Category Archives: Stereotypes/Blason Populaire

Cultural Joke

Nationality: Mexican American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Culver City, California
Performance Date: 4/20
Primary Language: English

Interviewer: Do you know any folklore based on stereotypes or any jokes based on communities?

 

Informant: I know some jokes that I learned from my family.  I think one that would fit is a joke I heard from my mom.

 

Interviewer: How does it go?

 

Informant: Why do Mexicans make tamales for Christmas?

 

Interviewer: I don’t know, why?

 

Informant: So they can have something to unwrap.

 

Interviewer: That is actually really funny, I don’t think it would have the same meaning if I wasn’t Mexican.

 

Informant: Yeah I think it’s more relatable because my family has tamales for Christmas and it’s a big part of our celebration.

 

Interviewer: Yeah it was actually really funny and the first thing I thought about was how excited my dad gets around Christmas because he could honestly care less about the presents but loves tamales.

 

Informant: Yeah exactly.  If you weren’t Mexican it would be more like you thought it was funny because it fulfilled a stereotype but not because you actually understood the customs or the culture.

 

Interviewer: That’s so true! Thanks for sharing.

 

Background: The informant is a Junior at USC studying Non-Governmental Organizations and Social Change.  She is Mexican American and comes from a large family and extended family based in the greater Los Angeles area.  The informant is also the roommate of the interviewer and a close friend who shares many cultural traditions.

 

Context: This interview occurred during a lunch meal with friends where we discussed similar cultural practices.  The informant first heard this joke when at home with her family and then shared it with me.  She said her mother was the one to share the folklore and that she had heard it before from another within her community.

 

Analysis: At first this joke was really funny to me but then I thought about the cultural implications that went into creating the stereotype.  It was weird to see how other people thought about a given culture.  And it was interesting to analyze why it was funny to those within the group, and to me it was that people within the group are able to laugh because they are acknowledging but also counter acting the stereotype.

 

Iranian “Turk” Jokes

Nationality: Iranian-Canadian
Age: 18
Occupation: student
Residence: Newport Beach, CA
Performance Date: 04/15/2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Farsi, Spanish
  1. The main piece: Iranian “Turk” Jokes

“We have a lot of racist jokes. You know how some American jokes start with “a guy walks into a bar.” A lot of our jokes start with “what did the turk say” or “why did the Turk do this.” So there’s a region in Tehran, Tabriz, where there’s a lot of Turkish people, and they have a certain accent. So whenever we tell the Turk jokes, there’s a certain accent we use.”

  1. Background information about the performance from the informant: why do they know or like this piece? Where/who did they learn it from? What does it mean to them? The context of the performance?

“I mean, this is kind of embarrassing because it’s not the best portrayal of us. But it’s not like we really think this about Turks anymore, it’s just what the jokes have become and been for so long. Like dumb blonde jokes are still funny, even though we know blondes aren’t dumb. I’ve heard different family members and family friends tell these jokes at parties… I mean, they’re funny and remind me of jokes that people from my culture make.”

  1. Finally, your thoughts about the piece

This piece is a clear example of stereotyping and Blason Populaire in jokes. It utilizes a common cultural bias or stereotype about a group of people who are not originally from the area, showing that they are being jested at because they are “different” and they are the minority. Stereotype and Blason Populaire jokes, when not utilizing stereotypes about a group to itself (i.e. Turkish people telling Turk jokes) alienate the group of people being made fun of in the jokes, and perpetuate the cultural differences between the two groups.

       4. Informant Details

The informant is an 18-year old Iranian-Canadian female. She was born in Iran but moved to Canada as a young child, then moved again to southern California as a teenager. Learning about her parents’ Iranian culture helped her feel a sense of continuity throughout the different moving experiences she had. They also helped her feel more rooted and attached to her place of birth.

A Mexican Runs Into a Wall…

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Biophysics Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California (originally New Jersey)
Performance Date: 3/29/2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean

Item (direct transcription):

A Mexican with an erection runs into a wall. What does he break?

His lawnmower.

Background Information:

The informant read the joke on 9GAG, an online social media site.

Contextual Information:

The informant made it very clear that he would only tell the joke to someone he knew very well and was confident wouldn’t be offended.

Analysis:

This joke is a clear example of blason populaire, playing on the stereotype that all Mexicans are gardeners.

Lithuanian Wedding Pranks

Nationality: Lithuanian
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Francisco, CA
Performance Date: 4/22/18
Primary Language: English
Language: Lithuanian, French

Collection/Background: Lithuanian Wedding tradition: songbook/singing/dancing/pranks

A: “Are there any certain traditions within Lithuanian weddings? Like are there any pranks or things of that sort?”

B: “Oh yeah! So pranks…I guess at each table you have to have a songbook that has a bunch of songs, and one of the events throughout the wedding is that people can choose a song and like during the meal, they can go up to the bride and groom and sing it to them. You usually get a lot of drunk renditions of songs *laughs* but like groups will come up or solos. And there’s also… um this wedding dance that’s done where the bride and groom sit in the middle while the wedding party dance around them with um… with these woven like pieces of fabric — I have one in my room — that they hold and wrap their arms around while dancing so at the end of the dance, the bride and groom are like completely wrapped in these things, and it’s supposed to showcase their unity.”

A: “Oooh!”

B: “We should go to a Lithuanian wedding! Maybe I’ll take you to the next one. Also, another prank is that when the bride and groom, before they walk into the venue and then to the tables, all of the wedding party sit in bride and groom’s seats with these hats on. And they pretend to be these random people that took over the wedding basically, and then the bride and groom have to sing to them to get them to move, which is kind of weird.”

A: “Interesting!”

B: “So they do that, and the name is like “Čigonai” because I guess in the olden days, they were taken over by the country and so that’s like the group that you kind of make fun of, which sounds kind of bad. *laughs* It’s like the people from the countryside or something.”

Context: It is apparent that music plays a strong role in Lithuanian culture holistically with song and dance frequently included. Further, some of these wedding traditions seem to stem from historical context including submission to another nation. Such references can be found in the attire worn by and actions performed by those who prank the couple. For example, the hat serves as a symbol to indicate the resemblance to the other foreign group. Further, the woven fabric, another folk object, takes on the symbolic meaning of unity.

Interpretation: Practical jokes are common in weddings throughout many cultures. Often, the individual at the expense of the joke is going through a rite of passage. In this case, marriage is the rite of passage, in which the couple is progressing to something greater. Further, the hats worn by the prankers may be an example of “blason populaire” as it draws from a stereotype.

 

Joke: How To Get A Drummer Off Your Porch

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Washington D.C.
Performance Date: March 28, 2018
Primary Language: English

For our discussion section, we were required to meet up with a fellow student and collect folklore from each other. LA is the person I collected from, PH is myself. Our conversation is as follows:

LA: I have jokes, if you want those.
PH: Oh, yeah.
LA: My childhood friend’s dad is this older Jewish punk dude and he had a lot of good jokes.

(pause)

Alright, so I have two drummer jokes which are frequently passed around for people in bands because we love to make jokes about drummers.

Number one: told to me a long time ago by a family friend who was in a punk band in the ‘90s.

What do you do to get a drummer off your porch?

PH: What?

LA: Offer to pay for the pizza.

The second joke collected is documented in its own post.