Category Archives: Humor

Brutal Barney

TEXT:

“I hate you, you hate me. Let’s get together and kill Barney.”

CONTEXT:

The informant from Pennsylvania shared that around 2010-2012 they heard many songs sung by their classmates regarding the brutal dismantlement of Barney and his purple body parts.

Informant- “In elementary school, there would be like different songs about like Barney, like the purple dinosaur Barney being like violently eviscerate, and it was like “I hate you you hate me. Let’s get together and kill Barney,” and it would be like, “with a big sharp ax…” and something something something.”’ 

Informant-“A Wikipedia page somewhere dedicated to violent playground songs about Barney I think one of them like the punchline is like flushing him down the toilet” 

Informant-“I’m not entirely sure what the purpose was and I feel like it was just like other classmates like other other kids we were singing them and there was like that whole like kind of urban legend that like Barney had gone crazy on on live television And I don’t know that that was true.”

ANALYSIS:

I myself recall hearing similar songs relating to Barney as a child growing up around the same time as the informant and from our seedings feel that another great example of this morphed folk speech can be explained in Davies, “Jokes That Follow Mass-Mediated Disasters” & Mechling, Jay. “‘Cheaters Never Prosper’ and Other Lies Adults Tell Kids: Proverbs and the Culture Wars over Character.” I especially think that Mechling explores the thought behind children finding great joy in twisting the songs they hear, such as the theme song from the children’s show Barney, and making it into something entirely their own, which also raises their status (at least in their own mind) to a higher level of maturity.

Senior Prank

Age: 21

Informant:

“The year before us did a senior prank and it was great because it wasn’t actually a prank. So I guess somebody in that class had a 3D printer so they 3D printed a ton of these tiny 3D printed articulated slugs and they would just leave them everywhere. You’d constantly be finding these articulated slugs and snails and they were all over campus and it was so great. I was like, this is the best kind of prank because you didn’t have to harm anyone. It was just like, “Oh my god, a slug!”

Context:

A tradition for graduating seniors in America is to pull a senior prank on their school. In the days leading up to the last day of school, the graduating senior class will come together and act out their plan to prank the school. This particular high school pulled a harmless prank with 3d slugs.

Analysis:

Senior pranks can vary in execution. Sometimes the prank is to jump in the fountain, post post-it notes all over the principal’s office, or decorate a hallway with balloons and streamers. It’s one of the last hurrah’s for the graduates before leaving the school. Senior pranks act as a rite of passage for high school seniors. They’re done during the liminal space, or a waiting period, leading up to graduation. The students are close to becoming an alumni but not quite there yet. It’s a bridge between adolescence and early adulthood.

FPS Doug (“Boom Headshot!”)

Main text:
FPS Doug (“Boom Headshot!”)
Background on Informant:
My informant is a friend of mine who I regularly play video games with. He is in his thirties and has been playing video games since he could remember. I asked him about internet videos from back in the day that had a strong following or that is still relevant today. He brought up the FPS Doug video and explained that it was something he and other gamers have seen and quoted over the years. He said it is especially common among people who have played FPS games like Counter-Strike.

Text:
Interviewer: so tell me about the video

Informant: Yeah, FPS DOUG the “boom headshot” guy, just funny and over the top. The way he reacts is crazy, throughout the video it shows him as a little eccentric, but when he plays counterstrike everyt ime he gets a kill he yells BOOM HEADSHOT! The video ends with him freaking out like way too much over him dying in the game, it was pretty funny.

Interviewer: What group would you say this internet folklore originated from?

Informant: Gamers for sure but more specifically Counter-strike gamers, you know CS has a cult like following.

Interviewer: Yes I am aware, do people still say it?

Informant: Yeah, *laughs* and you are one of those people.

Interviewer: Do you know the time frame it may have originated?

Informant: Uhh like the 2000 to 2010 I think?

Interviewer: thank you I appreciate your time.

Analysis:
This is digital folklore, the FPS Doug video became widely shared online and turned into a meme through repetition and quoting. In class, we learned that folklore spreads informally, and this example reflects that because it was not formally taught but shared within the gaming community online. The phrase became popular specifically within the Counter-Strike community before eventually spreading to the first person shooter community. It now functions like verbal folklore within gaming culture, reinforcing group identity and shared humor. This example also demonstrates multiplicity and variation, since people continue to reuse and adapt the phrase in different contexts not just to counterstrike or gaming but it has been used in the same way “knocked it out of the park” is used. Overall, it shows how modern folklore spreads through digital platforms while still serving similar functions as traditional folklore.

Little Jonny Jokes

My informant is a 30-something-year-old Marine Corps vet who lives in the Inland Empire and owns an HVAC business. I called him on the phone because I know that in the Marine Corps little Johnny jokes are very popular. I asked the marine vet to tell me about his favorite little Johnny Joke. There is no exact location for this joke because Marines move all over the country/world for duty stations; but he said he heard this joke at Camp Pendleton, Ca.

Informant: This is a joke I heard in the Marine Corps,

Little Johnny and his grandpa are going on a fishing trip, and as they’re driving down the road, Little Johnny’s grandpa pulls out a cigarette. Little Johnny sees his grandpa smoking a cigarette, leans over and says, Hey, hey, Gramps, you think I could get one of them cigarettes? His grandpa looks over at Little Johnny, thinks about it, and says, well, I don’t know, Little Johnny, can your dick touch your butthole? Little Johnny looks at him a bit confused and says, no.  So Gramps says, I guess you’re not old enough. So, they get to the lake and they start fishing. A little while out there on the lake and Johnny’s grandpa gets a little thirsty, so he opens up a beer, starts drinking a beer. Little Johnny leans in and says, Hey Gramps, you think I could have one of those beers? Gramps says, Well, I don’t know, Little Johnny. Can your dick touch your butthole? Little Johnny says, no, it can’t. Grandpa says, well, I guess you’re not old enough. Little while later goes on and Little Johnny gets hungry, so he pulls out the lunch that his mom made him, pulls out his cookies and starts eating some cookies. His grandpa leans in and says, Hey, Little Johnny, do you think I could get one of those cookies? Johnny says, well, I don’t know, Grandpa. Can your dick touch your butthole? His grandpa sits up very proud and says, Why, yes, it can. So Johnny says, good, go fuck yourself. These are my cookies.

Interviewer: That is a good one. Why do you think marines like little Jonny Jokes?

Informant: I dont know, they tend to be like inappropriate jokes kinda vulgar seems like a good fit with marines i guess.

Analysis: Little Johnny jokes are about a mischievous and clever child character who loves to challenge authority with intelligence and humor. The recurring theme of a child character outsmarting an authority is fits well in military environments like the Marine Corps, where daily life is heavily structured around rank and authority. Marines are constantly moving between different duty stations where these stories and jokes are shared orally around the ashtray or “smoke pit” helping Little Johnny spread quickly all across the world. The humor also reflects a cultural pattern common in military settings where irreverent or shocking jokes help build camaraderie. Marines operate within strict hierarchies, jokes that symbolically flip authority figures or make them look foolish become a way to release stress and hostility between the ranks.

That’s What She Said

Background on Informant:

My informant is a friend I went to high school with, who would be considered a millennial. He is in his mid-thirties, works as a longshoreman, and spends a lot of his free time playing video games. He is also a fan of The Office. Since high school, he has regularly used a phrase that can turn an ordinary sentence into a sexual one, commonly known as “that’s what she said.”

Text:

Interviewer: Alright,  so you have been saying that’s what she said since high school. Where did you hear it first, and what does it mean?

Informant: *laughs* It’s just when someone says something normal and you turn it into something sexual, like if someone says this is really hard, you just go, that’s what she said.

Interviewer: Where did you hear it first?

Informant: The Office….. or school, but I know that the Office definitely made it stick.

Interviewer: So you heard it a lot in school too?

Informant: Oh yeah in the early 2000’s everyone was saying it.

Interviewer: Do you still use it a lot?

Informant: Yeah, its almost like an addiction now, if I hear anything even remotely sexual, its like a compulsion at this point.

Interviewer: Do you still hear other people say it?

Informant: Yeah, but not nearly as much, now when someone else says it, I get excited, *chuckles* like we are long lost family or something.

Interviewer: So when someone else knows your phrase or joke you get excited?

Informant: Yeah, its like we are on the same team or something.

Analysis:

This joke or phrase is verbal folklore that relies on shared cultural knowledge. The Main group for this phrase is millennials, as it became widely popular through the hit television show The Office, although that is not its origin. The show made it more popular and then it was repeated and shared through peer-to-peer or horizontal transmission. He describes the phrase as a compulsion, like an itch he must scratch, this demonstrates how repeated use of folkloric terms can embed themselves into regular speech. The joke relies on timing and capitalizing on the opportunity to turn a simple sentence into a sexual one. He mentioned that when he hears someone else say it, he gets excited, which shows how the phrase causes a sense of connection or cohesion within the folkloric group. Although it isn’t used as much, it still holds meaning within the groups that still use it. This is a really great example of how something that started mass marketed ended up working its way into a small niche group of people who now use it.