Little Sally Walker

Nationality: American
Age: 12
Occupation: Student
Residence: Studio City
Performance Date: 19 April 2019
Primary Language: English

Text

Informant: So, “Little Sally Walker” is a game where there’s a bunch of people and you run in a circle… or, somebody runs out and they run in a circle. They go in a circle and they sing

 

Little Sally Walker

Walking down the street

She said “I didn’t know what to do”

So she stopped in front of me and said

 

(Now they stop in front of a person and the person copies their dance)

 

“hey girl do your thing

do your thing

hey girl do your thing do your thing”

Now stop!

 

And after that they do the same dance move and the person who did the dance move goes on and goes in the same circle and it continues to go along for a while.

 

Context– The informant is my twelve-year old sister. She learned these songs while going to various summer camps over the years and has often taught them to her friends so that they could sing them together for fun.

 

Analysis– This song has two aspects to it: the vocal and the physical. The singing alone would amuse children, but its combination with a dancing game would probably make it a great source of entertainment for younger children. It is also a great way for camp counselors to distract children when they are waiting for activity or event. The game only requires the knowledge of the song and, therefore, could basically be played anywhere. This fact probably helps the counselors when they need more time for preparation for activities, using the song to entertain the children while they wait.

Mexican Euphemism

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 53
Occupation: Nanny
Residence: North Hollywood
Performance Date: 13 April 2019
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

Text

Informant: Now this is a grosero one. This is like a bad one, like, um, I will say it to you because someone might come up with this one.

“Mucho jamón para dos juevitos.”

(Translation: “Too much ham for two small eggs”)

Both the informant and interviewer laugh 

Interviewer: I understood that one.

Informant: That is like, famous. People will say… like if they see a skinny guy with a big girl, they say “hm, mucho jamón para dos juevitos.” That’s referring to… you know what.

 

Context– The informant is a middle-aged Mexican immigrant who grew up in Mexico City and then immigrated to Los Angeles in her teenage years. She has many family members still in Mexico City, so she learned many popular phrases from those family members both while growing up and during her frequent visits and phone conversations.

 

Analysis– This metaphor is a very playful and informal one about dating and sex. Euphamisms are often amusing for people so it is not surprising that the imagery of ham and eggs is metaphor for sex. The phrase is probably a funny and more polite way a spreading gossip from one person to another. Instead of making an actual critical comment about a persons weight, they use a metaphor and present it as a joke so that the criticism would be more accepted.

Happy Llama

Nationality: American
Age: 12
Occupation: Student
Residence: Studio City
Performance Date: 19 April 2019
Primary Language: English

Text

Interviewer: So, what’s the song called?

Informant: Happy Llama.

Interviewer: Okay. Go.

Informant:
Happy llama, sad llama

Totally rad llama

Super llama, drama llama

Big fat mama llama

Baby llama, crazy llama

Don’t forget Barack O’llama

Fish, fish, more fish

Turtle! Unicorn! Peacock!

 

Context– The informant is my twelve-year old sister. She learned these songs while going to various summer camps over the years and has often taught them to her friends so that they could sing them together for fun.

 

Analysis– This song was primarily created to amuse children and it does so by relying on randomness and silly sounding words. Llamas are often amusing to children so basing a song after them makes sense. Words like rad, crazy, and big fat mama are often humorous to children because of their silliness. The songs appeal then comes from the silliness of the words and the combination of those silly words with the funny animal, the llama.

There Was A Great Big Moose

Nationality: American
Age: 12
Occupation: Student
Residence: Studio City
Performance Date: 19 April 2019
Primary Language: English

Text

Informant: This is called “There was a Great Big Moose.”

There was a great big moose

(There was a great big moose)

Who liked to drink a lot of juice

(Who liked to drink a lot of juice)

There was a great big moose!

(There was a great big moose!)

Who liked to drink a lot of juice

He went “woah-oh”

(he went “woah-oh”)

“Way-oh, way-oh, way-oh, way-oh”

(Way-oh, way-oh, way-oh, way-oh)

“Way-oh, Way-oh”

(Way-oh, way-oh)

“Way-oh, way-oh, way-oh, way-oh”

(Way-oh, way-oh, way-oh, way-oh)

 

Context– The informant is my twelve-year old sister. She learned these songs while going to various summer camps over the years and has often taught them to her friends so that they could sing them together for fun.

 

Analysis– This song is amusing mainly because of the absurd rhymes. The lyrics of the song make no logical sense and instead focus on making lines rhyme. This focus on rhyming is probably what makes the song amusing to young children, as young children like to rhyme. The song also as the added element of having a leader sing the lyrics initially and followers repeating those lyrics, which makes the song sort of a game that can be played by the children singing.

The Fisherman and His Wife

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 2/14/2019
Primary Language: English

Text:

Informant: So anyways, it’s something to the effect of, I don’t remember it very well but it was, it was part of a theater thing that we did and apparently it’s a very old story where, like a fisherman catches like some magic fish that, he and his wife were kind of down on their luck, and the fisherman catches a magic fish and the magic fish gives him a wish every time he catches it, but the fish doesn’t like being caught. So, he gets, he gets them like I don’t know, just kind of enough to feed themselves for like however long they want to be fed because they were kind of born destitute and like need it. And he gets it. And then his wife starts to ask for like, more and more and starts to live a more and more lavish lifestyle, so every day he goes back and catches the fish and wishes for some new thing and the, and eventually the fish just gets fed up with it and takes everything away. And it’s kind of, I don’t know if I would call it, yeah sad, I guess it’s a little bit sexist because it’s one of those like “women are gold diggers” or whatever. That’s basically what the message of it is, but I guess in a larger sense, in just relating to the audience members regardless of gender, it’s just “don’t ask for too much” and “don’t get, don’t get caught up in wanting more when you already have everything you need.”

Context: The informant learned this story from a theater group in New Jersey, where he was told that it was a theater story. It had been passed down from other actors. This story was recorded by the Brothers Grimm in 1809 (Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Von dem Fischer un syner Fru, Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children’s and Household Tales — Grimms’ Fairy Tales), final edition (Berlin, 1857), no. 19.). That said, it likely has origins outside of the New Jersey theater community.

Analysis: I tend to agree with the second analysis given by the informant, with the sentiment of “don’t ask for too much.” While it is technically the wife’s desire to have more, that doesn’t mean that the husband isn’t also wanting the same things. At the same time, I also feel like the tale could show how hard work and persistence can lead to getting your goals (at least before they are taken away). Essentially, the idea is to know when one is successful enough to stop taking advantage of others to garner more success when it’s unnecessary. Overall, the idea of complacency and assuming that you can keep all good things is a theme of the tale that resonates with me, especially because of the emphasis on capitalist ideals in America.