Category Archives: Humor

Akal!

Nationality: Lebanese
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 2/14/2023
Primary Language: English
Language: Arabic

My informant (18), from Lebanon, describes a joke he would play on his peers as a child. “Me and my cousins used to play it. It’s not a game, well it is a game, but it’s also a joke, where you would whisper something incomprehensive at like, let’s say around a group of people, and if [someone says] “What?” I go “Akal!” […] It means “You ate it!” And then it’s like a progressive game. And whoever can get it the most gets treated to dinner, or gets to do something, or gets a favor. Usually it’s the person who falls for it the most has to do something for whoever won it the most.”

“It’s a game that’s mostly played by the younger generation of course, it’s mostly played around families. It’s kind of a tradition, to mock somebody, make a joke of them.”

In this joke,  the teller proves their wisdom and the responder proves their foolishness. This suggests that intelligence is valued in these social group. Especially interesting is the gamification element of the joke: The fact that it is an extended game leads me to believe that this game could establish a sort of social hierarchy among the children in a family. This hierarchy between children in an extended family suggests that the connection of extended family is important in the culture, and that families gather often enough for this game to be maintained.

Old Man and the Well Joke

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: USC Student Housing
Performance Date: 2/20/23
Primary Language: English

Main Performance:

JC: Why’d the old man fall in the well?

Me: I don’t know, why?

JC: He couldn’t see that well.

Me: *Laughs*

Context: The informant is from Cleveland, Ohio. To the best of his memory, he recalls hearing this joke from a friend his sophomore year of high school.

Thoughts/Analysis: The main crux of the joke relies on its use of a double entendre in the word “well”. Without the context of the setup, the punchline simply refers to the old man’s vision being poor, or not well. But with the added context, the listener questions whether the teller means the old man’s vision is poor, or if it is selective towards specific wells. Although some might consider the joke lame, I found it at least a little funny.

Electricity Riddle

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: USC Student Housing
Performance Date: 2/20/23
Primary Language: English

Main Performance:

HG: Basically you’re in this, like, house that’s like a labyrinth, or whatever. Um… and there’s no electricity and its like dark and whatever, and there’s these doors. There’s these three doors, um… I’m gonna tell you the doors and you pick, actually.

Me: Ok.

HG: So the first one, there’s Red Door, Blue Door, and Green Door. Which one do you pick?

Me: Blue Door.

HG: Ok, um… and then there’s door one, two and three. Which one do you pick?

Me: One.

HG: One? Ok, and then there’s pink door, white door, and black door. Which one do you pick?

Me: White.

HG: White? Ok, um… then there’s five doors. One with a picture of a giraffe and the other four are just one, two, three, and four.

Me: Three.

HG: Ok… Lotta people pick the giraffe door but that’s ok.

Me: *Laughing*

HG: And then finally there’s three more, its just sky door, grass door and moon door.

M: I’ll go with moon door.

HG: And then you’re presented with three options, you finally enter this room and um… they are all ways to die, basically. The first way is to enter a cage with a lion in it. The next is you have to hang yourself. And then the last one is an electric chair. Which one are you picking?

Me: The electric chair.

HG: Aw yeah why’s that

ME: *Laughing* Because there’s no electricity in the house!

HG: *Laughing* Aw f*ck you


Background: The respondent heard the riddle in middle school to the best of his memory. He is from New York City.

Thoughts/Analysis: I had definitely heard a riddle with the same sort of punchline before the informant had told me his riddle, but I didn’t realize it until he said the last option. To someone who hasn’t heard the riddle before, it is supposed to rely on the complex steps that the riddler walks the subject through before arriving at the final decision. You are thinking about so many things throughout the course of the riddle that you forget one of the basic things about the house. In the performance of the riddle, the informant took many “thinking” pauses between each of my decisions to try and signal to me that he was thinking about the path that I was taking in order to throw me off.

Are you from Tennessee? Pickup Line

Text: “Are you from Tennessee? Cause you’re the only ten I see.””

Context: K.N. first heard this pickup line in high school, but has heard it/seen it on social media several different times since. She understands it to mean that whoever you’re saying it to is a “10/10. Gorgeous. It’s a play on words.” When she first heard it, being from LA she didn’t fully understand when someone asked her if she was from Tennessee, but enjoyed the play on words afterwards. She believe the pickup line can be used anywhere, with anyone. “At a party, in class, in college everyone is from everywhere, so it doesn’t really matter.” She believes the pickup line should be used in a joking manner.

Analysis: This is a common pickup line meant to engage the person you are approaching by asking if they are from Tennessee and then make them feel singled-out/special by following with “‘Cause your’e the only ten I see.” This is meant to indicate your attraction to them, essentially commenting on the exemplary nature of the their physical appearance. I believe that because of the commonality and frequent use of this pickup line, it has become more of a joke than a serious pickup line, but it is a good way to engage and start a conversation with someone. It is widely known, and people often know where it is going when it starts. 

What, You’re Coming Empty Handed?

Nationality: American
Age: 77
Occupation: Retired
Residence: Delaware
Performance Date: 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Hebrew

Background:

The informant is my grandfather, who spent his teens living in a Jewish neighborhood in New York City. This joke was one he heard every now and then. He calls it New York Jew humor.

Context:

I heard this joke a few years ago while out to dinner with my grandfather and his brother. When they get together, they tell jokes for hours on end, like they used to growing up in New York.

Main Piece:

The woman says to her friend, “Rachel, is it true you just moved into a big, new apartment?”

Rachel says, “It’s true. Why don’t you come visit. It’s on 1584 8th st. What you’ll do is you’ll take the train down to 8th st and get out. You’ll walk up to the door, there’s a big double door, and open the door with your left elbow and then use your right elbow to prop the door open and walk in. There’s another door, so you have to go to the list of buzzers and with the left elbow, buzz apartment 680. It’ll ring me upstairs and I’ll buzz you in. Then you use the right elbow to press down on the handle of the inside door and push in. You’ll be in the lobby and you walk up to the elevator and with the left elbow you press ‘up.’ You’ll get into the elevator and with the right elbow press ‘six’ for the sixth floor. The elevator will take you to the sixth floor and then you’ll walk to the left down the hall to apartment 680. You’ll ring the doorbell with the right elbow, and you can give some knocks with the left elbow. I’ll come open the door and you’ll come in and I’ll show you around and we’ll have some coffee.

“Wait, Rachel! What kind of directions are these with all the ‘right elbow’ and ‘left elbow? What’s with all the elbows?’

She says, “What? You’re coming empty-handed?”

Thoughts:

Per my grandfather’s own words, this joke epitomizes Jewish humor, at least Jewish humor originating out of New York City. The joke distills the customs and character traits of New York’s Jewish population down to a joke. The meticulous nature of the idiosyncratic details that Rachel describes with all the elbows reminds me greatly of my aunts and uncles that still live in New York. It also conveys the expected hospitality and custom of bringing a gift when someone invites you over to their home. My grandfather also tells the joke with a voice, using a nasally, baritone voice when speaking Rachel’s part, making a mocking imitation of a middle-aged Jewish woman from New York. Much of this Jewish humor that my grandfather has described to me is somewhat masochistic and self-degrading. It makes sardonic, comic relief of shared experiences between New York Jews, such as the ones shared between my grandfather and his brother.