Author Archives: Ashley Avery

Blonde Joke

Nationality: African American
Age: 49
Occupation: Account Manager
Residence: Fresno, CA
Performance Date: March 28, 2011
Primary Language: English

“There was a convention held to prove that blonde people were not as dumb as everyone believes them to be. So a man stands up in front of an audience filled with only blonde people. He asks one woman, who is also a blonde, to come and stand with him. And he asks the young woman: ‘What is 3+2?’  She thinks for a bit and then replies, ‘umm… 8?’ And the man says ‘Sorry that’s incorrect’ and the crowd yells ‘Give her another chance!’  The man agrees and asks the woman ‘Okay then, what is 1+2?’ Again the young blonde woman thinks and replies, ‘umm…5?’ And the man says ‘Sorry that’s incorrect.’ And the crowd yells ‘Give her another chance!’ The man agrees again, ‘Okay, I’ll give her one more chance, but that’s all. Alright Miss, what is 2+2?’ Immediately the blonde woman says, ‘ Oh, Oh I know that one. It’s 4!’ and the man says ‘That’s correct! Congratulations!’ and the crowd yells ‘Give her another chance!'”

The informant first heard this joke from her daughter, who was in 7th grade at the time. It was during the era when Dumb Blonde jokes were really popular. She remembers finding the joke really funny when she first heard it. The joke is funny because the stereotype suggests that blonde people and especially blonde women are stupid. In this joke the young woman is unable to answer the first two math questions, supposedly because she is a dumb blonde. But when she finally manages to answer the third and final question correctly, the crowd who is also made up of blondes isn’t aware of the fact that she answered correctly and demands that she be given another chance because they are also “dumb blondes”.

I also believe this to be the reason that people find this joke funny. Blonde women have been historically considered very attractive and beautiful. Someone who was a natural blonde was not very common and their beauty was a rare beauty. However this led to the stereotype that blondes can get by on their good looks and don’t need to be intelligent to get through life. So basically they are all beauty and no brain. People probably like to tell these jokes and encourage the stereotype because it gives them an ego boost. They might feel that if some people are lucky enough to be born beautiful, it’s only fair that they have to trade their intelligence in exchange for their beauty. An average person may not be all that beautiful or all that smart and while they realize that they are not as beautiful as these blondes they can take comfort in knowing that they are at least much smarter than them.

Blonde Joke

Nationality: Mexican American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Oakland, CA
Performance Date: March 15, 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

A Red headed woman walks into her teenage daughter’s room and finds cigarrette butts. And she says “Wow I didn’t know my daughter smoked”

A Brunette woman walks into her teenage daughter’s room and finds an empty beer bottle. And she says, “Wow, I didn’t know my daughter drank”

A Blonde woman walks into her teenage daughter’s room and finds a used condom. And she says, “Wow, I didn’t know my daughter had a penis”

My informant first heard this joke in high school from one of her friends. She went to high school in California’s Central Valley, which is a fairly conservative area in the state. But her high school was a very small one filled with students that needed more of an academic challenge in school than the local public high schools provided. The joke is funny because of it’s twist at the end. The first two mothers drew logical conclusions from what they found in their daughters’ rooms. We expect the third mother to do the same and say “Wow, I didn’t know my daughter has been having sex”, but instead she draws an absurd conclusion that she should already know to be false. Which is “Wow, I didn’t know my daughter had a penis”.

I agree with my informant’s explanation as to why the joke is funny. But aside from the obvious surprising twist at the end it also draws on the blonde women are dumb stereotype. It is the blonde woman who sees a condom and assumes that her daughter must have a penis. Both the red hed and the brunette make logical assumptions.

Folk Simile

Nationality: African American
Age: 49
Occupation: Account Manager
Residence: Fresno, CA
Performance Date: April 23, 2011
Primary Language: English

“You’ve got as much sense as God gave a goose”

The informant found this saying very funny when she first heard it as a child. It’s something her father would often say. He was born and raised in Arkansas in 1930s and 40s. She has no idea what it means, but assumes that it must relate to how geese have little common sense. Since her father grew up as the son of sharecroppers in the American South, he would’ve had more direct contact with animals than my informant ever has. After thinking about it a bit longer, my informant said that she recalled her father saying something about if geese watch another goose get killed, they will continue to attack whoever killed the first goose instead of running away.  

The informant said that this folk simile would be used to refer to someone who is relentlessly stubborn and doesn’t know when enough is enough and drop whatever it is that they are doing. My informant says that she had never heard anyone besides her father use the saying until she met her uncle (father’s younger brother). He told her that it was a common saying in the community that they had grown up around in Arkansas.

However my informant has never performed this piece of folklore herself. She was never that comfortable with the meaning and thinks it’s irrelevant to the people she spends time with, because they, like her, might also be confused by the folk simile’s meaning. Since most people are not raised on farms anymore. My informant’s explanation makes sense to me and I agree with her conclusion about why this saying is localized to a specific folk group in America.

Korean Folk Belief

Nationality: Korean
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: March 24, 2011
Primary Language: Korean
Language: English

“If you pull out a gray hair, three more grow back to replace it”

The informant was born in South Korea, but was raised in California since the age of 6. She is currently going to college in the Los Angeles area. My informant said that she remembered her grandmother, who lives in South Korea, telling her this when she was younger. She can’t remember why or what it was in regards too. She doesn’t believe that it is true, but says that her grandmother believes it to be fact.

She is uncertain as to where the folk belief came from or why people say it. She guesses that it might have something to do with trying to prevent the natural process of aging being considered a bad thing. If you try to slow down the aging process you are punished by aging even faster. The more gray hairs you pluck out the sooner your entire head will be covered in gray hair. I agree with my informant’s explanation. It seems like a warning to prevent people from pretending to be younger than they are or to accept aging gracefully.

Too Much Water- Children’s Legend

Nationality: Mexican- American
Age: 22
Occupation: College Student
Residence: Oakland, CA
Performance Date: March 14, 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

 

“There was a man who was a pioneer. He was very thirsty and when the wagon train came to a river, so he drank a lot of water. Then later he died because he drank too much water.”

The informant grew up in the bay area and recalled hearing this story when she was in elementary school from her classmates. She thinks she was in 3rd or 4th grade at the time. She believes that that if this story really did happen, the man probably died because of whatever microorganisms were living in the water that he drank or something else being related to the fact that pioneers were not known or their good hygiene.

I also heard variations of this story in elementary school. I heard that the man died from drinking too much water, but I also heard that a pioneer/frontier man/gold miner died from eating too many vegetables and another time I heard he died from drinking too much milk. This leads me to believe that children tell this story as a form of rebellion against adults. Children are often told to drink a lot water or milk and eat a lot of vegetables because it is “good for them”. But children often don’t like the taste of vegetables, milk, or water and this story sort of proves that their parents are wrong. If you drink too much water or milk or eat too many vegetables you could die.

But why is the man usually a pioneer/frontiersmen or gold miner? Perhaps it has something to do with the ruggedness associated with those who traveled across America in the mid-19th century.  They survived many unfavorable odds. So even for someone as strong as a pioneer is supposed to be to succumb to an unexpected death from water, milk, or vegetable overdose is daunting.  If a pioneer man died from drinking too much water… it could easily kill the average child.