Category Archives: Humor

Hudavaoff kinder

Nationality: American
Age: 56
Occupation: Retired; Former Attorney
Residence: Baltimore, MD
Performance Date: May 2, 2021
Primary Language: English

Context: This is a Jewish proverb (spoken in Yiddish). It was said to my father (a fifty-six year old man) growing up, and when he began raising children, he started saying it to us. It is used to treat an otherwise tense situation comedically, a way to blow off steam, and promise their children that one day they will be saying it to their own kids (more as a warning than as actual advice). It is almost always said to the child when they are misbehaving or generally being a nuisance. Children never use the saying, and it is not spoken by people who are not parents or guardians of those children. 

  • Hudavaoff kinder 
    • Transliterated proverb. 
      • Hudavaoff: go raise
      • Kinder: children

Full translation: Go raise children. 

Explanation: When a child is being annoying, disrespectful, or irritating their parents, the parents tell them “go raise children”. Part of the proverb works as an incredulous “Why am I raising these brats?” and the other is “Wait until you have your own children. See how much you like it.” 

Analysis: Hudavaoff kinder works to both let the parents laugh off a situation where their kids are being annoying (this proverb is never spoken in full anger, but rather have annoyance/half incredulity) and lets them tell their children it is time to stop misbehaving before they have to get truly upset with them. On occasions, the parents use the saying to acknowledge that the children are being irritating, but don’t want/need to punish them, and instead use it to laugh along with them. Hudavaoff kinder almost works as a form of delayed revenge; the threat that one day the child is going to become the parent, and they will be the one using the saying on them. As someone who has been on the receiving end of this proverb often, I know it means that I need to dial down whatever I am doing before I get myself in real trouble. However, the threat that one day I will be equally irritated by children of my own has little to no emotional impact. 

A Viola Joke

Nationality: American
Age: 15
Occupation: Student
Residence: Lancaster, CA
Performance Date: April 9, 2021
Primary Language: English

Context:

My informant, AW, is my 15-year-old brother. He has played violin since he was four, and played in many youth orchestras throughout his life. In many orchestras, the violists are considered the black sheep of the group and many jokes are made at their expense, especially by violinists, their rivals. This piece was collected during an informal interview at home when I asked my brother about rituals or practices within orchestras. I refer to myself as SW in the text.

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Main Text:

AW: “Violists are the worst, scum of the earth.”

SW: “Know any good viola jokes?”

AW: “Did you hear about the violist who played in tune? Yeah me neither.”

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Informant analysis:

SW: “Do violists participate in making viola jokes, or are they supposed to be annoyed by viola jokes?”

AW: “In general… the general consensus is that… well ok there can be both. If you’re a cool violist, you participate. If you are… a violist, you get annoyed by it… They’re kinda like the middle child of the entire orchestra. Violin section is the younger child who gets everything they want and deserve. Or not deserve – everything they want and don’t deserve, and gets away with everything. Cellists are the older brothers that have to take up the entire… like the older sibling that have to take up the entire like… weight of the orchestra. And then violists are… there, I guess.”

SW: “But how do you learn you’re supposed to make fun of violists?”

AW: “Um… by… honestly by seeing other people make fun of violists. Nobody really actually thinks that violas are bad, they just are, because everyone says they are.”

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Analysis:

Viola jokes are one of the most common types of humor to spread around orchestras, especially youth orchestras. My brother and I are both violinists, so we have a special love of viola jokes since we are the ones who are supposed to “hate” our sworn rivals, the violists. Many violists started as violinists, and they are generally seen as “less good” violinists. The joke itself works on this principle – while violinists are expected to always be in tune, no one can ever find a violist who plays in tune. The entire orchestra will recognize viola jokes as a common musician humor format, and it often turns into a round of rapid fire viola jokes to see who has the best one. As AW stated, it is less about anybody thinking people who play viola are actually bad musicians. More likely, it is because the viola is an awkward instrument that never gets the melody, and is therefore an easy target.

Kohelepelepe

Nationality: Asian
Age: 55
Occupation: Businessman
Residence: Honolulu, HI
Performance Date: 4/23/21
Primary Language: English

Background

Informant is college educated and has lived on Oahu, Hawaii for their whole life. Informant was dating the Interviewer’s mother for around a year.

Context

Informant discusses a Hawiian legend about the formation of the Koko head crater on Oahu. Koko head is a long dormant volcano.

Transcript

Informant: “Kohelepelepe?”

Interviewer: “Yes.”

Informant: “Koko head, if you look at it from an aerial shot, it looks like a vagina.”

Interviewer: “Oh, alright, there we go!”

Informant: “And the story is, is that Pele’s sister, Hi’iaka, they were fighting over, uh, Kamapuaa, the pig god. So pele’s sister threw her vagina, landed by koko head, and that’s how that became Kohelepelepe, which means labia lips. If you look at it from the top it looks like-”

Interviewer: “It looks like a vagina.”

Informant: “It looks like a lady.”

Thoughts

    Many Hawaiian legends, like the legends of many other cultures, have a strong emphasis on human reproductive organs. While throwing a vagina may be something completely foreign in modern western culture, stories like this exist not only in Hawaii, but other cultures as well. Off the top of my head, there’s an inuit legend of a woman cutting off her breasts and throwing them at her brother who raped her in her sleep; the sister ran away and the brother went after her, the pair would go on to become the sun and the moon. The sterilization of any talk of human anatomy in not only western legends, but western social norms as well shows how taboos are culture specific, and that actions are only taboo when society says the topic is taboo.

Practical Jokes in the Police Force

Nationality: Filipino
Age: 47
Occupation: Police Officer
Residence: Honolulu, HI
Performance Date: 4/18/21
Primary Language: English

Background

Informant is the uncle of the Interviewer from the mother’s side. Informant has lived in Hawaii for all their life and has worked as a police officer for 6 years.

Context

Informant discusses practical jokes played in the police force. When the interviewer asked about hazing they were told that does not happen in the police force. Interview takes place at the Interviewer’s grandmother’s house during a family dinner gathering.

Transcript

Informant: “I dunno, we do stuff like, uh, as if, if you want to go as far as HAZING… sometimes on the printers, we’ll put a note that says: “Printer upgraded to new voice activated more”. So they’ll be there like “print! Print!” like stuff like that.

Interviewer: Aww that’s cute!”

Informant: “Yeah, yeah, but nothing like hazing though. It’s um, Our department has over 2,000 police officers and you don’t know everybody so like people come and go, what we have is called “personal movement” and it usually happens every month, so, we-we meet and, people come and go so often, and you really can’t get close to anyone, cause like, work with so much different people, uh, that’s all.”

Thoughts

I had no idea there were over 2,000 police officers on the island of Oahu, let alone in a single department, so that caught me off guard. I also had no idea about how quickly police officers come and go, and how they’re moved around by the police themselves for “personal movement”. My Uncle didn’t elaborate on that further, but my guess is that maybe the police force wants to keep things pretty strictly business oriented given the nature of the job, so getting close to others may be somewhat frowned upon and practical jokes or hazing totally not tolerated. I is interesting to hear that practical joking does take place in the workspace still takes place, even if on a minor scale. I would imagine that having a practical joke played on you from one person you most likely don’t know with 2,000 coworkers is a much different experience than a practical joke in a tighter-knit workspace.

Golf Joke

Nationality: American
Residence: NJ
Primary Language: English

Text/Interview:

PW: “A guy comes back home after a round of golf. Just like all men, he’s usually in a good move after a day on the course but today, he is really dragging. His wife looks at him when he walks in. After looking at him up and down, she notices that he is dragging. The wife asks him what is going on. He shrugs and says that he doesn’t walk to talk about it. After a bit, the wife presses again. Rather than getting into a fight, he relents. The guy explains that everything was going great on the first nine. However, when his best friend Fred went up to tee off on the back nine, he had a heart attack and died right there on the spot. “Oh no!” the wife says. “You’ve known Fred for twenty years. That’s awful!” “I know!” The husband responds. The rest of the round was hit the ball and drag Fred. Hit the ball and drag Fred.”

Context:

PW is an avid golfer and has been his entire life. He does not remember when he first heard this joke, but he knows that it was told to him by one of his golf friends during an outing. PW states that this is a fairly common golf joke and he will hear it in the clubhouse every now and again. He says that it never fails to make him laugh.

My Interpretation:

Golf, just like every other sport, has its own niche community. There are jokes and stories within the golf world that get perpetuated and spread. This is a fantastic example of one of them. This joke is something that a passerby may understand, but only golfers will truly get and find funny.