Author Archives: Ryan Lee

A Bad Joke

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Primary Language: English

“What do you call it when 20 ox run into each other?  A yakksident.

What do you call it when 20 yaks run into each other? An occident.”

This joke is an example of a meta joke — it was given as an example as a bad joke, and, according to the informant, was in fact passed around as a common reply when someone told a bad joke.  According to the informant, it is also used to salvage a bad joke, by telling a worse one that makes the first joke told better in retrospect.  The joke teller is aware of the joke’s awfulness, making a punchline out of the poor, slightly nonsensical punchline.

Blarney Stone Variation

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Performance Date: April 2013
Primary Language: English

“It’s a stone in the wall of a castle, and you have to kiss it upside down.  If you do, you gain the wisdom of all Irishmen, if you’re Irish.”

Like the variation on the Banshee, this version of the Blarney Stone belief/custom also has a major variation.  While actual custom that’s supposed to be acted out at the Blarney Stone (kissing it upside-down), the effect, which is often cited as gaining the “gift of gab”, has been made significantly more heroic-sounding: now, after kissing the Blarney Stone, Irish people gain the “wisdom of all Irishmen”.  Once again, this is perhaps due to the influence of American legends on Irish folklore, the Stone’s power made nicer-sounding and easier to understand than the “gift of gab”.

The Haunted Field House

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Primary Language: English

“The ‘Field House’ is a locker room at the football field of Loyola High School.  It’s haunted by the janitor who used to clean it.  People sometimes go in there and see the janitor, come out and tells someone about it, and people will tell them, “You saw the janitor.  He’s been dead for 40 years.”

This belief is a classic ghost story, though in comparison to most, the ghost that haunts the field house seems relatively benign.  The informant truly believes in the ghost, and added that many new faculty will report seeing the ghostly janitor in the Field House without having been told of the belief in the ghost, and will even correctly identify who they saw as the old, long-dead janitor.  Belief in the ghost is especially prevalent within the sports teams, of whom the informant was a member.  This could be due to the large amount of superstition in sports, though the story of the ghost in the Field House does not actually mention being linked to the sports teams.

Banshees

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Performance Date: April 2013
Primary Language: English

“Banshees are from Ireland.  They’re the souls of women who died after their children, and they steal children from bed in the middle of the night.  Mothers can sit in your children’s room in the night to keep the Banshee away, though.”

 

Banshees are, essentially, the Irish folklore version of a witch.  Both witches and Banshees are evil, supernatural women.  This particular version of the Banshee belief has a few variations with the more popular versions of the belief.  In this case, the Banshee is based around children, as the Banshee is the soul of a woman who outlived their children, whereas in other recorded beliefs, they are based around the idea of death; Banshees appear when people are dying.  In this variation, though, they are given a far more directly malevolent objective: stealing children.

    The informant is a descendant of Irish immigrants, and his parents would tell him stories of Irish folklore as a child.  The versions of the legends he learned, then, could be the result of Irish folklore mixing with some more American-developed beliefs, such as mixing Irish Banshees and witches.

Irish Songs

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Performance Date: April 2013
Primary Language: English

“The vocal section of the song is really short,  so that you can sing along, and the music section is really long so you can drink and dance in between.”

This folk belief is essentially based in the stereotype about Irish people: that alcohol, and drinking, are of the utmost importance.  This belief filters down to music, and to the belief that little eccentricities of Irish music, such as having short lyrical verses and long instrumental sections, are there for reasons of drinking, dancing, and other merriment.