Category Archives: Humor

“Meet Me at the Airport, We’re Going to Tahiti”

Nationality: American
Age: 63
Occupation: Retired

Informant Information:

Age: 63

Date of Performance: 2/18/2025

Language: English

Nationality: American

Occupation: Retired

Primary Language: English

Residence: Alameda, California

Text:

“Meet me at the airport, we’re going to Tahiti.”

Context:

The informant, a native of Berkeley, California, has faced significant family hardships, including her mother’s sudden health crisis, her son’s chronic illness, and her brother’s child being diagnosed with autism. During particularly stressful moments, she and her siblings would jokingly text each other, saying, “Meet you at the airport, let’s go to Tahiti” or “I’m going to Tahiti right now, come join me.” This became their way of signaling that they had reached an emotional breaking point and needed a mental escape.

Analysis:

The metaphorical idea of escaping to Tahiti, an idyllic vacation destination, served as a form of humorous escapism for the informant and her family. By inviting each other to “meet at the airport” and “go to Tahiti,” they created a shared symbolic refuge—a way to momentarily detach from their struggles without actually leaving.

Tahiti, often associated with paradise and relaxation, represented the fantasy of escaping life’s burdens and finding peace. By extending this imaginary invitation, the informant and her siblings not only acknowledged their shared hardships but also reinforced their emotional support for one another. This expression worked simultaneously as a joke and coping mechanism that allowed them to communicate distress, offer solidarity, and maintain their bond through humor, despite adversity.

Folk Joke: “Make Sure You Get to the Back 40”

Age: 73
Occupation: Retired
Language: English

Informant Information:

Age: 73

Date of Performance: 2/26/2025

Language: English

Nationality: American

Occupation: Retired

Primary Language: English

Residence: Alameda, California

Text:

“Make sure you get to the back 40.”

Definition:

Back 40 – A term referring to the undeveloped or uncultivated portion of a farm, often a hypothetical 40 acres, symbolizing overlooked or less glamorous responsibilities.

Context:

The informant’s parents, who grew up on large farms in the rural South during the Great Depression, frequently used this phrase even after moving to a more urban, middle-class area of Mississippi. The informant’s mother, for example, would say this to the father while they had a family lunch in their relatively small, half-acre yard. Despite no longer living on a large farm, the parents continued to use this folksy expression as a nod to their agricultural roots.

Analysis:

The humor stems from the irony that the informant’s family no longer had a literal “back 40” to tend, having moved to a smaller suburban lot. Yet, the phrase remained a lighthearted reminder not to overlook their less obvious or neglected responsibilities. In essence, “make sure you get to the back 40” playfully urges attention to what might otherwise be forgotten.

By using this phrase regularly, the informant’s parents preserved a cultural tradition, connecting their suburban life to their farming roots. The joke carried both nostalgia and irony, reinforcing their Southern agricultural heritage while simultaneously adapting to a new, more urban environment.

How much does it cost to get married?

Age: 20


Date of performance: 2/22/25


Nationality: Chinese


Occupation: Student


Primary Language: Chinese & English


Residence: United States

Joke:

Kid: Dad, how much does it cost to get married?

Dad: I don’t know, I’m still paying for it

Context:

Growing up, the interviewee, heard this phrase from listening to Chinese Soap Opera. They believe this joke plays on the stereotypical husband ‘hating’ his wife archetype and is commonly seen in old media. The interviewee interprets it as a dig towards a woman’s pricy needs and serves as a misogynistic comment towards wives in general.

Analysis:

While I agree with it serving as a misogynistic comment, I believe it might also play into the concept of marriage as a whole being an overwhelming price. May it be because of the wife’s choices/preferences or the cost of marriage as a whole, the whole act of having a marriage over the years has become a general burden on people’s wallets as we grow expensive tastes to accentuate our “love” for one another in physical form.

Mexican Fork – Joke

Nationality: Chinese-American
Age: 20
Occupation: Undergraduate Student at the University of Southern California
Residence: Icon Plaza Apartments in Los Angeles, CA
Language: Chinese

Text:

Use your “Mexican Fork”

Context:

“Sometimes, when my family is eating food–and of course we are using chopsticks–someone will try to pick up something difficult to balance with their chopsticks, and we’ll tell them to use their ‘Mexican fork’… aka their hand. Our grandpa used to say it all the time. It is a little… uh… race-y so we only ever say it around family.”

Analysis:

The performer is a 3rd generation Chinese-American, and their grandfather came to America (specifically Lousiana) as a teenager around the 50s. This joke is interesting because it has an America-centered perspective. After all, the default eating utensil is a fork. By saying Mexican “fork” instead of “eating utensil”, it implies that the Chinese “fork” is a chopstick while, in this case, the Mexican “fork” is one’s hands. This could be heavily influenced by the American go-to utensils being spoon and fork and is an interesting reflection of their grandfather’s assimilation into the American folk culture. Additionally, it’s interesting that the performer prefaced that the joke is controversial and only said it in private as it reflects the attitude around the saying changing to be less acceptable over the past 7 decades.

Let’s Rock ‘n Roll! – Joke

Nationality: Chinese-American
Age: 20
Occupation: Undergraduate Student at the University of Southern California
Residence: Icon Plaza Apartments in Los Angeles, CA
Language: Chinese

Text:

Let’s Rock ‘n Roll!

Context:

“We have this friend, [rREDACTED], who we met last year on set. He was DPing and one time before a shot, he said, ‘Okay guys. Let’s Rock ‘n Roll!’ We just thought it was so silly and corny because he just kept saying it: before starting a new shot, after breaks, and even outside of film contexts like before every ride at Disney Land. Sometimes we’d just be doing random stuff and he’d say ‘Let’s Rock ‘n Roll!’ and everyone will kinda groan in a teasing way. We now all quote him and our friend group’s name is ‘rock n roll.’ When someone uses ‘Let’s Rock ‘n Roll!’ ironically or unironically, we all know it’s kinda playing on his saying.”

Analysis:

“Let’s Rock ‘n Roll!” popularized with rock culture in the late 1900s and typically means “Let’s go have fun!” or “Let’s go!” The slang became more popular as it was commonly used in TV, shows, and radio. It makes sense that this friend would be well-aquainted with the phrase as he was a Director of Photography and their friend group consists of primarily University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts majors. It seems that the phrase originally started out as a proverb–based on modern icons–and eventually evolved in a joke on their in-group would understnad. Eventually, the joke seemed to progressed into a ritual where they say the phrase whenever the group does an activity regardless of this activity is “fun” or not.