Author Archives: Courtney Berck

The Fist Rule

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: College Student
Residence: Encinitas, CA
Performance Date: 3/24/2013
Primary Language: English

“Dad always told me, and his dad told his sisters that ‘if you can’t fit a fist in your jeans, they are too tight.’  I forget what it was about the top.  It was something funny.  It was a rule of thumb.  If they couldn’t put their fists in their pockets then they couldn’t go out.”

The informant thinks the rule is silly, but her personal style has been very impacted by the saying.  “Why do you think I wear such baggy clothing?”  She remembers her father telling her to go change, and she would put on the polar opposite (baggy sweatpants).  The informant doesn’t really seem to have minded the rule, but she is more open now to wearing tighter clothing than she was allowed to before.

Proverbs and little phrases like the one above get more contextualized in people’s personal lives more than they may realize.  Though the informant recognized that she wore baggier clothing for her father’s approval at first, she later became more attracted to that type of clothing without thinking about the proverb.  Folklore has a large though sometimes invisible influence on all aspects of life.

 

Polar Bear Underwear Song

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: College Student
Residence: Saratoga, CA
Performance Date: 4/15/2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean

“One day someone pooped in his underwear,

couldn’t find another pair, had to wear the dirty pair.

Five days later, eaten by a polar bear,

the next day the polar bear died.”

Polar Bear Underwear Song

The informant learned this from his friend, “a church friend actually.  I think I was maybe in the 5th grade.”  He had forgotten the song, and only recently remembered it when his older sister sang it to him on their road trip together.

He likes the song because it is so nonsensical.  There is no moral to the story.  It’s just funny.  “It rhymes and its got poop in it.  I just realized.  It has a rhyme and to add to the nonsensicalness of it, the last line doesn’t rhyme.  (Laughing) Where did the polar bear come from and why did he die?  Oh my gosh.”  He really enjoys the song even though he is older now.  Sometimes the song pops into his head, but he doesn’t ever really sing it for a particular purpose or to make people laugh.

The song is just fun and silly, but it also covers the taboo of bodily functions.  The song allows them to have a tabooistic discourse even in place as sanctimonious as church.  Children perhaps use the song to talk about “gross things” in a fun way.  With songs, politeness is not necessary all the time.  I like the little song, and I know the kids in my family would really enjoy it as well.

Annotation: In a collection of children’s songs, there is a variation of this:

Five days later she couldn’t find her underwear
Couldn’t find her underwear, couldn’t find her underwear
Ten days later she was eaten by a polar bear
That was the end of her!

G., Marissa. “Children’s Songs Part Three.” N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2013. <http://www.kayshapero.net/child3.htm>.

Fist Pump Farewell

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: College Student
Residence: Saratoga, CA
Performance Date: 4/15/2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean

“I remember when I was in middle school.  Whenever my dad would leave for work.  He would leave for work before I went to school so I would be eating breakfast.  He would get ready and put on his shoes, and then he would stop just before he left and say ‘Fighting.’ (The informant says the word in a low tone as pumps his fist in a forward motion.)”

The informant believes that his dad picked the gesture up in the army.  The fist pump motion is paired with a reverberating and deep utterance of the word “fighting” in a Korean accent.  (I was unaware what word he was saying at first because of the heavy accent until the informant explained.)  The informant said it was a big moment when he finally got the resonance of it, a sort of rite of passage.  His voice was finally low enough to make the sound like his father.

Nowadays, whenever he has a bad day, his mother will say it to him over the phone to cheer him up.  I asked if he thought he would continue the tradition with his children, and he said that he was unsure.  “I could imagine if I had this really spunky three year old and I was looking for something new for us to do.”  He said that he would love if  his parents, particularly his dad would do it with his kids, and maybe he would join in, but maybe it would just be a tradition for his dad and his children.

The word and gesture does not really mean anything, but the practice and performance of the ritual is what stuck with the informant.  It is a tradition with his dad that is a little silly, but it became a regular part of his day.  I think the custom is a good way to keep the connection between the informant and his family; the gesture has lost its original meaning, but now it holds more importance and remains in his memory.

Taxi Girl Story

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: College Student
Residence: Saratoga, CA
Performance Date: 4/15/2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean

There’s a beautiful girl standing on a street corner.  It’s a dark night.  She calls a taxi.  The taxi driver says he will drive her wherever she needs to go.  He thinks that she is so beautiful so he will do his best.  He asks her where she needs to go and she says the house at the top of the hill.   Its really dark.  He tries to sneak glances at her  in the rear view mirror.  First time, he didn’t see her in rearview mirror.  Then at the red light he turns around and she is there.  He makes up an excuse that he was checking something in the back.  He tries again and doesn’t see her in the rearview mirror but does when he turns around.  It happens a third time.  He gets spooked thinking she might be a vampire or a ghost.  Finally, they get to the destination, and he turns around, and she has a bloody nose.  It is because she picked her nose to hard and gave herself a bloody nose.  Each time he didn’t see her in the mirror was because she was ducking to casually pick her nose in the back of the taxi.

The informant does not remember who exactly told it to him, but he thinks it might be a friend from church who had taught him other strange songs and stories.  As he was telling me the story, he said he wanted to go down to his apartment and tell his roommates.  The story isn’t something that he tells a lot, but he enjoys it enough to tell it to his friends when he remembers.

The story has certain plot elements typically associated with marchen and legends like the rule of three, but it adds the surprise humor element instead of the scary ghost story that the listener expects.  In this way, it keeps the attention of the listener without spoiling the ending.  I found the story a bit perplexing because it seemed  to have little pay off for the large amount of explanation in the beginning, but I think that the story finds a certain charming aspect in the telling of it.

Taxi Lawyer Joke

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: College Student
Residence: Saratoga, CA
Performance Date: 4/15/2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean

“So, this taxi driver used to be a lawyer, and he was a really successful lawyer until one day he screwed up in court.  For whatever logistical reasons, he lost his lawyership.  He became a taxi driver.  But you know, once you become a lawyer, you get a radar for lawyers.  So every time he sees a lawyer, he tries to run them down with taxi. (He gestured as if he was driving a taxi and running someone over).  One day, a priest got in his car.  He saw a lawyer, and he was getting excited to hit him.  He remembered there was a priest in the car though so he changed his mind, and he swerved at the last minute.  He heard a clunk, and the lawyer was dead.  He turned around and whispered, ‘I’m sorry father.  I didn’t mean to.’  The priest replied, ‘That’s okay. I got him with the door.'”

The informant learned the joke at Boy Scout camp over one summer.   He said it was one of the jokes they would tell around the campfire.  He doesn’t tell the joke regularly, but he was really entertained as he told it to me.

The joke plays to a lot of different groups.  It makes fun of lawyers in a way while also reaching out to taxi drivers and priests.  The joke finds its humor from the fact that the priest who is supposed to be good purposefully hurts the lawyer instead of the ex-lawyer who had previously been bad.  The joke takes on religion and purity in a humorous manner, but it can also just be seen as a good funny narrative joke.  I found the joke funny myself because the ending is so unexpected.