Avocado Rhyme Game (with Hand Motions)

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Residence: California
Performance Date: 2/16/23
Primary Language: English

Original Text: “Avocado is the name of the game, if you mess up, you must have a word to say”

Hand Motions/Gestures:

  1. Both people clap their own hands together 
  2. Both people clap each other’s right hands together 
  3. Both people clap each other’s left hands together 
  4. Both people clap their own hands together 
  5. Both people intertwine their fingers and press their palms out into the other’s palms 

Context: The informant is an 18-year-old white American from Barrington, Illinois. They are a freshman at USC, studying Theater and Anthropology. They learned this rhyme game from their older sisters, who learned it on the elementary school playground. The informant describes it as : “a rhyme with motions to go along with it”. If you mess up the motions or the rhyme, you pick another word to replace “avocado”, and repeat the rhyme as usual. The informant would regularly play this game with friends at their public elementary school with friends to pass the time.

Analysis: Hand games with rhymes are common in American elementary schools. This particular hand game calls for the players to be able to think of a random word quickly to keep the game going if they mess up. A typical way that young American children learn to speak, read, and write properly in school is with long lists of vocabulary words and vocab tests. Everyday words, like different types of food (ex: avocado), are the most useful and common in these vocab activities. A game like this one that involves simple word recall might be especially appealing and familiar to children because of all the vocab words they are learning in their classes. Young children are also working on their motor skills, and visual/audio queues like clapping and rhyming are particularly stimulating and accessible. Rhymes are easier for people to remember, which explains why young children have an easy time remembering this game and executing it. 

“El que se enoja no prospera”: Spanish proverb

Nationality: Mexican American
Age: 18
Residence: California
Performance Date: 2/22/23
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish
  1. Original Text: “El que se enoja no prospera” (Spanish)
  2. Transliteration: “He who gets angry doesn’t prosper”
  3. English translation: “He who gets angry doesn’t prosper”

Context: The informant’s family is from Mexico, but her family currently resides in Concord, California. She is am 18-year-old freshman at USC studying Political Science. She says that this saying is a Mexican saying, and it is “all over Mexico, not just specific to one region”. She explains that it means “if you get angry, you’re just going to be stuck in it, and you can’t get ahead”. Her mother taught this phrase to her and her siblings when they were younger, and it stuck with her through all these years. The informant comes from a bilingual household, where Spanish and English are spoken.

Analysis: Per the informant, this saying is specific to Mexican culture. The fact that this saying was taught to the informant by a parent at a young age suggests that rejecting hate and keeping your peace is a value of Mexican society and culture. The message is instilled in children so they carry it through into adulthood — hopefully contributing this philosophy to their community. The saying is told by an adult to children, giving it more legitimacy and truth than if it were to be children saying it to other children. On another note, this particular saying uses the masculine pronoun “el”, which is indicative of Mexican (and overall Hispanic) patriarchal culture. 

Elephant Baseball Joke

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: USC Student Housing
Performance Date: 2/20/23
Primary Language: English

Main Performance:

BH: What do you do to an elephant with three balls?

Me: What?

BH: You walk him and pitch to the rhino.

Me: *Chuckling* I don’t get it

BH: It’s a baseball joke.

Me: OH haha… that’s good I like it!

Context: The informant is from San Diego and remembers hearing this joke as a child from his dad. He also didn’t get it at first, so his Dad told it to him multiple times.

Thoughts/Analysis: This joke plays upon many themes that are present in both American and global culture. Firstly, the set up sets the expectation for the listener that the joke is going to be a dirty one, as any use of the word balls in the context of a joke is most likely going to mean testicles. The punchline, however, works because it subverts the expectation of what “balls” mean in the first place. Additionally, it conjures up the idea that an elephant is playing baseball, which is an absurd and silly idea. The joke also relies upon the listener to be a baseball fan, or at least have base level knowledge of the rules, in order to understand that a fourth ball would be a “walk”. One last thing about this joke is that it contains the idea that those on the same team would be animals from the same region, perhaps alluding to American tendencies to have communities of similar ethnic origin.

Rich Man and Poor Man Joke (As told in The Sopranos)

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: USC Housing
Performance Date: 2/22/23
Primary Language: English

Main Performance:

BM: *Doing an impression of Tony Soprano* A rich man and a poor man, they got da same anniversary, so every yea they go out and get lunch afta they buy dheir wife dheir gifts. So, poor man says to da rich man: whadya get ya wife dis yea. Rich man says: I got her a Mercedes Benz, and I got her a Rolex. An the poor man says ok, and the rich man goes because if she doesn’t like the Rolex she could at least drive it back in a fuckin Mercedes. Rich man says to da poor man whad chu get ya wife dis yea. poor man says: I got her a pair of flip flops and a dildo, so if she don’t like the flip flops she can go fuck herself! (Misspellings intended to reflect phoentics)

Context: The informant is from Philadelphia and he heard this joke originally told on The Sopranos. He is clearly a big fan of the show and does an impression of Tony Soprano all the time.

Thoughts/Analysis: I am unsure if this joke has an origin before The Sopranos, but it still contains much about Italian American and East Coast Italian Mafia culture. The joke portrays two types of men within the community’s framework: those who are have the means to appease their wife, and those who do not. The characters who Tony is telling it to in the show find they joke funny because everyone in the room has been both of those men, coming from poor backgrounds and finding wealth through organized crime. The joke is also funny because the men get their wives seemingly odd pairs of gives, but have surprisingly logical and funny explanations for why.

“Life Sucks and you Die”

Nationality: United States
Age: 54
Occupation: Retail
Residence: Tampa, Florida
Performance Date: 2/23/2023
Primary Language: English

Text
“Life sucks and you die”

Context


The informant is in her mid-50s and currently living in Tampa, Florida. She told me about the phrase “life sucks and you die.” She says this phrase because she says that this brings reality to life and can sometimes put things into perspective. The informant told me that she’s tired of life seeming unreal and fake on social media and how we have unrealistic expectations about what life should look like. The informant uses this phrase to express frustration with life or as a coping mechanism for difficult circumstances. However, she also uses it as a humorous or ironic statement.

The informant learned this phrase from her mom when she was a young adult living in Boston. The informant stated that this phrase was commonly used by comedian Bill Hicks, who frequently used the expression in his stand-up comedy routines in the 1990s. Her mom heard it from this comedian and frequently started saying it and then the informant picked it up.

Analysis


While it is true that life can be challenging at times, it is important to remember that there are also many positive experiences and opportunities that life can offer. Focusing only on the negative aspects of life can lead to a sense of hopelessness, which can have a detrimental impact on mental and emotional well-being. I understand the informant’s reasonings for saying this expression, but I prefer to maintain a more optimistic view of life.


This phrase is a minor genre of folklore because it is a popular American expression that people use to express their pessimism for life or even just express their dissatisfaction when life gets rough.