Category Archives: Humor

Dentist Joke

Nationality: Irish American
Age: 57
Occupation: Dentist
Residence: San Carlos, Ca
Performance Date: 4/6/2017
Primary Language: English

Informant:

Terry is a second generation Irish american who grew up in los Angeles in the ‘60s and 70’s. He is now a dentist working and living in the Bay area.

Piece:

Ok, so here is a joke that I learned in dental school. It goes like this:

What did the dentist see in the North pole?

A molar bear

Collector’s thoughts:

This short dentist joke is a pun which replaces polar bear with the word molar. The informant laughed at his own joke and got great pleasure from telling it. To me it seemed that half of the fun in telling this joke for the informant came from the fact that it is a somewhat boring joke.

A Hong Kong Joke

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: USC Campus
Performance Date: April 20th, 2017
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English

 

 

“Once, there was a hill, and on that hill is a temple, and inside the temple, there is a monk that was dreaming about ‘once there was a hill, and on that hill is a temple, and inside the temple, there is a monk that was dreaming about, and so on and so on.”

-Ivan Tsang, international student at the University of Southern California.

Tsang first heard the absurdist story/joke hybrid in the halls of his elementary school in Hong Kong. Tsang performed this piece in a classroom at the University of Southern California.

I found this piece interesting because it exemplifies the cross-cultural similarities in elementary school lore. This is Tsang’s version of the never ending joke, with it’s own cultural context, that students in the United States have as well. There’s a certain charm to a joke without a punchline…or an end.

 

 

The Pet Funeral Joke

Nationality: Colombian American
Age: 52
Occupation: Doctor
Residence: Tampa Florida
Performance Date: 4/13/17
Primary Language: English

 

US Airforce Joke

 

“A man walks up to a cemetery, he asks a priest if he can bury his dog in the cemetery. The priest says no, that only people were to be buried in the cemetery because they have souls and dogs do not. The man begged, please, he said. The priest refused. The man said fine, he would just take his 20,000 dollars and try another cemetery.”

The priest paused.

“Wait a minute,” the priest said. “Is your dog catholic?”

 

Another joke about greediness, and the shedding of morality in favor of money.

The Bank Joke

Nationality: Colombian American
Age: 52
Occupation: Doctor
Residence: Tampa Florida
Performance Date: 4/4/17
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

A joke overheard in the US Airforce:

A surly looking man walks into a bank. He walks up to the employee at the window and says

“I want to open a fucking account.”

She responds: “Excuse me?”

“You didn’t hear me, bitch?”

Then the woman left and got the manager.

The manager came up and addressed the man:

“Can I help you, sir?”

“I want open an account. I have 10 million dollars.”

The managers eyes widened and then he replied:

“And what? This fucking bitch wouldn’t help you?”

 

I enjoyed the joke because it exemplified the greed of man.

 

Three people walk into a bar

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: USC
Performance Date: 4/15/17

“Three people walk into a bar. You would think after the first one, the second two would have ducked.”

 

-Madison heard this from her grandfather.