Author Archives: Liam Clancy

Trip to find Sasquatch

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Palo Alto, Ca
Performance Date: 4/19/2017
Primary Language: English

Informant:

Rowan is a sophomore double majoring in Math and economics. He is from the Bay area.

Piece:

So i’m really interested in Sasquatch. The plural of a Sasquatch is just Sasquatch. Not sasquatches which everyone says and it always bugs me. So a lot of people believe that there are Sasquatch that live in the pacific northwest. And I have cousins from Idaho and we are spending a week hiking around Washington trying to find him and after that end our trip at the Sasquatch music festival on memorial day.

Collector: Do you believe sasquatch exists?

Informant: 100%. For sure. Sasquatch are out there, they are just really good at hiding. There have actually been a lot of sightings of sasquatch up there and we are pretty confident that we will see one.

 

Collector’s thoughts:

I find it interesting that an informant who studies extremely quantitative, fact based subjects in university, is interested in finding sasquatch. The informant was adamant about his belief in sasquatch in his words, but his tone suggested otherwise. Additionally, upon researching further I found the Sasquatch music festival to be a yearly sasquatch themed music festival that occurs each year in washington.

 

Indian Wedding Tradition

Nationality: Indian american
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Atlanta, Georgia
Performance Date: 4/22/2017
Primary Language: English

Informant:

Shehan is a sophomore aerospace engineering major from Atlanta, Georgia,  

Piece:

So ummm it is an indian tradition that when you have the bride and groom like the week prior to the actual wedding day they have this thing called a pithi. That’s a word in Hindi. But what they do is they get the groom and he sits on a chair all of his like bachelors like hang out and chill with him for a little bit and then they just like start throwing eggs at him and like ketchup mustard, mayo. really the plan is to like get him as dirty and gross as possible .the tradition is is like cleansing your body at the same time. They do the same thing to the bride, but with her they just put some sort of oil on her face, but for the groom it’s always like eggs yolks and always turns into a big food fight. And its like really fun, really gross and it happens before every wedding

Collector’s thoughts:

The most interesting part of this wedding tradition to me is that the informant says it is a indian bachelor party tradition, yet mustard, mayo, and ketchup are all very american condiments that are not traditionally indian. This reveals that while the tradition may come from the informant’s hini background, it has taken on a distinctly american twist in what foods are used to throw at the groom.

Mexican Birthday Tradition

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/22/2017
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

Informant:

Joseph is a sophomore social science major at USC.

Piece:

So our family tradition, and i think it’s  a pretty common Latin tradition is that well what our family does is that every time its someone’s birthday party when it comes time for the cake and after they blow out the candles and we take those candles off we always yell mordedura which means bite and the person has to bite the cake. But what they don’t know is that someone always has their hand behind their head and actually smashes their face into the cake. Its one of our favorite most enjoyable traditions ever.

 

Collector’s thoughts:

This tradition is interesting because in any other context the action is rude and mean, but in the context of one’s birthday it is a fun playful tradition that everyone enjoys even when they are the one getting their face smashed into the cake. In this way, this tradition reveals the bonds within families and the importance of birthday traditions.

 

Staying Close Through Minecraft

Nationality: Italian American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Woodside, CA
Performance Date: 4/8/2017
Primary Language: English

Informant:

Dina is a college freshman from Northern California, she comes from a large yet close knit Italian family.

Piece:

My brothers and I love to play all types of games. Like board games and video games and just all types of games. I mostly like board games, but those are way too hard for us to play since we are all at college and away from each other for so long each year. So to make up for that we play video games with each other online. They like to play league of legends, but I don’t like that game at all. But we all play Minecraft together and built this house together on Minecraft and it’s super cute. And we built it to be the same layout as our house so that even when we are in all different places we can be at home together.

Collector’s thoughts:

This is a great example of how the internet has allowed people to stay close to each other despite long distances. The informant’s ability to stay close with her family is completely dependent on the internet which links them up via a game.

 

 

A Joke with no Punchline

Nationality: American
Age: 23
Occupation: Investment Banker
Residence: Manhattan, New York
Performance Date: 4/6/2017
Primary Language: English

 

Informant:

Daniel is a first year analyst at a prominent Manhattan based investment bank. He grew up in Northern California from a predominantly irish background

Piece:

The first party I ever went to was kinda a bummer. I was invited the day of and was stressed cause I had nothing to wear. So I went to the mall and picked out a shirt and waited in the checkout line. But then I was hungry so I went to wetzel’s Pretzels and waited in the pretzel line. And then later that night I showed up and waited in the party line to get in. And then when I finally got I went to get a drink but there was no punchline.

Collector’s thought’s:

This joke takes a while to develop and is paradoxical in nature. The first person aspect of it makes it so that the audience can not tell that it is a joke and not real until the repetition of waiting in lines kicks in. Part of what makes this joke funny is that the punchline of the joke is literally that “there was no punchline”, a paradox that is equally infuriating and hilarious.