Category Archives: Folk speech

Anthropomorphic Beans Having Small Talk

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Performance Date: 3/31/16
Primary Language: English

The informant sent me this piece folklore at my request. They said their friend formed the joke.

 

The joke is as followed:

So there’s two beans laying next to each other on a plate.

The first bean says to the other, “Hey, how you bean?”

The second says, “I’ve bean great thanks, just lima here.


Now, this joke follows the “classic” format of a simple pun. Because it’s initial pun is common, it is more likely to elicit amusement than a pure laugh. What particularly got to me was that it included a second, unexpected pun. Despite how it is still a simple one, the audience might have believed that the first was all there was, so they are surprised by the end of the conversation. Whether the addition of the second pun pulled a significantly greater response is indeterminate.

Blue Frog

Nationality: Korean American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Oakdale, California
Performance Date: 4/26/16
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean

The informant is of Korean descent, and shared this piece of folklore at my request.

 

There is a Korean proverb that goes “청개구리 (Chung-kgeh-kgu-ry),” which translate to “blue frog.” It is used to describe someone who is behaving oddly for attention, stemming from the idea that it is like a blue frog trying to go against to standard of green frogs.


The informant sees that it follows a certain pattern found in Korean folk speech. That is, references to animals and normalcy. Following that second line of thought, there is a Chinese saying that roughly translates to “no one else is like you.” This is suppose to be a negative thing, a phrase also used to describe those who stand out from the rest.

Pickle – Baseball Jargon

Nationality: American- Irish Descent
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Pacific Palisades, CA
Performance Date: 3-25-16
Primary Language: English

Informant: Matthew Henry McGeagh is my 19 year-old  twin brother. He was born and raised in Pacific Palisades, California. His family history comes from Irish, Catholic, Jewish, German, and Swedish roots; with an emphasis on the Irish culture. He attended Catholic school from kindergarten until 12th grade and was raised Catholic by his family as well. He played many sports growing up and is very athletic. He now plays baseball at the University of Pennsylvania.

“A failry common occurrence in baseball is when a runner is caught in between two bases, in an area in which he can be tagged out and the defensive players are throwing the ball back and forth, trying to get the scampering runner out before he can reach a base safely. This situation is called a ‘Pickle’.”

The actual baseball term for a pickle is called a rundown. This part of a baseball game is generally very spontaneous and it is something that the crowd loves to watch. It is very entertaining and slightly humorous because of the runner’s constant change in direction to try and avoid getting tagged out. If you can picture a rabbit in a confined area, running between too foxes trying to catch it; that is what a rundown looks like. This baseball term comes from another form of folklore in daily speech in which someone may say “I really got myself into a pickle here.” This means that one is in a troublesome situation and is trying to get out of it. This is exactly what the baserunner is trying to do in a Pickle. This is also a funny word, and as stated earlier, this situation in a baseball game is humorous to watch.

As a little league player, we used to play a game called “pickle” in which we would mimic this in-game occurrence. I have heard this term since I was a child and it s a very well-known term in baseball.

An example of a pickle is shown here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxqU_cBPZcc

Personal Proverb

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 27, 2016
Primary Language: English

Be good to the earth,

respect all mankind,

with these simple words

all else falls in line.

 

Is this something you made up yourself?

My dad.

 

And did he get it from someone else?

Nope.

 

What does this mean to you?

It’s tattooed on my arm. It’s about treating people with respect and its about acceptance. It’s the only two things I try to judge people on – if people are nice to the earth and nice to others they’re probably good people.

 

Background: I conducted this interview live, so this story was given to me in person. This is a proverb that was invented by the informant’s dad, and he lives by it, which is interesting. He just said it is a short mantra which he lives by, and I think this is something I will continue to think about after he told me this. This is something that is so important to the informant that he has it tattooed on his arm, which says something about how highly he regards this statement. I like how it is a brief statement from which he can make many decisions and judgements in his life.

Desprit Idjit

Nationality: American - (Welsh)
Age: 53
Occupation: Homemaker
Residence: Winnetka, IL
Performance Date: Saturday March 26th, 2016
Primary Language: English
Language: French

L is a 53-year-old homemaker living in Winnetka, IL. L grew up mainly in the northern suburbs of Illinois, but she also lived in Germany and England for a while when she was younger. L speaks English primarily but she is learning French. L attended both the University of Southern California and the University of Wisconsin Madison for her undergraduate college education. L considers herself to be American. She does not really identify with her Welsh ancestry.

Me: Where did the term come from?

L: A crazy woman named Shawna that was leading a tour around Ireland through the ring of Kerry on a huge coach bus. Every time the coach would get stuck, by some car not making room for the coach, or some person walking in front of the coach, in the middle of a sentence explaining what we were seeing at the time, she would blurt out, “Desprit ijit!”

Me: What does it mean?

L: It means a person that is so clueless and is not paying attention, so in English it would be a desperate idiot. Someone who is painfully stupid. It was really more of a pronunciation thing because she had a thick Irish accent. She repeated it throughout our entire trip probably six or seven times a day. So, there were a lot of idiots.

Me: Do you still use the phrase?

L: Desprit ijit? Yeah. All the time. It’s the funniest thing, it cracks everyone up. I use it when I’m driving a lot. But you have to say it with the accent because otherwise it just isn’t as funny.

L talks about how a random phrase that some people in the U.S. likely use, though it sounds different due to the accent, has become so funny to her. The accent of the tour guide and the phrase she said constantly, “desprit ijit,” was so funny to L, and she liked it so much that she has started to use it on a daily basis. She exudes Shawna, the tour guide’s, personality when she get behind the wheel because she has to deal with “deprit ijits” who just don’t know how to drive.