Author Archives: Kelly Covey

Bloody Mary and Biggie Smalls

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Torrance, California
Performance Date: 4/26/2013
Primary Language: English

Bloody Mary is a widely known folklore where, typically, tween girls stand in front of a bathroom mirror with the lights out, a few lit candles, and recite “Bloody Mary” three times while staring at their reflection.  According to popular belief, Bloody Mary is supposed to appear in the mirror either to scratch the girls or write in blood on the mirror.

My informant, though a guy, has known of this popular belief since his time in middle school when his own girl-friends and younger sister had tried it to test its truth value.  The reason my informant had brought up this folklore, however, was not to interpret the obvious meaning of the Bloody Mary folklore (young girls adjusting to the idea of beginning puberty and menstruation), but rather to confess that he had taken part in a more masculine version of the folk belief: Biggie Smalls.

Played out the exact same way that Bloody Mary is done, Biggie Smalls (also known as Notorious B.I.G. in popular culture) is supposed to appear in the mirror and shoot the person who recites his name in the face.  My informant had not actually heard this folklore from anyone, but rather witnessed it on television in the Comedy Central show South Park.  Shortly after seeing this episode, he had convinced some younger, more gullible boys to try it out.  Unfortunately, Notorious B.I.G. did not appear in the mirror, nor did he shoot anyone in the face.

It makes sense that the Bloody Mary folk belief would be canonized in a very successful show like South Park because the folk belief is so well known.  South Park is known for taking its own spin on current events, pop culture, and politics, so being that Bloody Mary is a large part of tween girl pop culture, perhaps the writer was curious to know why no such folklore existed for the boys.  The play on the folklore is meant to poke fun at the absurdity of the belief as well as the boys’ feigned bravery as they take turns standing on the stool to look in the mirror and recite “Biggie Smalls.”  The absurd part of the whole thing is that the writer chose Biggie Smalls of all people to appear and kill innocent children—but I guess that is what makes the whole concept humorous.

Annotation: Parker, Trey. “Hell on Earth 2006.” South Park. Dir. Trey Parker. Comedy Central. NY, 25 Oct. 2006. Television.

What Game Will Helen Keller Always Win?

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Torrance, California
Performance Date: 4/26/2013
Primary Language: English

Q: “What game will Helen Keller always win?”

A: “Marco Polo.”

The joke that my informant tells me pokes fun at Helen Keller—obviously known for being both blinds and deaf.  My informant is the kind of person prone to enjoy a good laugh at an inappropriate joke, so it is not at all surprising that after telling me this joke, he got a good laugh.  The joke focuses on what American society finds socially unacceptable to laugh at: handicaps.  This joke that is presented is only one of the great many Helen Keller jokes that exist, so American culture clearly finds something humorous about making fun of the most prominent woman in history known for her handicaps.

I actually found a similar joke brought up in an episode of Family Guy titled Peter’s Got Woods.  The episode contained a scene in which Stewie Griffin, in an effort to poke fun at Brian, states: “That’ll be more pathetic than that game of Marco Polo I played with Helen Keller.”  And then the scene cuts to Stewie aimlessly kicking around a pool with his eyes closed calling “Marco….  Marco….  Marco…” over and over and over again while Helen Keller—unblinking and unmoving—stands as if lifeless at one end of the pool.  Stewie, after about twenty seconds of kicking around, does not find her, so it is safe to presume that Helen has won the game.

The popularity of a show like Family Guy is known for its crude humor that often goes “too far” into the realm of inappropriateness that the American public finds exceedingly funny.  So it follows that jokes such as the much popularized Helen Keller jokes have been found in Seth MacFarlane’s best work.

Annotation: Smith, Danny. “Peter’s Got Woods.” Family Guy. Dir. Peter Shin, Chuck Klein, and Zac Moncrief. FOX. CA, 11 Sept. 2005.

Dragon Boat Festival / Duan Wu Jie (端午節)

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 20
Occupation: Student; Intern at Process Green
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 4/17/2013
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English, French

“Duan Wu Jie (端午節) is a Chinese holiday that is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month of every year.  It is an official Chinese holiday.  What you do is eat zongzi (粽子) which is a type of Chinese delicacy, uh, it’s sort of a, um, dim sum, but not really a dim sum.  It’s just a cuisine.  You wrap rice—a special type of rice, those sticky rice—um, inside a leaf and steam it or poach it in water.  It has a lot of flavors and a lot of different types of fillings.  Once you put the meats and flavors and fillings inside the marinated rice, you wrap it in the leaves, tie it with string, and cook it.  The reason behind eating it has to go with a story behind it:

“There used to be a Chinese politician back then—it’s a long time ago—and, um, he was very loyal to his country.  He warned his country and his king about what he should do before something goes wrong.  He knew something was wrong and that the other country would invade them, but the king wouldn’t listen to his advice, uh, so the tragic happened: people came and invaded the entire country.  He was very disappointed and very saddened, but he was still very loyal to his country.  So he committed suicide in the pond.  And the people found out on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month.  And the people loved that politician and wanted to commemorate his death—they threw the, uh, zongzi inside the water so that the fish would not eat his body but eat the food instead.  So that tradition of eating zongzi came from that.  Although it was meant for fish originally, we eat it still.

“This festival is also known as the Dragon Boat Festival.  So people race dragon boats.  Um, apparently that day is also the day when the sun and dragon come out at the same time or something, and it’s a symbol of masculinity, I guess, to race dragon boats.”

Q: “I have also heard another version where the reason the dragon boats are raced is to go out and find this war hero/politician guy.  Have you heard of this version?”

A: “I’m pretty sure that is probably another version of the story.  I’m pretty sure they are still searching for his body, and they haven’t found it yet.”

Q: “And what else do you do on this day?”

A: “Well, it’s a public holiday so you kinda stay with your family and do something fun like go out and watch a film.”

Q: “So it’s mainly just the families that congregate together?  Or does the whole community get together and perform?”

A: “If you break it down, it’s more family-oriented.  Everybody has no work—you don’t have to go to work that day—so families come together, you know?  It’s supposed to be a national thing, but some people celebrate it, some people don’t.  It’s not a mandatory thing.  In our family, we just eat the zongzi that our grandmother made.  We don’t really celebrate, but it’s more of a family tradition now.  There’s special TV programs on that day—a lot of people singing, but I don’t think there’s any particular song that I know of that reflects that particular day.”

Q: “What about preparation?  Is there a lot of preparation for this day?”

A: “Of course.  The food—at least my grandmother started preparing a few weeks beforehand.  Actually, we started eating a few weeks before that day.”

Q: “Who usually is involved in preparation?  Is it mainly the women?  Or does the whole family get involved?”

A: “Yeah, it used to be like that, but now more and more people buy it from the store.  Which is very sad because the women in metropolitan areas are too lazy to learn and carry on the tradition.  Including my mom.  She complains a lot about how she doesn’t have time—actually, she says it’s too hard.”

Q: “Then it is mainly the women?”

A: “I guess it’s part of the tradition, but it doesn’t have to be.  It’s just sort of understated, you know?”

Through my interview with my informant, I feel that the tradition is not very well kept and persistent in his family.  The holiday is large enough to gain all working people and all school children the day off, but his experience with the holiday itself is rather minimal.  There is a huge concentration on the food aspect of this holiday because of the story that goes along with the traditional food.  The dragon boat races are also a large part of the holiday.  Since the holiday is so centered on the story of the suicidal politician, the events that characterize this celebration are related in some way to the disappearance of the great politician.  The food is symbolic of the people’s efforts to try and protect his body, and the dragon boat races are held to send teams out to try and find the body before the fish or currents could carry it away.  Even the mindset of dragon boat racing is considered “masculine” because the man everyone is searching for was masculine.  Also playing into that machismo state of mind is the fact that the women are often left to prepare the food for this holiday.  The making of zongzi is a rather long and difficult process if done correctly, so the women must spend lots of time in preparation for the holiday—weeks, according to my informant.  The women are placed in their domestic places while the men are left to go out and be breadwinners for the family.  Though we live in an era of progress and supposed equality, the holiday times seem to take on a more sexist role and place women back in households if they are to be considered “good wives.”  It is also interesting that because less and less women (whose responsibility it is apparently to learn how to make zongzi) want to spend time slaving away in kitchens, more and more people are going out to purchase ready-made zongzi from the stores.  The holiday has become commercialized.  And since the holiday is so heavily concentrated on the aspect of food, it is odd that the great preparation of the food has been completely removed from the picture of this holiday and left in the hands of businesses.  Because of this trend toward store-bought goods, I feel like the holiday is beginning to lose its significance and steadfastness in the families that had once spent many weeks prepping for and celebrating.  In the case of my informant, for instance, who mentioned that families would rather go out and see a movie together than actually celebrate the holiday, it seems like as the generations drift further and further away from a domesticated lifestyle, the less likely it is that the traditions of the Dragon Boat Festival will be maintained within families.

Beaded Objects

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 50
Occupation: QA Manager at DirecTV
Residence: Torrance, California
Performance Date: 4/26/2013
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English

Q: “How do you make these objects?”

A: “You first take some string and some beads, and by stringing the beads together and making little circles by looping the string through the beads.  You can manipulate the string and the beads to make all kinds of shapes and cute figures.  We make a lot of little animals.”

Q: “With whom do you normally make the beaded animals?”

A: “Usually in groups of friends, but you can do it by yourself, too.”

Q: “Who taught you how to bead?”

A: “Chinese school offered classes where the teacher showed us how to make different things.”

Q: “How did she teach you?”

A: “She made the beaded figures with us, and gave us handwritten instructions that she had learned from her friends or teachers in the past.”

Q: “Why do you make these animals?”

A: “It’s fun, and usually it’s when I get to talk with other friends when we bead together.”

Q: “Do they hold any significant value to you?”

A: “I like them because I made them, and I can use them as key chains to remember my friends.  I taught my daughter how to make them, too, and sometimes she gives me the figures she makes.  I like to carry those ones around the most.”

My informant, though at first a little hesitant to offer up information on this type of folklore, brings up an important point—though the objects do not hold a cultural significance, they do hold a personal kind of significance for each person.  She really appreciates beading these figures because of the time she is able to spend with her friends and daughter.  The physical object, though close to worthless being that it is only plastic beads and plastic string, obtains a sort of pricelessness because of the memories it recalls in my informant when she carries them around with her—she thinks of her friends and her family.  The beaded objects are not valued for anything other than their looks and resemblance of the real life objects which they mimic, but the active participation in the object’s creation is what makes a plastic object valuable.

Toothpick Star Trick

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 60
Occupation: Retired
Residence: Torrance, California
Performance Date: 4/26/2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese

“You take five toothpicks and break it in half, but not enough so the halves separate, just enough so that there are still some fibers holding the halves together.  The halves will be at a little less than a ninety-degree angle, right?  Then you put them together so the broken part of the toothpicks are in the center and almost touching.  It will form a kind of five point star, but it’s kind of compressed.  So what you need to do is make sure that the surface is a smooth and slippery surface, and then you put drops of liquid in the middle, and then when the liquid enters the interior of this, uh, figure, it gets automatically pushed out because the liquid kind of levels itself off and it kind of pushes the rest of the frame open so it looks like a star.”

My informant learned this folklore from some older children when he was around five years-old.  He remembered being at a wedding ceremony with a bunch of older kids, and they were asked to keep him and his younger brother company, and that trick was one of the things they had taught them.  He believes that this trick is used mainly to entertainment purposes because, as a young kid, he thought it was just the coolest thing in the world to watch a star come to life before his eyes from just five toothpicks.  The movement of the toothpicks, he said, was magical and mesmerized him as a child.

I definitely agree with my informant’s interpretation of the child’s game: it is mainly used to entertain children during ceremonies or gatherings of socializing adults.  The folklore seems to be passed on from one child to a younger one, representing a culture that has some sort of separation between generations—while the adults socialize at their events, the children are left to play amongst themselves, so consequently, they come up with their own forms of play—games, tricks, jokes, etc.  This toothpick star trick was probably passed down as a result of boredom in children circles.