Tag Archives: dog

Dog on a Nail Joke

Nationality: American
Age: 48
Occupation: Sales Associate
Residence: Salinas CA
Performance Date: April 18, 2020
Primary Language: English

Main Piece:

Here is a transcription of my (CB) interview with my informant (MH).

CB: “What’s the joke?”

MH: “So there’s this little old house. And sitting in front of this little old house is an old man in a rocking chair and a dog laying out on the porch. And that dog laid in the same exact spot on the porch all day, everyday. So one day the old man had a friend over, and he’s sitting there on the porch and they’re drinking their beers in the afternoon, and the dog is laying there next to them. But the whole time that the dog is laying there he’s moaning and moaning like he’s in pain.

And the friend goes ‘Well what’s wrong with your dog, he sounds like he’s in pain?’

And the old man goes ‘He’s laying on a nail.’

And the friend goes, ‘Well why doesn’t he move?’

And the old man says ‘It doesn’t hurt bad enough yet’”

CB: “What does it mean to you?”

MH: “I think it means… I think it shows how much tolerance you can have when you’re that stubborn.”

CB: “Why do you think it’s important to share the joke?”

MH: “Because it’s stupid to lay on a nail.” [laughs]

Background:

My informant is known in our family for his jokes, and most of the family can repeat them by memory.  In our family, this joke has become heavily associated with him, and can be referenced with just one sentence. My informant’s telling of this joke is often thought to be ironic by our family, as he is known for his stubbornness. This joke is different from most of his other jokes because it has such a clear moral. For this reason, the joke is often uses in our family to make a certain point.

Context:

I called my informant on their way home from work to ask about this joke that I had heard him tell many times before. Our conversation was light and casual as we laughed about the joke.

Thoughts:

This joke is less amusing, as it is a lesson. As my informant says “its stupid to lay on a nail”. The dog is putting himself in pain for no other reason than his own stubbornness. Our family has long since laughed at the irony of the most stubborn member of the family telling the joke, however I think that it’s telling of a larger tradition in folklore. He likely tells the joke because he can personally identify with it, and wants to warn his family against repeating his mistakes. The joke is often specifically targeted at the younger generation in the family, and is referenced when someone is acting particularly hard-headed. In this way, the joke functions more as a warning, than as a source of amusement.

For another variation of this joke see Celestine Chua’s article “The Howling Dog Story” published in Personal Excellence. https://personalexcellence.co/blog/howling-dog-story/

“Humans Can Lick Too” Story

Nationality: African American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student at the University of Southern California, majoring in Art
Residence: Sherman Oaks, CA
Performance Date: April 21, 2018
Primary Language: English

Collected privately in an empty hallway while his friends played a horror game in the other room, which he returned to after the interview. I asked them if they knew, “the scary story where a girl gets her hand licked,” or, “the hand lick dog story.”

The informant heard this story for the first time at a sleepover many years ago, around the age of 11.
“So there’s this girl, and she has a dog, right? And her dog – She g-, she goes to bed and either wakes up in the morning and her dog’s licking her hand or she goes to bed and the dog’s licking her hand. And so that’s the typical, kinda, way her day goes. And then… for some reason something… [stumbles over his words] There’s some point… in the night where, like, some – where something’s licking her hand, but then it’s not – then she figures out that it’s not the dog anymore cause the dog is, like, dead in the closet or something. And then she goes to turn on the lights and realizes that there’s, like, written in blood it says… it says, I think, ‘People can lick too,’ or something like that, or something implying that it… the point is you figure out that, that the dog is dead and somebody else has been licking her hand. And that’s all I really remember.”
This version specifies the location of the dead dog, but it is the closet instead of the usual bathroom. This version does not specify where the dog is when it licks her hand. It also is worth noting that the words on the wall read, “People can lick too,” not “Humans.” It also does not specify the dripping noise that wakes up the protagonist that appears in many versions.

An analysis of several versions of this story, as well as some folkloric history, can be read here: https://www.thoughtco.com/humans-can-lick-too-3299487. Additionally, a video portrayal of the same story can be seen here at http://urbanlegendsonline.com/humans-can-lick-too/, in which the girl actively sees her hand being licked by an intruder, and does not see her missing (presumably dead) dog.

“Humans Can Lick Too” Story

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student at the University of Southern California, majoring in Game Design
Residence: Doylestown, PA
Performance Date: April 21, 2018
Primary Language: English
Language: French

Collected privately in an empty hallway while his friends played a horror game in the other room, which he returned to after the interview. I asked them if they knew, “the scary story where a girl gets her hand licked,” or, “the hand lick dog story.”

The informant does not remember when or where she first heard the story, but assumes it was from a long time ago. She is aware of the variations, but her telling is what she considers to be the true one.
“Uh, I know there’s a bunch of variations on it, but the general gist of it that I remember is that there was a girl… who was having a slumber party with a bunch of friends. And they’re like, ‘Ah let’s all go to sleep.’ And they do, and she had a pet dog who slept under her bed. And when she was feeling scared, she’d, like, put her hand down, and the dog would lick her hand, and she’d be like, ‘Cool, my dog.’ And then she’s like – In the middle of the night, she, like, thinks she hears something, or something? So she puts her hand down and the dog licks it and she’s like, ‘Cool! … My DOG.’ And then she wakes up in the morning and all of her friends are dead, and her dog is dead, and the person wrote on the wall, ‘People can lick too,’ or something of equal stupidity. And that’s the version I remember.”
Unlike other tellings of the story, the protagonist is not alone in her home, but at a slumber party, and wakes up to find everyone dead, including her dog. This version does not specify the method in which the intruder killed, or how the bodies were found, but does specify that the dog was “under her bed.” It also is worth noting that the words on the wall read, “People can lick too,” not “Humans.” It also does not specify the dripping noise that wakes up the protagonist that appears in many versions.

An analysis of several versions of this story, as well as some folkloric history, can be read here: https://www.thoughtco.com/humans-can-lick-too-3299487. Additionally, a video portrayal of the same story can be seen here at http://urbanlegendsonline.com/humans-can-lick-too/, in which the girl actively sees her hand being licked by an intruder, and does not see her missing (presumably dead) dog.

“Humans Can Lick Too” Story

Nationality: Peruvian Jewish
Age: 20
Occupation: Student at the University of Southern California, majoring in Narrative Studies
Residence: Hollywood, FL
Performance Date: April 21, 2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish, Mandarin, and a little Hebrew

Collected privately in an empty hallway while his friends played a horror game in the other room, which he returned to after the interview. I asked them if they knew, “the scary story where a girl gets her hand licked,” or, “the hand lick dog story.”

The informant most likely first heard the story in summer camp at the age of 11.
“So, um… I think a girl was scared of monsters under her bed, so, um, her parents got a dog and the dog lived under her bed, and whenever she’d get scared, she’d put her hand under the bed and the dog would lick her hand and she’d feel safe. And then one day, she got scared and put her hand under the bed and something licked it, and then the dog ran into her room… I mean there’s probably more to it than that, but that’s… as I understand the plot of that story… The dog may also – there, there’s probably a version of it, if not immediately, where the dog is dead.”
This version of the story interestingly does not include the titular message of, “Humans (or People) can lick too.” In fact, it does not involve the dog dying. Insead, it simply presents the dread of the intruder currently licking her hand by having the dog run into the protagonist’s room. It does, however, specify that the dog generally licks her hand from under the bed. This version does not specify the dripping noise that wakes up the protagonist that appears in many versions.

An analysis of several versions of this story, as well as some folkloric history, can be read here: https://www.thoughtco.com/humans-can-lick-too-3299487. Additionally, a video portrayal of the same story can be seen here at http://urbanlegendsonline.com/humans-can-lick-too/, in which the girl actively sees her hand being licked by an intruder, and does not see her missing (presumably dead) dog.

“Humans Can Lick Too” Story

Nationality: African American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student at the University of Southern California, majoring in Computer Science: Games
Residence: Brentwood, CA
Performance Date: April 21, 2018
Primary Language: English

Collected privately in an empty hallway while his friends played a horror game in the other room, which he returned to after the interview. I asked them if they knew, “the scary story where a girl gets her hand licked,” or, “the hand lick dog story.”

The informant first heard this story around the age of 11 in a drama class during a “ghost stories session.”
“Okay, I’ll probably get some of the details wrong, but, um… There’s this woman who lives alone… Well not alone, she has a dog. And every time she goes to bed, she gets into bed and hangs her hand over the bed because the dog licks it and it gives her comfort and all that. Um… she does that, dog licks her hand and she goes to sleep. Um… I, I’m missing a lot of details, but it’s like, that regularly happens. Until one day, she goes to bed, and of course the dog’s there, it’s under her bed, licks her hand. But one day she wakes up, goes to the bathroom, her dog is, like, bloodied, beaten, torn up in the bathroom and on the mirror it says, ‘Humans can lick too’ [laughs nervously]. And that’s how I remember that one [laughs].”
This version includes the dog being dead in the bathroom, but does not specify that the dog is under the bed. It also does not specify the dripping noise that wakes up the protagonist that appears in many versions.

An analysis of several versions of this story, as well as some folkloric history, can be read here: https://www.thoughtco.com/humans-can-lick-too-3299487. Additionally, a video portrayal of the same story can be seen here at http://urbanlegendsonline.com/humans-can-lick-too/, in which the girl actively sees her hand being licked by an intruder, and does not see her missing (presumably dead) dog.