Hagop and Dr. Vartan

Nationality: Armenian
Age: 63
Occupation: Nurse
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 23, 2017
Primary Language: Armenian
Language: Arabic, English

Hague goes to Dr. Vartan.

V: You are such an educated person, why did you go to a witch doctor?

H: I don’t know.

V: What was the stupid thing he advised you to do?

H: Well, he said to come to you.

Background information: This is an Armenian joke. Hague and Vartan are recurring characters in Armenian jokes.

Context: The informant told me this joke in a conversation about folklore.

Thoughts: This is a funny joke, in which one person’s questions backfires on himself and leads to him being insulted to his face. Dr. Vartan wonders why Hague was stupid enough to go to a witch doctor, whose practices Vartan doesn’t believe in (it makes sense – the doctor would obviously think he knows more, since he is formally educated in medical matters). He then asks what was the stupid advice given (since he doesn’t believe in the witch doctor’s powers), and Hague fires back and tells him the stupid advice was to go to Vartan. It is a witty joke, and a clever and inadvertent way to insult someone.

 

The Hakawati

Nationality: Arab American
Age: 22
Occupation: Law student
Residence: Silver Spring, MD
Performance Date: April 22, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Arabic, Turkish

“A Hakawati is, simply put, a story teller. What makes Hakawatis different from other story-tellers is that they can share one story over the course of months. Additionally, Hakawatis are chosen by popular demand. If a Hakawati is unpopular, a new one comes in to try to entertain the crowd.

“Hakawatis throughout the Middle East have laid foundations for the stories of the 1001 Arabian Nights. The Arabian Nights stories borrow the story-telling techniques of the Hakawatis. Hakawatis came from all over the world, including Persia, Central Asia, and North Africa. Each region had its own twist to stories, which led to the Arabian Nights stories possessing not only Arabic stories, but also South Asian, Central Asian, Persian, Amazigh, and Turkic stories.

“Hakawati traditions are ancient, and are not ubiquitous today. Rabih Alameddine, my favorite modern Arab author, re-introduced the notion of Hakawatis to contemporary readers. In the book, Hakawatis told thousands of stories in coffee shops, holiday festivals, and even at the end of kite-flying competitions. The Middle East was a very different place back in the day.”

Background information: “I heard about Hakawatis from a Lebanese author, Rabih Alameddine. The stories Hakawatis told have been foundations for great Arabic stories encased in 1001 Arabian Nights. Rabih Alameddine is my favorite modern Arab author.”

Context: The informant told me about this in a conversation about folklore.

Thoughts: It was interesting to learn about a specific type of story teller; I did not know there were actually names for them. I had heard of 1001 Arabian Nights, but have never read it, so it’s interesting to learn about the foundations and inspirations for it. I can’t imagine sharing one story over such a long period of time, so these people must be masterful in their craft, in remembering bits and details and keeping the stories creative and compelling.

For another version of this description, see The Gulf News.

Guitar Teacher

Nationality: Indian, Caucasian
Age: 42
Occupation: Real Estate
Residence: Orange County, CA
Performance Date: 4/16/17
Primary Language: English

“Why did the guitar teacher get arrested? For fingering a minor!”

Jeena is my older cousin, she’s a mom with three younger kids, so she really enjoys hanging out with our older cousins because she can tell jokes like this. I asked her if she knew any jokes for my Folklore archive, and she said that she had a really good one but it might be, “inappropriate.” She said her husband told her this joke, where he heard it at one of their famous poker parties. Jeena and her husband, Chess, are notorious for hosting intense poker parties among family and friends, and this is one of their traditions; typically they get together with food before the action starts, and during that time, to keep the mood light, someone will crack a joke. This is one of those jokes that she heard. So even though the joke wasn’t hers, she heard it from a tradition she started with her husband for her friends and family, so I thought it was actually the perfect joke to tell at the Easter party with the older cousins, because it brought people together, much like it did at the poker party she heard it at.

Argentine Riddle

Nationality: Argentinian
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Performance Date: 04/09/2017
Primary Language: Spanish

Main piece:

  1. Q: Lana sube, lana baja. Qué es?

La navaja.

  1. Wool up, wool down. What is it?

The knife.

  1. Wool goes up, wool goes down. What is it?

The knife.

Background information about the piece by the informant: Emanuel was born and raised in Argentina, where this is a common joke riddle. He says it is exclusively Argentinian, as it can only be understood in Spanish being a play on words, and can only be funny in Argentina, as its humor is very specific to the country.

Context on the piece: This is an innocent joke riddle in which the answer is much more simpler than what is expected. In Spanish “Wool goes down” is “Lana baja”, which sounds like “La Navaja”, meaning “The knife”. The audience is supposed to break their heads finding a hidden meaning in the ambiguous question, while the answer is an obvious play on words. It’s a classic “it was so simple the whole time” joke. This makes the person trying to give an answer seem dumb for not knowing such a simple question, so the comedy if for the performer instead of the audience, as he gets to make fun of the person trying to give the answer.

Thoughts on the piece: Emanuel claims the riddle can only work for Argentine sensibilities, which can tell us that this is a society of pranksters who enjoy simple jokes. This joke could be either for kids or adults due to its simplicity and inoffensive nature, despite its point being leaving a person dumbfounded. It also creates a strong sense of community when only people who speak Spanish in Argentine can get the joke.

Jotos and 41s

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 27
Occupation: Culinary Student
Residence: Madrid, Spain
Performance Date: 04/07/2017
Primary Language: Spanish

Main Piece: In Spain, they call gay people “Jotos” because of a jail cell. Jail cells are either numbered or labeled by a letter , and until recently, when gay people went to jail they used to put them in cell “J”. Don’t ask me why, ‘casue I don’t know, that’s just the way it was. Now cells are numbered with much more complicated digits because of the increasing number of criminals, but back then, the cells had normal numbers to label them: 1, 2, 3… Again, they used to put gays in cell 41, maybe to keep them away from everyone else. That’s why 41 is the gay number in Spain. It’s like when people in America laugh when someone uses the number 69. If someone says the number 41 or something, it’s pretty funny here. And not only that. In some of the most conservative parts of the country, the number is seen as obscene, and some hotels even take it out of its room numbers, like the number 13. That’s why if you’re gay, the call you a Joto or a 41. It could be used both as an insult or a sign of affection, but they can call you this even if you’re not gay as an insult.

Background information about the piece by the informant: Jordi was raised in Mexico and resides in Madrid and claims to hear people being called Jotos and 41s on a daily basis. He knew that Jotos were gay people because they are also called that way in Mexico, but didn’t know about the 41s. He asked about that to one of his close friends, who told him the story.

Context on the piece: Although there is no recorded reason to why gay people are called Jotos (Jota is the Spanish pronunciation of the letter “J”), there is one about the number 41, which actually originated in Mexico. Apparently, in 1901, there was raid in which 41 men were detained for showing up in women’s clothing. This was reported by the contemporary press and became a scandal during the conservative years of president Porfirio Diaz. The new reached Spain and they adopted the insult.

Thoughts on the piece: Considering the recorded history of using 41 as an insult for homosexuals, it shows how history still has an effects on the present. This is something that happened over 100 years ago, and not only that, but people in Spain have adopted the insult and gave it their own story. To goes to show how the folk from a culture can appropriate even insults to serve their own purposes, and as Jordi says, most of them believe that the term originated in Spain. Not everyone knows the story behind the terms though, showing the disregard of the history of certain words that might be offensive to an entire group because of their past which is also present in American culture.