Category Archives: Humor

Indian Wedding Ritual: Sisters Demanding Money

Context: The informant, AV, is an 18 year old student with parents who immigrated from India, specifically Gujarat. She’s been to multiple weddings in India, and observed this at her first cousin’s wedding. She remembers being somewhere around 5th grade-aged, and so she recounted what she remembered, with a general explanation. She doesn’t know if this is an Indian ritual or just a Gujarati one.

Text: AV said “When our cousin got married, he didn’t have any sisters, so me and my sister stood in front of his horse and didn’t let him through until he promised us money and silver chains. We were really young so I don’t remember it as well, but I remember it happening” and explained that essentially, when either your brother or a close cousin who has no sisters is getting married, you’re supposed to stop them from going into the wedding. They usually enter on a horse or in a car and they’re meant to walk into the venue, but before they can, you physically get in front of the horse/car, stop him, and tell him he’s not allowed to pass. He then is supposed to bargain, offering you money or gold or silver to let him pass. When it’s enough, you let him pass — usually now, it’s ritualized in the way that you push back like three times and on the second or third time you let them through.

Analysis: This ritual feels somewhat similar to the pranks traditionally played on couples during weddings, as a way of disrupting that liminality, except it’s specific to the groom and his side of the family. It’s a ritual for the groom to also leave the family; as the groom goes to the bride, the sisters will no longer be the most important women in his life, and they cede that position in a joking ritual that requires the groom to bribe them, proving how much he wants the bride. It’s a wedding ritual that rearranges the structure of the families that will be combining, and visually reorders the groom’s priorities. For the sisters, it’s also a form of letting their brother go, knowing that their relationships will fundamentally change, but disrupting that transition with this joking ritual.

Scout Camp Announcements Tradition

“Every morning and every night, we do these announcements at the flag ceremony for the day. Where there’s a person who’s like the officer of the day, who’s in charge of running things for the day, stands at the front and calls out any of the staff members who have announcements for the day, and they like jump forward and do their little bits, where they say jokes and do their little announcements. After the last dinner before everyone heads out of camp, we head out to the flag area again,and we line up and usually the program director will pretend they’re like the fake officer of the day and do a full flag ceremony, even when there are no scouts, and everyone is allowed to give a parting message. And so we’ll make references and say silly stuff. Like last year, there was one moment where this younger staff member yelled very loudly at me, ‘[Teller’s name] you have diarrhea on your hands!’ and so I made an announcement where I said I had diarrhea on my hands. 

Context: This tradition was gathered from a conversation I had with the teller, where I asked if there were any significant traditions or festivals he remembered from his life. As previously mentioned, this tradition is from a summer scout camp that the teller worked at. The camp operated on a weekly basis across a month or so, where a new batch of scouts were brought in each week. The teller told me of three traditions, of which this is the third. 

Analysis: Performed by and for the staff of this scout camp, this particular tradition is a transformation of a standardized daily routine, done during a specific liminal time (the end of the weekly program). In contrast to the more structured nature of the daily announcements, this tradition takes on a more humorous note, deriving hilarity from the contrast between the absurd statements and the supposed formality of the usual traditions. Happening at the end of the weekly program, before a new cycle of scouts come through, this tradition seems to reinforce and celebrate the connections built amongst the staff and between the staff and the scouts during the weekly period, almost making sure that some part of the prior experience stays with them as they face another change in the coming week. 

Creative Insults

“Take a long walk down a short pier.”

“Go piss up a rope.”

This person grew up hearing his grandmother constantly say these insults to those who inconvenience her. From this, his whole family began to say these to others as well, and even he still says them to this day. Each time he says one, he immediately thinks of his grandmother and her Irish Catholic background. It also emphasizes that she has a strong connection to her Boston background because of the blunt style this language is often associated with.

While these insults can seem harsh, the relationship that this person, and his family, has to them show a strong familial connection and importance in his life. Like most folklore, these insults were passed down essentially as familial tradition as they had an obvious influence in shaping the communication style (insulting) that the family members gradually took up and will most likely continue to use, passing them on to others in their lives. Furthermore, folklore is often seen as having oral traditions, as much of it is told throughout history by word of mouth, being passed down generations and from community to community, just as these insults have done. Additionally, the insults the grandmother uses represents her cultural identity, likely coming from her upbringing and environment living in Boston and being an Irish Catholic. Through these verbal insults, she is able to share this identity and transmit these elements of herself to others, exhibiting common folklore themes of generational sharing, word of mouth, and cultural adaptations. Finally, when I was told about this piece of folklore in this person’s life, I too had heard these insults as I also grew up in Boston, and it brought back many memories that I have with my own friends and family surrounding these phrases!

Northeast American (Vermont) Proverb

Tags: Vermont, Northeast America, Proverb, Salem Witch Trials, Expression

Text

“Colder than a witch’s tit in a brass bra in the snow”

Informant Info

Race/Ethnicity: White

Age: 22

Occupation: College Student

Residence: Vermont, USA

Date of Performance: February 2024

Primary Language: English

Other Language(s): N/A

Relationship: Friend

Context

BB, the informant, was born and raised in Vermont.

Analysis

“Colder than a witch’s tit in a brass bra in the snow” is a proverb used to specify how cold it is outside (aka very cold). It is often used by those residing in Northeast American states where the winters are notoriously cold. Vermont is one of these states. 

Vermonters are known for their biting humor and funny way of talking. In addition to being influenced by their geographical location, they are highly influenced by the political, social, and economic historic events of neighboring states. One of these events was the Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts. These trials were held in the 1690s where people were accused of and tried for practicing witchcraft. The accused were often women.

As for the literal meaning behind the saying, brass is a metal. Metals are thermally conductive, meaning that when in contact with something hot, they heat up; when in contact with something cold, they become colder. Putting on a cold article of clothing in a sensitive area is a very cold experience.

Vietnamese Folk Speech

Tags: Folk Speech, Dites, Folk Sayings, Vietnamese

Text

“Biết chết liền”

“If I knew, I’d die”

Informant Info

Race/Ethnicity: Vietnamese

Age: 56

Occupation: Business Owner

Residence: Northwest Arkansas, USA

Date of Performance: February 2024

Primary Language:Vietnamese

Other Language(s): English

Relationship: Stepfather

Context

ND, the informant, was born in the South of Vietnam. He often uses this phrase when talking to his other Vietnamese friends about a piece of gossip.

Analysis

“Biết chết liền” is another way of saying that “if I’d known, I would have died.” It is also a Vietnamese way of saying that you didn’t know about something. Vietnamese people have a very unique way of expressing themselves: their speech is typically lighthearted, dramatic, and wonderfully eccentric. Oftentimes when speaking amongst friends/ethnic familiars, they use dramatic and funny phrases to communicate.