Author Archives: Nicole Rodriguez

Electric Smoke

Nationality: USA
Age: 19
Occupation: student
Residence: Humboldt State University
Performance Date: April 18, 2015
Primary Language: English

Riddle

So if an electric train is traveling east and the wind is blowing north which direction is the smoke traveling?

 

Informant was a 19 year old male friend who is studying Engineering at Humboldt State University. He came home for the weekend and we exchanged riddles and stories, etc.

Collector: If it’s an electric train there’s no smoke.

Informant: Exactly! Damn, you is smart.

Collector: Thanks…so who told you this riddle? Or where’d you learn it from?

Informant: My dad told it to me. We were on the way to Las Vegas – I think it was a few years ago – and we got bored on the road. It’s kind of my go to riddle for whenever anyone wants to hear one.

Collector: Why?

Informant: I dunno, I guess just because it’s the only one I remember…and it’s about trains.

Collector: Wow. Did your dad tell it to you because he’s an engineer? Or does he just like trains too?

Informant: Maybe… Probably not. I mean – for the engineer part. He might like trains. I’m not sure.

I’m pretty sure that the reason this is the only riddle my friend can remember is attributed somehow to the fact that he loves engineering and anything electrical. It’s a love that runs in the family, apparently, and can be considered as something passed on from father to son.

I’m A Frayed Knot

Nationality: USA
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 6, 2015
Primary Language: English

Joke:

“A piece of string walks into a bar. The bartender says “we can’t serve your kind here.” So the piece of string walks out, rolls in some dirt, and comes back inside. The bartender says “you just rolled in some dirt, you have to leave.” So the piece of string goes outside, rolls in the dumpster, ties itself in a knot, and goes back inside. He asks for a drink, and the bartender says “Sure what would you like? Wait a second… are you that piece of string from before?” and the piece of string says “No. I’m afraid not (a frayed knot).”

The informant was a nineteen year old female friend that I sat down with to chat. She was recounting events of the previous night where she told another mutual friend of ours a joke that apparently “took forever to tell.” I asked her to tell it to me, so she did. Afterwards, I asked who had told her that joke and she answered that it had been her English teacher from her sophomore year of high school. I mentioned that it was a pretty random thing to remember from a while ago and she commented on how much she liked this particular teacher and that that was probably why the lame joke had stuck with her for so many years.

If I had to analyze anything about this joke, it’d have to be the length of it. It seems way too long winded with not enough payoff, which may be the whole point of the joke in the first place. I believe it’s one of those things where the buildup is entirely unnecessary and is just there to annoy the other person. In that case, the joke did a very good job, because by the end of it I didn’t even care about the punch line anymore.

Dia de las Velitas

Nationality: Bogota, Colombia
Age: 21
Occupation: student
Residence: USA
Performance Date: April 22, 2015
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

My Informant was a 21 year old female who moved to the United States from Bogota, Colombia in 2004. She lives five houses down on my street.

Tradition:

On December 7th we celebrate this event called “Dia de la Velitas”, which is the start of the holiday season. What my family does is, we wait until it’s night time, then we each get a candle. As we light the candle, we make a wish and then set all of the candles on this plate, on the top part. We set the plate on the driveway, so it’s slanted down and then we just wait. We hang around and talk and watch the candles burning. I’m not sure if this is part of the regular tradition, but we play a sort of game with the wax. We wait until the candle wax starts to melt and run down the plate and the first candle to have its wax reach the bottom of its plate gets the wish. I mean, who’s candle that is has their wish come true. We make a fun night out of it, we make empanadas and drink soda and just mess around.

Collector: Has your family tradition changed at all since you moved here from Colombia?

Informant: Well, my family hasn’t, but it’s not the same.

Collector: How so?

Informant: In Colombia everyone participates, and I mean everyone. You see candles all over the city. People line the streets with them and some hang lanterns. Here, my family is the only one on our street who does it… we might even be the only people to do it for miles.

Collector: What does “Dia de las Velitas” translate to?

Informant: Day of the Candles.

Cultural traditions vary depending on location and contribute to the ethnic identities of people. As seen here, although my informant has moved away from the area where the traditional practice generally occurs, she and her family continue to perform according to their ethnic identity.

How Cold?

Nationality: USA
Age: 19
Occupation: student
Residence: USA
Performance Date: April 23, 2015
Primary Language: English

Informant was a 19 year old male student who I chatted with during our Russian Modern Art class. He’s a Film and Television Production Major.

Joke

“There’s a Native American tribe and they just got a new chief. They ask the chief how much wood they should cut for the winter, but the new chief does not know how to contact the spirits and ask them how cold the winter will be. So he just tells his tribe to start cutting wood. Then he goes to the weather station and asks the man there whether it’s going to be a cold winter. “Oh yes,” the man says. Relieved, the chief goes back to the tribe and tells them to start cutting more wood. Then he goes back to the weather station and asks the weatherman again how cold the winter is going to be. “Very cold,” the weatherman assures him, so the chief goes back to the tribe and tells them to cut as much wood as they can carry. One final time, the chief decides to go back to the weather station, just to make sure. “Oh, it’s going to be the coldest winter in years! It’s going to be freezing!” the weatherman says. “But how do you know?” the chief prods. “Well,” the weatherman says, “The Indians are all cutting wood like crazy!'”

Collector: Where did you hear this joke?

Informant: This story was told to me by my girlfriend during lunch one day. We were telling jokes to one another, and she told me this one.

Collector: Why do you remember this joke in particular?

Informant: It’s funny how rigid systems of thought can become. In both cases, the weatherman’s case and the Indians’ case, they end up judging their general situation not on their own gut instinct or insight, but from what a pre-established system tells them they should think. The joke highlights the irony codependent systems of rigid thought, of which there are many in this world, can become.

I really couldn’t have explained this joke better myself, and it’s pretty much what I was thinking. It’s a joke based on stereotypes and the humor is found based on the performance of said stereotypes.

Aldigench

Nationality: USA
Age: 20
Occupation: student
Residence: USA
Performance Date: April 23, 2015
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese

Informant was a 20 year old male who was born in North Carolina and moved to Santa Monica at an early age. He attends the University of San Diego and is an old family friend that came to visit.

Story:

“So my dad’s uncle used to tell them as kids that if they fucked around and did stupid shit, then the Aldigench was gonna get them. And they were always like “Who’s the Aldigench? What does he look like?” and my Great Uncle would never tell them. They used to go looking around the house and try to find him every time my Great Uncle would mention the Aldigench. So now, my sister, my cousins, and I all know about the Aldigench, because our fathers have continued this tradition of saying the Aldigench was going to get us. And we all know it’s fake, but now it has almost become like a running joke between our whole family. Especially when I was a kid, the Aldigench would often come up in conversation.”

This is a prime example of adults making things up in order to control their children. It’s the tactic of instilling fear in order to keep people under check, which, to be honest, is probably how most folklore was created. If there’s something you’re not supposed to do, then you can probably bet there’s a story telling you why you shouldn’t do it.