“We brought you, Moeen, to help. It turns out you need the help.” – Arabic Saying

Nationality: Jordanian
Age: 55
Occupation: Disabled
Residence: Long Beach
Performance Date: 5/1/2021
Primary Language: Arabic
Language: English, French

Context:

He recalls hearing it when he was very young, in Jerusalem, but can’t put it in a time frame. “I used to hear it a lot, but not for me; I could not help at that point.” “We use it when we ask someone for help, but we find out that they need help in that area. For example, if you ask someone for help with homework, and they say, ‘Yeah, I need help in that too.’”

Text:

Original Script: جبناك يا معين تتعين. طلع بدك مين يعين

Transliteration: Jibnak ya Moeen tateen. Tilah biddak meen yaeen.

Translation: We brought you, Moeen, to help. It turns out you need the help.

Thoughts:

This saying delivers the message of “I thought you could help me, but you can’t” in a rhyme in order to take out some of the edge (the rhyme between “tateen” and “yaeen” gets lost in translation to English). This is similar to the Biblical idiom “the blind leads the blind” (Matthew 15:14);* both occupy the space between seriousness and humor, which makes the messages behind them easier to take.

*https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+15%3A14&version=NASB

Taste the Soup

Nationality: American
Age: 65
Occupation: Filmmaker
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/19/21
Primary Language: English

BACKGROUND: GH is the interviewer’s father.


GH: “ “Guy goes into a restaurant, orders soup. Soup’s delivered. After awhile, he signals the waiter. The waiter says “sir, is there a problem with the soup?”
The man says, “taste the soup.”
“Is it too hot?”
“Taste the soup.”
“is it too cold?”
“tASTE the soup.”
“Is it too spicy?”
“Taste the soup.”
“Is it too bland?”
“Taste the soup.”
Finally, the waiter, now exasperated, says “okay.” He goes down to taste the soup, and says “there’s no spoon.”
The man: “A-HA!””
My dad used to tell me the joke, and I used to say “taste the soup” when someone finally came up with a solution to a problem, often one right in front of us. No one ever got it.”


ANALYSIS: “Taste the soup” is a traditional folk joke, one that has become specific family folklore. Eddie Murphy performed it in Coming to America, but my father had heard it for decades prior as a young boy. The punchline has been appropriated as a short-hand, which shows the joke’s dexterity and cultural staying power (even if not many get it).

Doctor Mouse, Tooth Fairy

Nationality: American
Age: 23
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/18/21
Primary Language: English

BACKGROUND: MS is the interviewer’s friend.


TRANSCRIPT:
MS: “In my family, instead of the Tooth Fairy we had ‘Dr. Mouse.’ I don’t think it’s done in just my family. I believe it has its origins in Mexico since it was on that side of the family, but I’m not sure if it was specific to a region or whatever. It’s functionally identical to the Tooth Fairy except I remember doing teeth in shoes rather than under pillows, so that the mouse MD could get to it.”


ANALYSIS: This is a regional custom, one that takes a common tradition of adolescence and remixes it. The shoes are a nice touch in adding to the realism of the ritual’s fantasy, as that’s the only way the mouse can access the teeth. 

The Haunting of Greystone Mansion

Nationality: American
Age: 65
Occupation: Filmmaker
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/29/21
Primary Language: English

BACKGROUND: GH is the interviewer’s father. A first assistant director for movies and TV shows, he has worked many times at Greystone Mansion, a famous estate in Beverly Hills, now open to the public and a popular site for film shoots. Rumors of hauntings and horror stories have been going back since the mansion was built.


TRANSCRIPT:
GH: “We were shooting at Greystone for two days. After the first days, some young sound guys thought it’d be fun to leave their equipment running all night, see if they could hear anything when we got back in the morning, prove any of those old rumors. We get back to set the next day. They’re going through the audio, and there’s absolutely nothing. They start speeding through… still nothing… until a huge crash is heard. They slow it back down to normal, and find that for two or three minutes, sometime in the wee hours of the morning, every door in that house slammed open, shut, open, shut. A few minutes later, it ceased, and silence for the rest of the night.”


ANALYSIS: Estates in Los Angeles are ripe for any number of ghost stories or hauntings, are an intrinsic part of the city’s folklore. Such is the case with Greystone. This story is a chilling example of a ghost narrative.

Spicy Uno

Nationality: American
Age: 23
Occupation: American
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/15/21
Primary Language: English

BACKGROUND: JM is the interviewer’s friend. Spicy Uno is a variation on the popular Uno card game, one that we’ve played many times as friends, and a game that can get quite heated at times.


TRANSCRIPT:
JM: “Here are our rules:
Play a 4, no talking. Whoever talks has to draw 1 card for each word they say.Play a 6, all hands need to go in the middle of the table. Last hand draws 3.Person who plays 0 chooses 2 people to swap hands (can include themselves).+2 cards and +4 cards can stack, but not on each other.You can ask for help and can help someone, but you can’t show them the card before.You can skip to yourself by playing an exact match of what’s on top of the pile.If you have UNO and someone else calls UNO for you, draw 6.
There’s the famous moment when we were playing, someone drew 4, and then someone knocked on the door. You went ‘it’s all good, we’re taking a break, we don’t need to be quiet anymore. The game is paused, the game is paused.’ Watching you draw 22 cards was maybe the greatest time I’ve ever played the game.”


ANALYSIS: The Spicy Uno variation of the Uno card game is a popular one among Millenials and Gen Z, one that qualifies as folklore since there are no exact rules and no known origin — everyone plays it slightly differently. It’s a modern folk tradition, one that can forge friendships and break them apart in the same round. For another version of Spicy Uno, see:

“How to Play Spicy Uno.” Crazy Little Projects, 30 Jul. 2020, https://crazylittleprojects.com/how-to-play-spicy-uno/.