Author Archives: Katie Wongthipkongka

Contemporary Legend

Nationality: Indian, Asian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: MArch 28, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: Gujarati, Japanese, Spanish, Chinese

Someone told me before that flashing your high beams at the traffic light turns it green because it like thinks you’re a cop. Then, one day, I like flashed my lights and like another friend in the car said that it used to be like they told me not to do it because like “urban legend” is that Bloods or Crypts used to have to like drive around at night with head lights off and whoever was nice enough to flash their high beams to remind them to turn his lights on had to be shot. So they would like get out of the car and shoot them. It was part of their initiation.

Suraj heard the part of the legend about flashing high beams at traffic lights from his sister because one time his sister was driving with her friend when they got stopped at a red light. Then her friend told her to try it. So she tried flashing the lights and it seemed to have worked. Suraj admitted that although he knows that the flashing lights story is not true, he still does it. He does not know why he continues to do it despite knowing that the truth is, as he claimed, the cops have a remote that can change the light if they are in an emergency. Suraj feels that when it works it is a coincidence and thinks that it is funny that he still tries flashing his high beams at red lights. This can also be considered superstition and shows that both cars and time are considered valuable. Since people are in cars often, a superstition appeared which involves cars. Also, people try this action because they are impatient and do not wish to waste time waiting at a red stop light.

The part about the gangs was, as stated in the above account, learned from his friend as he was in the act of flashing his high beams at the red light as he usually does. The reason Suraj decided to begin talking about car lights and to include this part to his story was because a girl living in the same dorm was walking around spreading a warning for everyone that MS13, a gang local to the Los Angeles area, was rear-ending targeted drivers and shooting them. It usually occurred when the gang members rear-ended a car and when the hit driver stopped and stepped out of the car, the gang members would shoot the victim. The girl spreading this warning that night said that she had a relative in the gang and, therefore, knew about this behavior ahead of time and felt that she should spread the word to encourage people to stay indoors and be safe that night.

Suraj expressed his thoughts on how he believed that the gang behavior with both the rear-ending and the flashing lights was stupid because innocent people get killed. Both parts to Suraj’s story can be considered FOAF legends or friend of a friend legends because they provoke discussion about belief to a certain extent, and Suraj heard each of them from a person who had been told about these occurrences. While Suraj learned all of this at his home in Richardson, Texas, these stories are known in other places as well, including southern California. The two gangs that Suraj mentioned, the Bloods and the Crypts, are from southern California. However, there are also many gangs in downtown Dallas, which is not too far from Richardson. These stories have diffused to many places in America because many places share the luxury of cars and the menace of gang activity.

Joke – University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: March 29, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: Cantonese, Mandarin

I’m going to say a word and I want you to spell them out loud and add “ness” at the end.

Ok, ipod.

I-P-O-D-ness.

ihome.

I-H-O-M-E-ness.

itoy.

I-T-O-Y-ness.

imap.

I-M-A-P-ness.

Pierre is a spring admit to the University of Southern California and is a part of the a capella group on campus called the Trojan Men, which is a group that sings with only vocals and no music. He first heard this joke at a Trojan Men party a few days before the item was collected here. One of his fellow members of the group told this joke to a small group of them, and Pierre thought it was really funny. So he has told many of his friends this joke afterwards. He often does not remember the exact words before imap and changes them with each retelling, but according to him those words do not matter. The most important one, the one that must be correct is the last one. This is where the punch line of the joke lies. When spelled aloud, i-m-a-p-ness actually makes the speller say, “I am a penis.”

The Trojan Men consists of all males and, therefore, it is logical that this joke was told to this particular audience. When Pierre retold it for this collection, he was retelling it in a dorm room full of all males as well. Although there were also a couple of girls listening during the party and also to whom Pierre has told this joke, the audience is usually male. It may be more natural for males to tell this joke to other males because it involves the male physiology. Like many jokes, this one brings light-heartedness to issues of sexuality and gender that are not usually discussed in social situations.

Also, the Trojan Men member that told this joke at the party explained to his audience that he had actually heard it from a twelve-year-old boy. He was a camp counselor and grew close to the children attending the camp, one of whom was this twelve-year-old. So one day at camp, the boy simply told him the joke. The Trojan Men member and his audience then had a discussion about how “they just get younger and younger,” referring to how it seems like young children now have knowledge about more adult themes and issues. They also mentioned how it seems like young children know more and more about these issues. There was a general agreement that when they were younger, had not spoken about penises until they were around the age of fourteen or fifteen. This ties into the idea that society views children as innocent and pure and finds it shocking when they are not, as Marina Warner discusses in her book Six Myths of Our Time. Children often tell jokes dealing with the human body, sexuality, and other topics that are deemed adult topics because jokes appear to be the only venue that they can rely on to discuss these issues.

Warner, Marina. Six Myths of Our Time: Little Angels, Little Monsters, Beautiful Beasts, and More. Pg. 43-62. New York: Vintage Books, 1994.

Story – Chaiyaphum, Thailand

Nationality: Thai
Age: 58
Occupation: Registered Nurse
Residence: Rancho Cucamonga, CA
Performance Date: April 12, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: Thai

Rabbit and Turtle

Everyone made fun of Turtle and said that he’s slow. Rabbit was very fast and jumped around everywhere. Turtle got mad and asked, “You want to race?” At the start of the race, Rabbit went very far and didn’t see Turtle anymore because he left him so far behind. So Rabbit took a nap to help Turtle a little bit. Turtle continued to walk slowly until he got to the finish line and Rabbit was still sleeping. When Rabbit woke up and got to the finish line he saw Turtle sleeping in his shell past the finish line waiting for him.

My mother said that she learned this story at her elementary school in Chaiyaphum, Thailand. The school was in a temple, and the classes were taught by monks. This particular story was taught to her in the first grade. The lesson or moral that the students were supposed to extract from the story was do not make fun of or look down upon others that are considered inferior. Do not think that we are better than others. When my mother went home from school and told her parents about the lesson, they elaborated on the story and talked about it because they had learned it in school when they were young as well.

This story can be considered marchen because it is not set in the real world and is not to be actually believed since there are talking animals interacting with each other. It is told for entertainment value and there is pedagogy because of the lesson that is taught through the story. This is also a classic story known in America as “The Tortoise and the Hare” as one of Aesop’s fables. The multiplicity and variation of folklore is shown with this story because it is known in both Thailand and in America. However, the difference in culture between Thailand and America is demonstrated through the different interpretations of the story. In America, it is generally accepted that the moral of this particular story is that slow and steady wins the race, which means that it is better to continue to work hard rather than working quickly for a short amount of time. Yet in Thailand, the moral is discouraging the teasing of others, looking down upon others, or considering others inferior. America’s perspective on the moral may come from the importance and emphasis on the capitalist economy in which people constantly work for money and hard work is a desired quality for people including students, employees, and bosses. While in Thailand, the emphasis is placed more on harmony and cohesion of the people throughout the country. So the lesson that people should not tease, taunt, or patronize others fits into this idea of maintaining peace and harmony.

The story of “The Tortoise and the Hare” is referred to in the book The Mythical Zoo by Boria Sax. The book mentions that it is one of “Aesop’s famous fables” and summarizes the story very briefly (Sax 259). Sax discusses “how the tortoise had won a race against the hare” (Sax 259) and how the tortoise is usually portrayed as calm and clever. On the other hand, the hare is said to often be portrayed as a “trickster” and “like most other tricksters, he often becomes a victim of his own cleverness” as in the case of Aesop’s fable of “The Tortoise and the Hare” (Sax 137).

Sax, Boria. The Mythical Zoo: An Encyclopedia of Animals in World Myth, Legend, and Literature. Pg. 137-138, 259. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, Inc., 2001.

Saying – Indian

Nationality: Indian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 11, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: Hindu, Gujarati, Marthi

This is an Indian saying that Tanvi had learned in the fifth grade. She attended a private school in Bombay, India. They often had lessons about great people throughout history. The lessons included the people’s sayings and moral teachings. This particular saying was created by an Indian man named Kabir, and it actually rhymes when it is in Hindi. Kabir was an orphan that was either Hindu or Muslim. He became famous for his literary works and sayings, such as the one in discussion. Kabir can actually be considered a legendary figure because it is believed that his body mysteriously vanished from the tomb after it was buried.

This saying is actually a style of poetry called doha consisting of four lines in a rhyming scheme. The trend with the doha style is that the poetry consists of higher vocabulary but communicates a simple meaning. In this case, Tanvi believes that the basic moral is do not procrastinate. She said that she definitely agrees with the concept of avoiding procrastination. However, she laughed and commented that we all, herself included, procrastinate no matter what. According to Tanvi, there are many reminders and warnings against procrastination but people cannot help but do it anyway.

Phrase

Nationality: English
Occupation: Professor
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: March 25, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: French, Spanish

“Fit as a fiddle”

Professor Callaghan said this folk simile one morning in our kinesiology class titled “Sociopsychological Aspects of Sport.” He used the phrase while we were having a discussion on current events and names in sports at the beginning of class. The phrase was said in reference to how Tiger Woods, the professional golfer, is so fit and in such great shape. When he said this phrase, many of the students in the small class chuckled and murmured side comments to each other. However, everyone still understood the meaning conveyed by the saying, which emphasized the great physical condition that our professor believed Tiger Woods to be in. Therefore, although several students found the usage of the phrase to be humorous because it seemed a bit out of place, it was still effective. It also caused me personally to consider how fit Tiger Woods and other golfers are because when I think of fit and in-shape athletes I think of other sports such as football and basketball, but not golf. I never really considered how fit golfers have to be.

Professor Callaghan is a doctor as well as a professor at the University of Southern California. He believes that there is virtually no folklore in America and that it is mostly all from England. He first heard this phrase when he was a little boy in England. He often uses the phrase “fit as a fiddle” to describe or to compliment his son when they play tennis together. Professor explained that he also uses it to refer to other people who can continue to play and perform and when people show their fitness. He believes that every student should be in good physical shape.

Professor has also heard a great number of other phrases like this one including “as loud as a drum,” “beautiful as a rose,” “as high as a kite,” “swimming like a fish,” or “as happy as a sandboy.”  Then, Professor wondered aloud what a sandboy was. He concluded that it was probably a kid playing in the sand. Professor also wondered, “How fit is a fiddle?” He explained that some of these phrases do not make literal sense but they are comparisons to emphasize a particular point.

There is a reference to the folk metaphor “fit as a fiddle” in the1952 Hollywood movie Singin’ in the Rain. There is a scene within the movie in which two characters, Don and Cosmo, “perform a very physical routine full of slap-stick and comic violence in a burlesque house” (Chumo 41). Then “the scene dissolves to a song-and-dance routine to ‘Fit as a Fiddle’” (Chumo 41). During this routine the two characters dance around very energetically while playing fiddles. This is a play on the metaphor displaying the literal side of it, which is shown by the inclusion of the fiddles, and the metaphorical side of it, which is demonstrated by the intense physical activity present in the scene.

Chumo II, Peter N. “Dance, Flexibility, and the Renewal of Genre in Singin’ in the Rain.” Cinema Journal, Vol. 36, No.1. Fall 1996. 41. Jstor. 1 May 2008.

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