Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

Blason Populaire Joke

Nationality: Slovenian/Mexican
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: University of Southern California
Performance Date: April 4, 2011
Primary Language: English

The informant heard the following joke from one of her classmates in high school.

“Okay, so this one is horrible. I ask someone, ‘Do you know what Ethiopian food tastes like?’ Say, ‘No.’ And then I say, ‘Well, neither do Ethiopians.’ The joke is, because, Ethiopians don’t know what Ethiopian food tastes like because they are starved.”

The informant claims that she herself is not usually an active bearer of the joke: “You never tell it. Except right now [laughter].”

She finds the joke amusing precisely because it is so terrible: “Yeah, I think it’s a pretty bad joke . . . It’s one of those jokes where you think it’s really funny but you also know that it’s just an awful joke.”

Part of the humor value of this blason populaire joke is that it is taboo. You know that it’s awful that people are starving to death in Ethiopia, but at the same time it’s easier to laugh about it than to do anything about it. And it feels better to be amused than to be guilty for not helping.

Folk Belief- Pregnancy

Nationality: American, German
Age: 24
Occupation: Mother
Residence: Cardiff by the Sea, California
Performance Date: 4/24/11
Primary Language: English

“When you’re pregnant, you know you’re having a girl when the baby sits higher and a boy sits lower.”

The informant first heard this when she was pregnant with her first child.  She said that people were always trying to guess if she was having a boy or girl.  One women told her this old wives-tale.  The informant believed this piece of folklore because while pregnant her baby sat higher and she had a girl.  However, she know that this is just a theory and probably not always true.

There is a lot of folklore about pregnancy.  The pregnancy stage is a liminal time, when the baby is coming but not yet born.  Because this is such an unknown time, people choose to use folk medicine and customs in order to figure out the sex of the baby.  Also science cannot determine the sex of the baby until later in the pregnancy, while folk medicine can solve the mystery right away.

Mexican Joke

Nationality: American, White
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Fullerton, CA
Performance Date: 4/23/11
Primary Language: English

“Why don’t Mexicans have a good Olympics Team? Because everyone who can run, jump, or swim has already crossed the border.”

Matthew is a high school student from Southern California.  The informant heard the joke, first, from his friends and then, later, from his grandfather. Laughing, the informant says that he would share the joke with his teachers, but in actuality he says he would only share the joke with friends at school.  He thinks the joke is funny because it is stereotypical and – laughing again – partially true.

This joke represents a well-known stereotype within American culture.  The joke assumes that the Mexicans living in Mexico are not athletic enough to make it into America (illegally) and thus do not have a good team for the Olympics.

Dumb Blonde Jokes

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Fullerton, CA
Performance Date: 4/23/11
Primary Language: English

“Why did the dumb blonde stare at the orange juice carton for hours? It said concentrate.”

“How do you kill a blonde? Put a scratch-n-sniff sticker at the bottom of a pool.”

“How do you drive a blonde crazy? Put them in a circular room and tell them to find a corner.”

Matthew is a high school student in Fullerton, California. Matthew learned these jokes from people in junior high. He especially found this joke because I have blonde hair, and so he found it fun to tell the joke while also poking fun at me. He said that he would share these jokes to people on his sports teams.  He also suggest the jokes are so funny because blondes are “usually stupid,” and thus the jokes share, for him, an element of truth. Matthew says that he likes to share jokes with his friends because it helps them bond and have fun together.

This series of jokes represents just three of a very long list of jokes based on the dumb blonde stereotype.  I think the jokes are funny, but I also think that the jokes can be switched out based on who the dumb stereotypes belongs to.  People who are blonde may have to face this stereotype in different settings including the academic setting.  When this series of jokes are shared and preformed, the jokes are usually not just shared by one person but many add their own jokes.

Because the jokes are so popular, the jokes show up in modern media and literature.  For instance, in the book Breaking Dawn from the Twilight series – popular in the adolescent generation – the following joke is shared, “You know how to drown a blonde… Glue a mirror to the bottom of a pool.” This joke is very similar to the formerly mentioned scratch and sniff sticker joke.  These jokes implying that blondes are so dumb that they would be too preoccupied with a scratch and sniff sticker or a mirror that they would not realize they are drowning.

Meyer, Stephenie. Breaking Dawn. New York: Little, Brown and, 2009. Print.

Tombstone Chopsticks- Chinese Custom

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Diego, CA
Performance Date: 4/14/11
Primary Language: English

“In general, a Chinese custom.  When your eating out of a bowl and you want to stop eating.  You can’t leave your chopsticks in a bowl. Its rude and bad luck because it looks like a tombstone.  So you have to rest them on the edges of the top of the bowl or in the chopstick holder.”

The informant heard this when she was studying abroad in Beijing, China.  She was with her Chinese language partner.  The custom is commonly known and people are brought up know this.  She says that she only would follow the custom to be polite and make the people feel comfortable but did not believe it to be true in any way.

Chinese culture has a lot of customs and superstitions regarding death.  I would never think it to be superstitious to leave my chopsticks in a bowl, but many Chinese would see that as a bad practice. The concept of death transcends into a majority of Chinese folkloric practices.  I find this to be very interesting because I feel like eating and chopsticks has nothing to do with tombstones and death.  But, this is a superstition passed down from generation to generation and people do not want bad luck.