told he could feed it rarie food and scraps, meat or grain. It wasn’t a vegetarian. He fed it and he went to bed and he checked in on it the next morning in its cage and looked in and he went, “Huh.” It seemed to have grown. Really, it was like two inched across the night before and then it looked like it was three inches across now. So he thought, “odd”, put food in the bowl and the rarie ate it all up and started, like, running around the outside of the cage squeaking so he gave it more food and he ate up all that. And, next day he goes to check on the rarie, it’s five inches across. And so it goes until this rarie is pretty much filling the cage and he realizes he’s gonna have to get a larger one. So he goes and buys a larger cage and he puts the rarie in it and he buys a heck a lot of rarie food and um, you know, some loaves of bread and some other stuff, um. The cheap bread, you know, ’cause he figures, this could get expensive. As indeed turns out to be the case. Because every day that rarie has grown. Soon it’s outgrown that second cage and he has to get an even larger one. And then, a week later it’s outgrown the larger cage and he has to put it in the bath. And then, the rarie outgrows the bath. And he goes to the pet store and says, “What’s going on? This rarie is getting bigger and bigger?” And the man says, “Well, sir, I, if you look at the form that you signed when we bought the rarie, it says, you know, all responsibility is transferred to you upon the transaction. And I really can’t be answerable for your problems. But we’ve got some rarie food on twenty percent sale right now. So if you’d like to pick up a few more, uh, bags”. So the man says, “Alright, but how big is it gonna grow?”. He said, “Well don’t really know much about raries, sir. Never had one before”. So, he buys a whole bunch of rarie food and in fact has to borrow his friends pick-up truck and fill it all up. And he has to go into his savings. And he, brings it all back. He buys a huge old metal wash tub basin, for putting water in, because the rarie is so big by this time that he’s basically sort of had to, move the rarie to the yard. And, um, make a very large rarie house and, uh, put him in a big, big pen. The rarie keeps growing. Growing and growing and growing. And he keeps on buying more and more food. And enlarging the enclosure. He’s lucky because he lives in the, uh, semi-countryside and he has a big field so the enclosure, there’s plenty of room for it get larger. But, he’s get worried. I mean now he’s worked through his savings in one bank account. He’s picking up night work to subsidize his income, which is not very much. Uh, to pay for the rarie food and his, and he’s lucky because he lives in England because, you know, you get all the water you want you’re not paying by the metre like in this country. And, or else the water bills would have just started to become astronomical. But even so, he’s getting worried because the field is only so big and by now the rarie is the size of… You know those VW buses? Well if you put two of them end to end that’s about how big the rarie has grown. And so it goes on. And he’s become very fond of the rarie, he combs his fur, and the rarie nuzzles his hand, and licks his face with his big raspy tongue and, but, he doesn’t know what to do. And so it goes. Until the rarie’s now as long as three VW, uh, vans, end to end. And he realizes there’s nothing to be done. He’s gonna have to get rid of this rarie. He doesn’t know what to do. He’s been back to the pet store multiple times and the pet store owner has started ducking into the back room when he sees him coming. And his secretary, and his shop assistant always says something like, “Oh, oh, you just missed him. He’s running errands, sir”. Or, “Oh, no. I don’t know nothing about the rarie. Um, can’t help you. Try tomorrow.” And so one day. After a night of soul searching. A night of soul searching. And it’s all silent outside, except for a gentle “thrrrrrrr, thrrrrr, thrrrrrrrrr”. Which is the rarie snoring. He realizes that he can’t go on anymore and the rarie has got to go. And he doesn’t know what to do with the rarie. And so what he does, he goes buys, rents, one of those big, uh, trucks that are, you know big flat bed trucks. Really big one. And, uh, the next morning he wakes up, he puts a leash on the rarie, and he, he leads the rarie into the truck. He slams the door shut and he starts driving. He drives long and far. He lives right in the middle of the countryside, uh, probably about two hundred miles from the beach. And what he’s decided he’s gonna do is he’s gonna drive to the white cliffs of Dover and toss and rarie over the cliff. ‘Cause what else can he do? The rarie, he hopes, can swim. And he’s, his idea is that maybe once in the water, swimming around, the rarie would, will just be able to feed himself on fish and kelp and anyway he just doesn’t know what to do. The zoos are not interested. So, he drives and he drives and he drives and he drives. He stops at a little coffee shop. And gets himself a coffee. And a doughnut. He gets back in the truck and he drives some more. He has to stop, has to let the rarie out to do, do its business. He has to load the rarie back into the truck. He drives more and more and more and more and more. He stops for lunch. At a little place and has some egg and chips. And gets back in the car. Truck, sorry. And drives and drives and drives and drives. And at last, he, the windows open he smells the brine of the ocean on his nostrils. And he hears the crying seagulls and he know that his destination is close. And by now the lanes that he’s driving are pretty narrow and its extremely difficult to navigate this huge flat bed truck. But, and like he can hear, he can feel the rarie getting lurched around in the back as he turns the tight bends. He arrives at the top of a white chalk cliff. Finds a place where he can park. He goes round. He opens the back door. He puts the leash on the rarie, lures the rarie out. He says, “Look. Rarie. I’m so very sorry, I just don’t know what to do. I, I can’t afford to feed you. I don’t have any room for you anymore. I, I’ve love your company, but this is getting out of hand. I don’t where things are gonna go. I, I’m at my wits end. I can’t afford to spend all this money on rarie food and scraps. Even if I cut out the rarie food entirely and just fed you on wonder bread, or something. Number one, it wouldn’t be very nutritious for you and number two I can’t even afford that anymore. I’ve been cleaning out the super market bread sections.” And the rarie looks at him and says. First of all the rarie licks his face and nuzzles his shoulder. And he says, “I understand. I know there’s nothing else you can do. But I just want to say”. And the man looks, by now there are tears falling down his cheeks and he looks up at the rarie and he says, “What, what is it?” And the rarie says, “It’s a long way to Tipperary”.

Analysis: The “shaggy dog” story/joke type is built for repetition. It is the details of the story, rather than the plot itself, that make the story interesting and worth retelling. It is this aspect of the shaggy dog story that probably led to it being retold so many times among the informant and her siblings, while trying to fill the time. The punchline of this story, although not the most important aspect of the joke, relies on knowledge of geography in Ireland for its humor. That would restrict the humor of the joke to a certain geographic region, centered around the British Isles. This probably contributes to why the informant does not tell this story in the US. The humor in the joke’s structure probably would not be received as well in America either. The punch line is very important in American humor. British humor is not so dependent on the punch line for all of the comedic value of a joke.

Tradition-New Mexican

Nationality: American
Age: 23
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 11, 2011
Primary Language: English

“My family makes enchiladas on Christmas Eve. It’s a tradition taken from New Mexico, where my grandparents and their ancestors all lived after they moved here from Spain in the 1600s.  My grandpa always makes the “posole” (“hominy” in English) and my mom will make the enchiladas. The tortillas have to be hand made or they don’t taste right.  Also, the chiles have to be imported from New Mexico so the sauce can be made fresh.  The most important thing to the recipe is that it’s a flat enchilada with a sunny-side-up egg on top.  This is not a traditional Mexican way to make an enchilada, but is something that came from New Mexican culture in the United States.  Christmas would not be the same without this food in my family. I don’t know where it started from, but has been a tradition in my family for generations and generations.  I’m sure it’s something was picked up from the surrounding cultures after meshing together.”

Paul is a student studying business at the University of California at Riverside. He is originally from Orange County, CA, but his family is from New Mexico. They have preserved this tradition in all its detail in California, as a way to preserve their family identity. Paul explained to me that his family keeps these traditions to keep in touch with their roots and their old lifestyle.

Their state of residency has been rather liminal. As they transitioned from having a New Mexican identity to having a Californian identity, traditions became set and stabilized.

Paul mentions that he thinks the traditions come from the interactions between Mexicans and non-Mexicans in New Mexico. This is an example of homogenation in which non-Mexican and Mexican traditions became absorbed into a new New Mexican tradition.

Joke/Blason Populaire/True Riddle

Nationality: American
Age: 14
Occupation: Student
Residence: Mount Kisco, NY
Performance Date: April 16, 2011
Primary Language: English

“How long is a Chinese man’s name?” After the interlocutor’s response (unless there is none), the line is then repeated: “How long is a Chinese man’s name?” If the interlocutor still does not understand, this part may be restated with different intonation, making clear that the line is a direct statement, as opposed to a question: “How Long is a Chinese man’s name.”

The informant stated that he learned the above joke (and riddle) about two months ago from a friend who told him the joke on the school bus. He said that he would tell the joke to both friends and family and at no specific time. However, he would not tell it to Asian people that he did not know well. The informant thought that this was an unusual and “unique” type of joke and that it is funny.

When I heard this joke for the first time from the informant, I had the typical and expected response: “I don’t know, how long is it?” Then, when he repeated it for me again, I understood the structure and purpose of the joke. Like the informant stated, the joke is rather unusual and unique, owing to the fact that it makes use both of a group stereotype—namely, that Asians have what might seem to many Westerners an abrupt and odd form of nomenclature—and of a quasi true riddle structure in which the answer (here, precisely that there is no answer, or response which should be given) is contained in the question. This piece of folklore thus incorporates not only the generally pervasive genre of jokes in which people of nearly every age group participate, but also the scarcer genre of riddles, which is more commonly found among children (though the informant here is perhaps a few years past childhood) who, being themselves novice language users, take greater delight than many older individuals in the enigmatic applications of language so often found in riddles.

Song Parodies

Nationality: English
Age: 52
Occupation: Journalist
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/22/11
Primary Language: English

The informant is a caucasian female in her 50s. She was born and raised in England. She, and her three siblings, were raised as orthodox jews. After university, the informant moved to Northern California for graduate school. She later moved to Los Angeles, where she now resides. The informant trained in school as a biologist, but switched to journalism and now works for a large newspaper. She is divorced with one child.

Parody of National Anthem:

The informant heard this parody from her father from a very early age. She would sing it with her siblings and friends. She would sing sometimes at the beginning of films, when the national anthem was played, or in morning assembly at school. The song is sung not in a mean way, but to poke fun at the institution of the monarchy, to show laughing disrespect.

Lyrics:

God shave our gracious queen,

God shave our noble queen,

God shave our queen.

Don’t let her whiskers grow,

That wouldn’t be right you know.

God shave our gracious queen,

God shave our queen.

Analysis: This parody represents a certain attitude towards the British monarchy. The informant comes from a liberal academic middle class family. Such people are generally less inclined to be huge supporters of the monarchical institution. They would be likely to adopt an attitude of disrespect and defiance towards the crown. But the song is not spiteful or truly hurtful, projecting a more bemused, and perhaps even affectionate, attitude towards the monarchy, even while viewing it as an institution to make fun of. The parody also represents child folklore and the tendency to explore the forbidden and ridiculous. The children’s song deals with the idea of rebellion against state institution, in an extremely watered down version, by poking gentle fun at the Queen.

Christmas Carol Parodies:

The informant learned these two christmas carol parodies in grade school from her older brother, who learned it from friends. She would sing them with her siblings and friends whenever the tunes came on the radio or the carols were sung in morning assembly. The informant would sing the parodies at home to her parents, who were amused by the parodies.

We Three Kings Parody Lyrics:

We three kings of Orient are,

Tried to light a rubber cigar,

It was loaded and exploded,

Now we’re on yonder star,

Oh, oh, star of wonder, star of light,

Star that sets your pants alight,

Then proceeding through the ceiling,

Guided by thy perfect light.

Good King Wenceslas Parody Lyrics:

Good king Wenceslas looked out,

On the feast of stephen,

Snowball hit him on the snout,

And made it all uneven,

Brightly shone his conk that night,

Though the pain was cruel,

‘Til the doctor came in sight,

Riding on a mule.

Analysis: These two parodies are interesting because they are pseudo-christmas carols being performed in an Orthodox Jewish household. The face that they are parodies probably contributes to their acceptance within the informant’s family: a parody implies poking fun at the subject, so it would have been more acceptable to sing in a household that did not celebrate than traditional secular carols. Also, the English schooling system requires the teaching of religion to all students. It would be impossible for her parents to prevent the informant’s exposure to Christianity, so a greater acceptance of pieces of Christian culture picked up would not be unexpected. These parodies are also part of the trend for children to subvert and push the boundaries of their expected existence. The carol parodies are a subversion of an established tradition, in this case even connected with religion, and use it to explore the ridiculous, rebellious, and off-limits. In “We Three Kings”, the parody refers not only to smoking and pants, which in Britain refers to underwear, but also alludes to violence with “loaded and exploded”. “Good King Wenceslas” picks up similar threads in exploring the physical violence in his nose being struck, but also rebellion by mocking a esteemed figure, designated as “king”.

Folk Song Parody:

The informant learned this song parody from her parents, who were both members of the Communist party in the late 40s, early 50s. They learned this song while at Communist meetings. The song itself is a parody on the English folk song “Green grow the rushes, O”. The informant learned this original version in school choir in grade school, along with other traditional songs. This Communist parody would be sung by the informant’s family most commonly during passover, after the dinner ceremony had concluded. The Passover meal would be concluded by singing traditional songs in Hebrew as well as folk songs added to the family canon along the years. The informant still sings this song at family passovers. The structure of the song, cumulative ascending counting, is similar to a Jewish song, “who knows one”, traditionally sung in hebrew at Passover. The informant herself does not remember all of the words. Her brothers do remember all of it, however, both being of a more political bent.

Lyrics:

I’ll sing you one, O,

Red fly the banners, O,

What is your one, O,

One is worker’s unity and ever more shall be so,

I’ll sing you two, O,

Red fly the banners, O,

What is your two, O,

Two two the workers hands working for his living, O

One is worker’s unity and ever more shall be so

(The song’s structure carries on the same through each number up to 13. For each verse the relevant number is substituted into the lyrics. Each number sequence is repeated, with each verse getting longer and longer.)

Three three the rights of man (or the alternative wording – Three three bread, land, and peace)

Five for the years of the five year plan and four for the four years taken

(The song carries on up until 13, but the informant cannot recall the other number verses beyond here.)

Analysis: This song, while a parody, is more of a reinterpretation than a satire. The Communist party in Britain used a traditional folk tune, laying their own lyrics over it, to disseminate the ideas and ideals of the party. As a well known melody already, the reuse of the music would make the song easier to learn and remember. The use of ascending numbers and repetition probably also lends to the song’s ability to be easily learned. This pattern is quite common among folk music, such as the traditional Jewish song mentioned by the informant. The informant’s family’s habit of picking up songs such as this and incorporating them into the Passover ceremony is quite interesting. The family sings secular, even political, songs in a very religious setting. This indicates a fluid attitude towards the performance of religion, even within an orthodox family. It is an example of how identity can be established and reinforced through the use of folklore. In this case, the informant’s jewish identity and more liberal political bent are melded together through the performance of the song parody at Passover.