Monthly Archives: May 2018

Filmmaking Runner Joke

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student Filmmaker
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 22 Mar 2018
Primary Language: English

INFORMANT: “Who is the only person on set to survive an earthquake?”
COLLECTOR: “I don’t know. Who?”
I: “The runner. You know why?”
C: “No. Why?”
I: “He’s always standing in doorways!”

This occupational joke was collected from a young man with whom I worked on a couple of film sets, who seemed to have an endless supply of quips to be used in the car, during lunch break, and even during the little down time there is in between takes. Like almost all filmmaking jokes I have heard, it is at the expense of a specific group of workers. Although these can be slightly cruel, there are plenty of jokes for every department of a film crew, so although they do most often focus on actual grievances people have with other departments, they are always told in good nature. The expectation is that everyone will get made fun of.

This particular joke operates on two levels. It makes fun of the runner, a position even lower down than the frequently belittled production assistant. Because they are frequently considered just an extra body on set, not serving a real important purpose, they are easy targets. The main joke, is that runners are always just standing around, getting in more significant people’s ways. The deeper level of the joke, is about the selfish excitement with which they do this; those low-level positions are frequently considered over-eager and just looking for advancement.

Magical Properties of a Giant Confederate Flag

Nationality: Mexican-Armenian-American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Irvine, CA
Performance Date: 27 Mar 2018
Primary Language: English

“So, my uncle moved to Tennessee, and he lives down the road from this guy who has a giant confederate flag in front of his house. It covers his whole front porch. And they believe that it—like, if you pray to it—it will bring back the confederate soldiers… like Jesus raising the dead. And when you walk past it, I swear you can see a pair of eyes watching you from under it, but this guy doesn’t have a dog or anything.”

This story came from a classmate with whom I exchanged lore. Although it is short, it contains two clear, separate pieces of folklore. The first is an observation of a folk belief and ritual. Although likely embellished slightly by every teller, it essentially describes a kind of worship. The religious analogy “like Jesus raising the dead” draws a clear connection to the religious nature of the flag-worshiping practice, although it would technically be sacrilegious, it being a “false idol” and all.

The second piece of folklore is a contemporary legend. The sightings of the eyes imply a haunted nature of the flag, furthering its folk power. I could not get my informant to say for certain whether she had seen anything herself, but they way she told the story, it certainly seemed like a memorate. She personally experienced some sort of unusual sighting, which was then shaped by her knowledge of the worshippers and other people’s stories of also seeing glowing eyes, into a scary story.

Both pieces of folklore here clearly reflect a my informant’s uncle—and thus her, too, when she visits him—feeling like an outsider in Tennessee. These stories are fantastic exaggerations of the otherness of the locals around whom he now dwells, likely created to cope with his own sense of unwelcomeness.

Anthropologist Proverbial Joke

Nationality: Mexican-Armenian-American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Irvine, CA
Performance Date: 27 Mar 2018
Primary Language: English

“My old anthropology teacher got this from her old anthropology teacher, but they say ‘to be an anthropologist, you have to be a little crazy,’ because, well, we spend a lot of time dressing up in other cultures.”

This occupational proverbial joke came from a classmate with whom I exchanged lore. She herself is an Anthropology major, explaining the specifics of this telling. However, I have heard the exact same setup, “you have to be a little crazy to be a ____,” used for just about any profession you can think of. The multiplicity and variation of this piece of folklore come across in the universal applicability of the joke.
Although this joke may seem self-deprecating at first, it is really a way for people to take pride in their profession. The meaning is not, “we’re all crazy,” but “we are willing to drive ourselves a little crazy because we care so much about doing to work because we know it is important.” The fact that my informant heard this from her professor demonstrates its practical uses. As well as simply communicating pride, telling occupation folklore like this can help bring others into the community. By telling my informant this joke, and emphasizing its longstanding history through the ‘original’ source, her professor likely helped instill in her a respect for the field of anthropology and those who practice it.

Mexican-American Variation on the Easter Egg Tradition

Nationality: Mexican-Armenian-American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Irvine, CA
Performance Date: 27 Mar 2018
Primary Language: English

“So, I have a big family on my mother’s [the Mexican] side. So every year, we have an easter basket that looks like a laundry basket, and the people who get to hide the eggs are the ones who have graduated from being little kids. It’s usually around sixteenish, and it’s an unwritten rule that once you turn sixteen you can no longer look for eggs. And then the two oldest boys hide the trick eggs up in trees. But the emphasis is less on it being a practical joke and more about growing up.”

This piece of religious folklore came from a classmate with whom I exchanged lore. She noted that both sides of her family, although ethnically separate, had developed very similar variations on the traditional Easter egg hunt. Both draw a clear age line, separating the ‘children’ from the ‘adults.’ The former naively hunts for plastic eggs, hoping for reward and enjoying the fun of the chase, while the latter, more experienced and understanding, are privy to extra information, enjoying the fun of the hunt vicariously as their labor pays off.
As this religious folk tradition/ritual is also a children’s game, it works like many folk children’s games to help kids explore social structures. By creating a firm distinction between searcher and hider, the child/adult distinction, which is normally rather blurry, is made concrete and tangible for the smaller family members. Although they enjoy hunting for eggs, the can also excitedly anticipate the day when they will graduate into the grown-up world and gain the associated knowledge—be allowed to hide eggs.

Practical Joke with Easter Eggs

Nationality: Mexican-Armenian-American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Irvine, CA
Performance Date: 27 Mar 2018
Primary Language: English

“So, every year, on my dad’s [the Armenian] side of the family, we’d hides eggs with money in them. But half the eggs would have nothing in them, and we’d put all these on the ground and all the ones with money in them up in trees, so only the older kids could reach them. And it was a kind of practical joke on the younger kids. And we’ve been doing this for like twenty years… It all arose because my grandparents loved competition.”

This piece of religious folklore came from a classmate with whom I exchanged lore. She noted that both sides of her family, although ethnically separate, had developed very similar variations on the traditional Easter egg hunt. Both draw a clear age line, separating the ‘children’ from the ‘adults.’ The former naively hunts for plastic eggs, hoping for reward and enjoying the fun of the chase, while the latter, more experienced and understanding, are privy to extra information, enjoying the fun of the hunt vicariously as their labor pays off.
As this religious folk tradition/ritual is also a children’s game, it works like many folk children’s games to help kids explore social structures. By creating a firm distinction between searcher and hider, the child/adult distinction, which is normally rather blurry, is made concrete and tangible for the smaller family members. Although they enjoy hunting for eggs, the can also excitedly anticipate the day when they will graduate into the grown-up world and gain the associated knowledge—be allowed to hide eggs.