Category Archives: Humor

British Dite

Nationality: British
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 22, 2018
Primary Language: English

Main piece:

“Don’t be silly, wrap his willy!”

Background:

Informant is a first year student at the University of Southern California who grew up in Henley on Thames, England. 

Context:

I asked the informant if she had any sayings, and this was her response.

Commentary:

The informant uses this dite as a joke whenever one of her friends is going to be alone with a boy, even if they do not have a sexual relationship. There are definitely many forms of this saying in other cultures, and it is interesting to see how the different shorthands for words lead to different rhymes, and therefore different phrases as a whole.

 

A Toast

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 14, 2018
Primary Language: English

Main piece:

“May we get what we want, may we get what we need, but may we never get what we deserve!”

Background:

Informant is a first year student at the University of Southern California who grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana. She originally found this toast on the internet, and liked it so much it has become her signature saying.

Context:

The informant and I were at dinner with other friends, and she shared this as a toast.

Commentary:

This toast is used to poke fun at friends while simultaneously making them laugh. It is meant as a joke at the expense of the people present, but it is delivered in a way that seems uplifting, and ultimately is humorous.

 

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.

Joke: How You Know A Drummer’s At Your Door

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 began like this:

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.

Then, the informant told me the first joke which is documented in a different post. Here is the second joke:

LA: Drummer joke number 2: told to me by my friend’s dad, he was also in a punk band in high school.
How do you know when a drummer’s at your door?

PH: How?
LA: ‘Cause the knocking speeds up and he doesn’t know when to come in.

Grateful Dead Joke

Nationality: American
Age: 58
Occupation: Lawyer
Residence: San Diego, CA; originally from Denver, CO
Performance Date: March 31, 2018
Primary Language: English

A Grateful Dead song started playing in the car while my dad was driving. The informant (my dad) is WB, I am PH.

WB: Ugh, the Grateful Dead

PH: Want me to skip it?

WB: No, that’s okay. Did I ever tell you my joke about the Grateful Dead?

PH: I think so, but tell me again

WB: What’d the Grateful Dead fan say when he got out of rehab?

PH: What?

WB: [said in a lower, “hippie” voice that my dad uses when imitating his hippie, drug addict cousin] “What’s this terrible noise stuck in my head, man?”