Category Archives: Humor

The Curse Word Rhyme

Nationality: China
Age: "No no no, don't tell them my age"
Occupation: Elementary School Teacher
Residence: Shenyang, Liaoning, China
Performance Date: 2/24/2021
Primary Language: Chinese



Backgrounds:

Ms. Z is an elementary school Maths and Chinese teacher in Shenyang, China. We were having dinner together when I mentioned my folklore collection project. She then shared some of the interesting folklores she’s learned of from the kids in her class or from her colleagues.


The Main Piece:

Z: After the graduation of some of the kids in one of my classes, they came back to visit me and told me about one of the rhymes they’ve made in elementary school, which is used to curse others.

It goes as follows:

orignial text: 操你妈，操你爸，操你全家嘎啦哈，操你奶奶高血压，操你爷爷被车轧

Phonetic script: cao ni ma, cao ni ba, cao ni quan jia galaha, cao ni nai nai gao xue ya, cao ni ye ye bei che ya

Word to Word translation: fuck your mother, fuck your father, fuck your whole family galaha (this is the name of a traditional folk toy in Northeast China made of the leg bones of pigs. But it is used here maily to keep the rhyme and rythm, with to specific meaning), fuck your grandma, high blood pressure, fuck your grandpa, run over by a car

A more artistic translation that keeps the flow and the rhyme: Fuck your mom. Fuck your Pa. Fuck your whole family from the bottom up. Fuck you grandma with an attack in the heart. Fuck your grandpa, he got hit by a car.

Z: I knew that they had such a dirty rhyme, but I didn’t know it was as offensive as this one! I’ve gotten angry with this when they were in school. But thinking about it now, they were quite creative.

 

Analysis:

Although these are not the most offensive things I can imagine, they are quite offensive for elementary school kids. This dirty little rhyme perfectly shows how creative, and cruel and mean, kids can be. Using this rhyme to curse others makes cursing a fun thing to do, and it even stimulates innovations in cursing, because kids might want to come up with more humorous and offensive ways to curse others. 

Also, 操你妈， or “fuck your mom” is the most commonly used curse word in China. Its presence in such rhyme shows that by the age for elementary school, most kids have already been exposed to curse words, either from the outside world or from their family. I remember when I was in elementary school, I was super excited to use curse words or learn about new curse words. This rhyme can also show the strong interest of young children, especially elementary school kids, in curse words

 

“Why are there no swimming pools in Cuba? Because everyone who knows how to swim has already left the island.”

Nationality: cuban
Age: 29
Occupation: doctor
Residence: san diego
Performance Date: may 1 2021
Primary Language: Spanish

Context:  My informant is a 29 year-old man who is of Cuban descent. He grew up in San Diego and still lives there. He described a joke that was told to him by his grandfather. Although he does not personally relate to the joke, he still finds it funny because his grandfather laughed so much when he said it.

Transcription

Informant: “So the joke goes, ‘Why are there no swimming pools in Cuba?

Because everyone who knows how to swim has already left the island.’ My grandfather told me that joke when I was pretty little and I definitely did not get it at first. But as time went on and my grandparents told me their escape stories I began to understand more. During the Bay of Pigs, both my grandparents had to escape and it was a very traumatic and devastating experience for them. They did not know if they would ever see their family again, their house, if they would even make it out alive, where they were going to end up. All of these experiences added a level of grit to them, but over the years I guess they have been able to learn to joke about certain things surrounding their escape. Don’t get me wrong, they both get a little teary when they talk about being separated from their families, but they can also joke about certain aspects of it, ya know? Um… this is something that has taught me to not take everything so intensely and so personally, it is essential to… keep things light and find the funny part of every experience.”

Thoughts:

As the informant and I shared the same grandparents, I resonated with the story a lot. The joke is alluding to how most Cubans found their way out of Cuba someway after the country started to become more corrupt and became very unsafe. The punchline points a finger at some Cubans who actually attempted to swim from the coast of Cuba to Key West or Miami. 

It is refreshing to see how people, especially Cubans in my experience, can take something heavy and dark and find the light in it. Using jokes to do this is an effective strategy and as long as it is not offensive to anyone and thoughtful, is usually a great way to do so.

Grand Canyon Vampire Encounter

Nationality: American (California/Arizona)
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Scottsdale, Arizona
Performance Date: 3/20/2021
Primary Language: English

Informant’s Background:

My informant, JD, is a undergraduate student at Arizona State University. He currently lives in Scottsdale, Arizona. His family is American and he was born somewhere in California, but his family moved to Arizona shortly after his birth.

Context:

My informant (JD) and I (AT) are friends, after meeting online through a mutual friend during the pandemic. I asked him if he had any folklore to share.

Performance: 

JD: “So when my dad was hiking the Grand Canyon and it was like 3AM in the morning and he had his headlight on… He saw a dude walk past him without a headlamp on and the dude was like REALLY pale and he was kind of like staggering about and… he didn’t look at him or say anything and my dad was overall kind of creeped out about the guy.”

AT: “When did your dad tell you this story?”

JD: “Uhh… He just said it to me after his trip. In my kitchen, I think.”

Informant’s Thoughts:

JD: “I think it’s kind of weird. One thing he did say is-just jokingly, I guess, that it might’ve been a vampire or something but he was getting vampire vibes from the dude.”

Thoughts:

I think it’s interesting how grim situations can be made light by comparing them to pre-existing myths and legends, such as those of vampires in this case. I don’t believe its my place to say whether or not the informant’s father’s encounter with this forest wanderer was a vampire encounter or not. But if theoretically it wasn’t a vampire encounter, then this could have been a meeting with someone who is potentially lost, mentally ill, or otherwise seriously unwell, and potentially dangerous, but the father is able to change the narrative into a humorous and mythical encounter by mentioning the possibility of the person being a vampire, thus recontextualizing the original grim and bleak encounter into a more fantastical, funny, and spooky story.


“Don’t eat yellow snow”

Nationality: cuban
Age: 54
Occupation: social work
Residence: san diego
Performance Date: may 2 2021
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: english

Context: My informant is a 54 year-old woman from Cuban descent. She grew up in Los Angeles, California and lived there until she moved to San Diego for college. Listed below is an account of one of the first jokes she remembers. She detailed that her parents used to use this joke whenever they were in the snow or mountains. 

Interviewer: “Do you have any tips?”

Informant: “Don’t eat yellow snow, that’s a tip!”

Interviewer: “Where did you learn that?”

Informant: “In Big Bear hahahahaha”

Thoughts:

Big Bear is a popular mountain with lots of snow near Los Angeles, California. The joke is a silly reply to the interviewer inquiring about any recommendations. The idea of “yellow snow” insinuates that someone or something might have peed in it. Obviously a person would want to be advised not to eat the snow because that would be unsanitary. This cheeky reply is something that could be told to a waiter or any other worker that one would tip. I found this joke very funny and did laugh for a long while with the informant. I will be telling this joke to friends when we go to the snow and the joke will continue on! 

Miss Mary

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Chicago, IL
Performance Date: May 2nd, 2021
Primary Language: English

Background

The informant, Chase, is the brother of the interviewer. She grew up in Chicago, Illinois where he currently resides. 

Context

Chase tells the interviewer about a childhood rhyme they would sing on the playground.

Transcript 

“So this rhyme you would sing to your friends on the playground. It was always funny as kids because the words sound like they are about to be swear words, but then they are not. So no adults could get you in trouble for saying them because you didn’t actually say them. I learned it from you [interviewer] who learned it from our older cousin, Jordan.

The rhyme goes like this: ‘Miss Mary had a steamboat, Her steamboat had a bell. Miss Mary went to heaven, Her steamboat went to… Hell-o operator, give me number nine. If you disconnect me, I’ll kick you in the… Behind the refrigerator, there was a piece of glass.

Miss Mary sat upon it, and broke her little… Ask me no more questions, tell me no more lies.

The cows are in the pasture, eating chocolate pies, pies, pies. Miss Mary went to London, Miss Mary went to France. A french man pulled down Miss Mary’s underpants, pants, pants.’

I told all of my friends who thought it was the funniest thing. We would sing it all the time on the playground.

Thoughts

This is a very funny rhyme for kids. It is interesting how vast children’s folklore is and how quickly it can travel. My cousin who taught this to me is from Kentucky. All it took was one visit for Thanksgiving, and suddenly a rhyme kids in Kentucky sing made it all the way to a playground in Chicago.