Category Archives: Humor

The PA and the Light Bulb

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Film Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 3/27/2018
Primary Language: English

The following is a common filmmaking joke phrase:

How many Pas does it take to screw in a light bulb?

I don’t know, how many?

Six, one to do it and five to stand around and wish they got asked to do it.

 

The informant explained that often PAs are not really given jobs to do, so they just want something to do

 

Context: this was collected during our in class collection time

 

Thoughts: This joke I found particularly interesting because rather than complaining about having to do work, which I found to be a common theme of occupational jokes, rather this joke is about complaining because you don’t have any work to do. I think it would be interesting to compare the jobs of PAs to other jobs on a film set to see if this is really true.

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.

The Ironic Suicide

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Accounting Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 3/26/2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin

Item (direct transcription):

There was a legend, a tale, about a man who tried to commit suicide. And he tried to use three methods. Ironically, the three methods ended up canceling each other, and he ended up living. Here goes the tale. The tale goes like this:

He’s standing right at the edge of a bridge. [The informant uses a water bottle as a prop. He pushes it to the edge of a counter.] So already, you already know his first method of committing suicide: he’s going to hang himself. So he tries to hang himself. That’s method one. Method two is he wants to blow his brains out, so he has a pistol right by his side. And then in his other hand, he has a poison capsule. So, he has to do it very carefully.

First he puts the poison capsule inside his mouth, swallows it, waits a while, then he gets out the gun, then he jumps! And then, he tries to pull the trigger, but then, the rope yanks his head, and he ended up pulling the gun out of his mouth, but he still pulled the trigger. [He acts out all of these events.] The gun, the bullet breaks the rope, so he ends up not hanging himself and he ends up not shooting himself in the head. And because the water is so not-too-distant away from him, he doesn’t die from hitting the water. Now, the water is salty—it’s sea water, and he ends up—Ugh! [vomit noise]—swallowing a great gallon, half a gallon of salt water. And then he ends up throwing up the poison capsule that was in his stomach. So he ends up canceling out all his suicide methods, by using his suicide methods!

Background Information:

The informant first heard this tale in high school. He has remembered it and enjoys telling it because his audiences tend to respond well to it. In his opinion, the story has a captivating hook and a hilarious conclusion.

He does not believe that the story was true, because he finds it “outlandish.” Interestingly, the gender of the story’s character seems to influence that belief. The informant claims that men tend to kill themselves using simple and direct methods (e.g. jumping from a height or using a gun), whereas women are more likely to use complex and unreliable methods of suicide (e.g. inhaling carbon monoxide or overdosing on sleeping pills). Since the story’s character is a man, the informant finds it unlikely that he would use three methods of suicide, rather than just one.

Contextual Information:

The informant performs the tale in order to entertain an audience. He enhances the performance by acting out the story as he tells it.

Analysis:

The story uses the common Western storytelling motif of threes (i.e. three suicide methods).

Poop Problems

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Accounting Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 3/26/2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin

Item (direct transcription):

So, what happens is… a guy… he’s having some… poop problems. Okay? He goes to the doctor and he says, “Doctor, there’s something wrong. What happens is, when I eat an apple I literally poop out the apple I just ate. Like, whole, you know. Like, it’s a frickin’ apple, you know what I mean? I eat a doughnut, it’s still a doughnut. Okay? I eat a—You get what I mean, Doc?!”

The doctor’s like, “So, yeah, uhh, what’s the problem?”

He’s like, “I can’t poop! Think about it: I eat food and it just goes straight out, whole!”

So the doctor’s like, “Have you considered just eating poo?”

Background Information:

The informant first heard this joke from a friend in 6th grade.

Contextual Information:

Interestingly, the informant doesn’t believe that the joke would only be appropriate to tell between children. On the contrary, he believes that this joke is an example of cross-generational “toilet humor.” When he was younger, he enjoyed sharing this type of joke with his father.

Analysis:

The joke has the qualities of a typical children’s joke focusing on obscenity play and absurdity. Human excrement is often a good topic for children’s humor, since it lends itself to these categories.

Also, the joke is genuinely rather witty.

Hitler and the Boston Bombers

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):

What did the Boston bombers do that Hitler didn’t?

End the race.

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 fits the common pattern of jokes forming in response to tragic events. In this case, the effect is double, because the joke makes fun of tragedy of both the Boston Bombing and the Holocaust.