Monthly Archives: May 2011

Game – “your team”

Nationality: American - Persian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Hebrew

My informant plays a simple, funny and contemporary game with her siblings and friends. The unofficial name of the game is “your team”. People between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five are the most common participants. The origin is not definitely known but it definitely a recent addition to folklore that is spreading throughout the United States among young people.

The game is ongoing and can be played at practically anytime. “If you see someone who is strange looking, doing a strange activity, wearing unusual clothing or stands out in a somewhat negative way then you tell your friend ‘he’s (or she’s) on your team’.” A laugh made by either part often follows the statement. The point of the game is to make your opponents team as bad as possible. The game is played in public places or in the car since the assigned ‘team member’ is almost always a stranger. There is no scorekeeping and never really a winner since it’s a never-ending game. The game is basically a way to poke fun at strangers and laugh with friends.

My informant learned the game from her older brother. At first, she was skeptical and confused about the game but now she finds it hilarious. She has even taught it to many of her friends and continues to play with them and with her brother at random times.

Children’s Joke

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 9
Occupation: Elementary School Student
Residence: Clovis, CA
Performance Date: March 15, 2011
Primary Language: English

There was a little kid who took a shower together with his parents. When they were in the shower the little kid looks up and see his mothers chest. So he asks, “Mommy what are those?” and she says “Oh those are my flashlights” and then the little kid looks down a sees his mother’s…uh… you know down there and asks her “Mommy what is that?” and she says “Oh that’s my barn”. Then the little kid turns to his father and sees his…you know and asks him “Daddy what is that?” and his Dad says “Oh that’s my horse”. So after their shower the little kid wants to sleep in bed with his parents for the night and they say “Okay”. So the little kid is in bed with them and he goes to sleep, but he hears some noise so he wakes up and shouts ” Hey Mommy, turn your flashlights on! The horse just went in the barn!”

My informant said that she first heard this joke when she was in 1st or 2nd grade. All of the kids at her school knew this joke and they would all tell it over and over again.  She remembers thinking it was so funny back when she first heard it, now it only makes her giggle a little. She says that she didn’t really get what the joke was referring to until recently, but thought it was funny before because the little kid in the story didn’t know what certain body parts were called and referred to them as those actual objects. “Like when he tells his mother to ‘turn her flashlights on’, you obviously can’t turn your boobies on like flashlights”. My informant also noted that because the joke involved a persons’ “private parts” it could not be repeated in front of adults. “Because adults usually get mad, when you tell jokes like that. So we would only tell it to other kids”

I believe that this joke, like many other obscene children’s jokes, are funny for different reasons to different subgroups within the folk group of children. Younger children find the joke funny because of the little kid’s ignorance and his use of the words to describe what he sees. Older children find this joke funny because they get what the joke is implying, which is sexual intercourse.  The older children also find it funny that when they repeat this joke to younger children the younger children don’t really get it and are laughing for the wrong reason.

Dying in your birth month

African/Southern African-American Proverb

When you die the same season or month you were born, your time on this earth is coming to an end at the right time, if and when you die at any other time it is usually an untimely death.

The proverb or belief is used to explain or justify death, something that remains mysterious and inexplicable to people. My informant first heard this saying from her grandmother after her own father died at age 50. They considered his death untimely because he was so young and seemingly healthy but had a sudden and lethal heart attack. He was born in September and died in February so that strengthened their belief that his passing was an untimely one.

My informant’s mixed race family is from New Orleans, LA and she said her grandmother had lots of wisdom that she traced back to African although to her it seemed especially endemic to Louisiana. People often use sayings to justify or explain an occurrence that they have no control over and this saying is an example of that.

Folk speech – Streets of Downtown LA

Remembering the streets of Downtown LA

From MAIN we SPRING to BROADWAY, then over the HILL to OLIVE! Oh! Wouldn’t it be GRAND if we could HOPE to pick a FLOWER on FIGUEROA.

My informant learned the song/chant from her teacher in elementary school. The song is supposed to be a way to help remember the streets of Downtown Los Angeles. The rhyme was obviously effective since she still remembers the rhyme today many years after she originally learned it.

The song is something that only someone from LA would know so it creates some unity between people from the city. My informant says that her friends who are also from LA between the ages of thirty-five and forty-five are also familiar with the rhyme.

Kinesthetic – Hand gesture insult

Nationality: English
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Mundesley, UK
Performance Date: March 2011
Primary Language: English

Hand gesture insult

My informant and her friends use the V-sign (index and middle finger upward while other fingers are in a fist with the palm facing inward) as an insult. She compared the insult to that of the middle finger or flipping someone off in America. My informant said that she and her friends mostly use the gesture jokingly but it can also be used a more serious insult. She shared that the sign is often used in English pop culture like television and movies.

She also shared the widely known legend behind the “two finger salute”. The gesture was supposedly first used during the Hundred Years war when the English were fighting the French. The French threatened that they would cut off the arrow-shooting fingers of the bowmen. When the English won the battle against the French within the world the bowmen all showed off their intact index and middle fingers to the French. The gesture serves as an insult and the story provides some patriotism and pride in one’s country.

Almost every country has at least one its own unique hand gesture insult. Even if a legend is not told to trace its origin, gestures provide a sense of nationalism and unity even in a possible situation of anger or spite.