Category Archives: Humor

Luna

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 56
Occupation: Electrician
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 04/19/2018
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

Main Piece: Luna

The following was an interview of a Participant/interviewee about a folk riddle that is passed within his community. He is marked as AO. I am marked as DM.

AO: Les voy hacer una adivinanza. Quiero que me digan una palabra de cuatro letras que cuando le quitan una letra queda una.

DM: I don’t know. No puede ser porque si le quitas una letra no mas queda tres letras es impossible.

AO: No si hay. Queres ver?

DM: Si a ver.

AO: Mira la palabra es L-U-N-A (writes down luna on paper). Si le quitas una letra (crosses out L) queda U-N-A.

Translation:

AO: I am going to tell you guys a riddle. I want you to tell me a word that has four letters and when you take one letter away one is left.

DM: I don’t know. It’s impossible because if you take one away you are left with three.

AO: Yes there is away. Want to see?

DM: Yes, lets see.

AO: The word is M-O-O-N (writes it down on paper). If you take away one letter (crosses out M), one is left.

Background/Context:

The participant is 56 years old. He grew up in Mexico City, Mexico. Alberto, who is marked as AO, is my grandpa. When I was growing up, my grandpa loved to tell me and my sisters jokes or riddles. He would tell us it helped us develop a different way of thinking. This joke only works in Spanish since it a wordplay riddle. The word “luna” means moon and the word “una” means one, but “una” is also the last three letters of the word “luna”. The riddle is to find a word that when you take away one letter “una”, “una” is left meaning taking away one letter, which is the L in “luna” leaves “una”. Below is a conversation I had with AO for more background/context of the joke, which was originally in Spanish.

DM: Why do you know/ like this riddle?

AO: I like to tell this riddle because I want to make people think. The word was also very popular in Mexico.

DM: Where and from who did you learn this riddle from?

AO: I learned this joke in Mexico from my brother, Gavino.

DM: What does this riddle mean/ signify to you?

AO: Telling jokes or phrases that make people think was a tradition in Mexico. Also, since there was no internet or tv in my time, this was a way to pass time. Telling stories, jokes, riddles was a game or form entertainment to us.

Analysis/ My Thoughts:

Every time I heard this joke I never thought about it as a way to pass time or a game. I think it is important to know that at one point riddles were a form of entertainment in some communities. The fact that people in Mexico would sit around telling each other proverbs, jokes, and riddles that learn from their families and to not think about it as folklore is amazing. The fact that one daily conversation can turn into something that will last forever.

Merton College Library Ghost

Nationality: USA/UK/India
Age: 59
Occupation: Finance
Residence: Stamford, Connecticut
Performance Date: April 1, 2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Hindi

 

“In my second year at Oxford University, I visited the Merton College Library. Walking through the library so late at night, I remembered the famous story about the Merton College library ghost. That night I didn’t see the ghost, but I still left the library with a spooky feeling inside of me.

So anyway, late in the evening, I went to borrow a book in this library. This was a different library than the one I would normally go to. I went to Lincoln College so normally I would go to that library, but they didn’t have the book. The philosophy department didn’t have it either so I had to go to this library late at night because I really needed to write an essay.

Merton College is nearly 800 years old, so it’s a very spooky old place to go to just because it’s so ancient and eerie. There is so much history in all the old buildings.

Basically the legend says there’s a ghost who haunts the library. He has been seen by a number of people and he walks the halls of the library late at night. Many years ago, they raised the floor of the library by 10-12 inches, nearly a foot… um, so as a result the ghost walks at the level of the original floor. So the ghost is 10 inches shorter than he should be. It’s kind of funny actually because people see a really short ghost if they end up seeing him. Some think he’s walking on his knees or kneeling on the ground, but he’s actually walking at the original height of the building. He’s apparently locked in time and space, so he walks at the level of the old library floor.

The funny part is that below the library there is the grand dining hall. It’s kind of like the dining halls in Harry Potter, just to paint a picture, so it’s really large and grand. Anyway, they say that if you’re in the dining hall and you look up, you might see the ghost’s feet walking through the ceiling. It’s honestly kind of funny if you think about it.

I’m not sure if it’s an evil ghost or a friendly ghost, but I don’t think he does any harm.

He’s supposed to be the ghost of a man named Francis Windebank, a royalist soldier who was executed a long time ago on the college grounds. I don’t know that much about him, but I do know that this was a very famous ghost on campus.

I do sometimes believe in ghosts. I think it’s an interesting story because the ghost is locked in time and trapped on a specific level. He’s not really in our world yet is at the same time.

He’s in our world because we can see him, but he’s not in our world because he’s dead. He’s in the other world because he’s walking on the level of the ceiling of when he died so he’s really interesting because he’s in a different time and space. I find this the most interesting part of this story.

I don’t know if I believe in the ghost, but I still think it’s an intriguing story and an important part of Oxford University history. There are lot of different ghost stories and famous ghosts on the Oxford Campus because it’s such an old place.

I think that libraries are often haunted because people go there late at night and alone. People are tired and there’s not many people there so they might see things. Libraries are old and lonely places, maybe explaining why there are so many instances with ghosts in libraries and people seeing ghosts in libraries.”

Collector’s thoughts:

I think this story is a really unique and different from other ghost stories because of how the ghost is locked in time and space. I wonder why the ghost walks on the old level of the library and if most ghosts are locked in the specific time and location of where they died. It would also be really interesting to trace this particular ghost story and others from the Oxford University campus.

I think libraries, again, are very liminal, creepy places and that is why they tend to be so haunted. I think this story is interesting because there is also an element of humor to the ghost: seeing the feet on the ceiling is something that the students at Oxford find funny. I think these different ghost traditions on campuses bring a community closer together and help people connect in certain ways. I am sure there are numerous famous ghosts and ghost stories that only Oxford students know and that plays a role in being part of their community.

Overall, this ghost story seems like more than an urban legend because you can research Francis Windebank and find out his story, possibly tracing it back to this ghost story. This ghost story just seems more plausible than others because there is a name for the ghost and a history; rather than just a vague story about a person.

Swing Jokes

Nationality: Mexican-American
Age: 20
Occupation: Program Coordinator
Residence: Arkansas
Performance Date: 4/21/17
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

There is a kind of dark joke that has been passed down through Eloisa’s siblings that goes like:

Why did Sarah fall off the swing?

Cause she had no hands!

Knock Knock!

Who is there?

Not Sarah!

The joke has been passed down about 3 generations from her dad’s side. It’s always been used when someone is going through a dark patch to cheer them up.

–

Eloisa is a Michoacan born lady who has lived in Arkansas since she has been a little girl. She used to be really religious, but after being opened up to human rights, and mostly women rights, she has taken a step back and tried to analyze everything to decide on what she can really identify as part of her.

 

Leaving a Place for Elijah

Nationality: Israeli
Age: 45
Occupation: Computer Programmer
Residence: Bellevue, WA
Performance Date: May 2016
Primary Language: English
Language: Hebrew

The source is an Israeli Microsoft employee describing a prank he pulled on his children on Passover.

Well, as you may know for Passover Seder, we set an extra place at the table for the Profit Elijah. The tradition normally is that we pour a cup of wine for the profit and the husband of the household open the door for him. Of course, the seat remains empty and the wine full. And many parents know you can have some fun with young children, who of course are watching the Elijah’s Cup intently, by knocking the table when they’re not looking so that some of the wine spills out and it appear that the cup is drunk. When they’re older maybe they don’t fall for this.

Anyway, last year we had the idea to take that one step further and I asked my friend from work Farhan to help me with a prank. He’s Zoroastrian so he’s not doing anything that night. So this Seder we set a place for Elijah like normal; we pour the wine like normal. My children are nine and thirteen so they don’t take the whole thing too seriously anymore; they know the trick of knocking the table and spilling the wine; you know, they’re too wise to fall for that anymore.

Well this year we start eating and suddenly a bearded olive-skinned man in a tunic walks in the front door, comes to Elijah’s place, drinks the wine, and walks out again without saying anything. My kids drop to the floor and they say, “who was that, Dad.”

And I say very casually, “That’s Eliyahu [Elijah].”

To this day I won’t tell them that it was really my friend Farhan.

The Toaster Era

Nationality: Indian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Performance Date: May 3 2017
Primary Language: English

This entry was given to the interviewer through digital means. The interviewer asked the informant, Sahit, about any superstitions in the NBA he knows because of Sahit’s die-hard obsession to the sport. He replied with a comment about the “winningness” of the Golden State Warriors.

 

 

“I can’t think of any pregame superstitions or anything like that, but there is this thing that recently came up about a toaster that Klay [Thompson] signed. Some guy on Reddit went to a Klay autograph signing but instead of a shirt or a basketball, he had Klay sign his official Warriors-branded toaster. This kinda became a meme in itself because Klay was just so dumbfounded about signing the toaster that there are pictures of the awkward pause right before he signed it. But, since then, the Warriors are undefeated. This is now known as the Toaster Era and the Warriors are 20-0 in the Toaster Era.”

 

The interviewer had heard about the “Toaster Era” but didn’t know what it was attributed to in the first place. More than anything, this whole thing seems like a passing meme about the Warriors’ insane ability to win against any team in the NBA. I really doubt that the Warriors are undefeated solely due to the toaster, but it is nevertheless entertaining to think of this superstition as a reason for their repeated victories.