Category Archives: Humor

Teasing hand gesture – Arabic Children’s Folk Gesture

Nationality: Palestinian
Age: 75
Occupation: Retired
Residence: Long Beach
Performance Date: 5/2/2021
Primary Language: Arabic
Language: English, French

Context:

She learned the hand motion in Egypt when she was around 5. You would do this gesture to another person when you want to tease them. Originally, when saying it, you would say “To’ ou moot” (“Explode and die”).

Gesture:

For the sake of my informant’s anonymity, I performed the gesture in the video.

Thoughts:

When I first saw the gesture, I thought it was playing on the English saying “Rubbing it in,” but then my informant translated the Arabic that accompanies the gesture. I found it hilarious that the speech and gesture have little to do with one another, but it could fall into the nonsense and taunting categories of children’s folklore (discussed by Jay Mechling in Chapter 5 of Elliot Oring’s Folk Groups and Folklore Genres: An Introduction).*

*Jay Mechling. “Children’s Folklore.” Folk Groups and Folklore Genres: An Introduction, edited by E. Oring, 91-120. Logan: Utah State University Press, 1986.

Beggars have conditions – Arabic Jokes

Nationality: Palestinian
Age: 78
Occupation: Retired
Residence: Long Beach
Performance Date: 5/2/2021
Primary Language: Arabic
Language: English, French, Italian

Context:

He heard these two jokes when he was a kid in Jordan. There were many little fruit vendors back then, and there were a lot of beggars back then too.

Joke 1:

“A poor man wants to sell fruits on a cart to make some money. So a beggar came to this guy asking for something from his cart for free. The guy looked at him, and gave him a small watermelon. So the beggar said, ‘The smallest one? I thought you were going to give me a bigger one. You know what, you will teach people to not beg from you.’”

Joke 2:

“A beggar goes to a butcher, and asks for a free piece of meat. The butcher goes and cuts a piece for him. The beggar then responds ‘You’re not going to cook it for me?’”

Thoughts:

I found these jokes funny because they switch out the expected expression of gratitude with the opposite: an expression of ingratitude. Because they occupy the space between the expected and unexpected, they get the listeners’ attention, and strike them as funny. Because these jokes sound similar to the English saying “Beggars aren’t choosers,” they could have been used as a build-up to an equivalent saying in Arabic (or just the English saying).

“I stopped sleeping on your lap”… “You saved me from your farts.” – Arabic Saying and Comeback

Nationality: Jordanian
Age: 41
Occupation: Accounting Manager
Residence: Yorba Linda
Performance Date: 5/3/2021
Primary Language: Arabic
Language: English, French

Context:

She learned it from her grandma in Jordan, when she was around 7 or 8. The first time she heard it was when her grandma asked her if she wanted to sleep over, to which she said that she had to go home. Her grandma then said “Rayahtni min fsak” (“You saved me from your farts”).

Text:

Original Script: بطلت انام بحضنك… ريحتني من فساك

Transliteration: Battalt anam bi hodnak… Rayahtni min fsak

Translation: I stopped sleeping on your lap… You saved me from your farts

Thoughts:

I found this saying-response pair really funny, since not many people think of how often children fart while sitting on an adult’s lap. The first part (“Battalt anam bi hodnak”) sounds like it could be swapped out with any declaration of independence that would make the other person upset. The second part (“Rayahtni min fsak”) is a witty response to the declaration that essentially means “You were a burden to me.” The humor of the response makes it easier for the message to get across without sounding rude, since independence can be a touchy subject in a culture where families are tight-knit.

“We brought you, Moeen, to help. It turns out you need the help.” – Arabic Saying

Nationality: Jordanian
Age: 55
Occupation: Disabled
Residence: Long Beach
Performance Date: 5/1/2021
Primary Language: Arabic
Language: English, French

Context:

He recalls hearing it when he was very young, in Jerusalem, but can’t put it in a time frame. “I used to hear it a lot, but not for me; I could not help at that point.” “We use it when we ask someone for help, but we find out that they need help in that area. For example, if you ask someone for help with homework, and they say, ‘Yeah, I need help in that too.’”

Text:

Original Script: جبناك يا معين تتعين. طلع بدك مين يعين

Transliteration: Jibnak ya Moeen tateen. Tilah biddak meen yaeen.

Translation: We brought you, Moeen, to help. It turns out you need the help.

Thoughts:

This saying delivers the message of “I thought you could help me, but you can’t” in a rhyme in order to take out some of the edge (the rhyme between “tateen” and “yaeen” gets lost in translation to English). This is similar to the Biblical idiom “the blind leads the blind” (Matthew 15:14);* both occupy the space between seriousness and humor, which makes the messages behind them easier to take.

*https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+15%3A14&version=NASB

Spicy Uno

Nationality: American
Age: 23
Occupation: American
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/15/21
Primary Language: English

BACKGROUND: JM is the interviewer’s friend. Spicy Uno is a variation on the popular Uno card game, one that we’ve played many times as friends, and a game that can get quite heated at times.


TRANSCRIPT:
JM: “Here are our rules:
Play a 4, no talking. Whoever talks has to draw 1 card for each word they say.Play a 6, all hands need to go in the middle of the table. Last hand draws 3.Person who plays 0 chooses 2 people to swap hands (can include themselves).+2 cards and +4 cards can stack, but not on each other.You can ask for help and can help someone, but you can’t show them the card before.You can skip to yourself by playing an exact match of what’s on top of the pile.If you have UNO and someone else calls UNO for you, draw 6.
There’s the famous moment when we were playing, someone drew 4, and then someone knocked on the door. You went ‘it’s all good, we’re taking a break, we don’t need to be quiet anymore. The game is paused, the game is paused.’ Watching you draw 22 cards was maybe the greatest time I’ve ever played the game.”


ANALYSIS: The Spicy Uno variation of the Uno card game is a popular one among Millenials and Gen Z, one that qualifies as folklore since there are no exact rules and no known origin — everyone plays it slightly differently. It’s a modern folk tradition, one that can forge friendships and break them apart in the same round. For another version of Spicy Uno, see:

“How to Play Spicy Uno.” Crazy Little Projects, 30 Jul. 2020, https://crazylittleprojects.com/how-to-play-spicy-uno/.