Tag Archives: foreigners

Plug it in! Plug it in!

Nationality: American
Age: 23
Occupation: Computer Engineer
Residence: San Diego
Performance Date: 02/22/23
Primary Language: English

Text:

A man comes into America and knows very little english initially and what english he does know he learned from television shows. For example, a sitcom comes on and a character says “why yes of course”. A commercial for cutlery comes on where a host talks about “forks and knives”. Then a vacuum commercial comes on and the host says “plug it in”.

One day the man accidentally speeds away unknowingly from a crime scene. When he is pulled over, the police ask him if he is involved in the murder that he was speeding away from. They ask, “did you kill this man”? He replies, using his knowledge of television, saying “why yes of course”. Next, they ask “what did you kill him with”? He answers again using TV knowledge saying “forks and knives, forks and knives”.

The police are startled and bring the man in. Obviously unable to defend himself in court, he is sentenced to death in the electric chair. There, the executioner asks, “any last words”? He replies with the last thing he has left in his English vocab, “Plug it in! Plug it in”!

Relationship to subject:

Although unsure about where this joke story was told, the interviewee said they probably heard it from a friend in middle school. They said it was one of the first jokes they had heard on the darker side, so it was only said to friends and not near teachers or faculty. But this is what made the joke fun. The interviewee said they had not thought of or said the joke for a long time and began reminiscing after saying it, which lead to some funny memories being recalled.

Analysis:

This joke would probably fall into the category of “dark jokes” in my opinion because it involves themes like immigration, death, and language. This joke is funny because it is obviously shocking, but it is also fun because all the information is given early on in a random way, but it all comes together in the end to form the punchline. I found it funny because of the way it was told and I enjoyed how I kind of figured out the ending halfway through. It also seemed to be important to the person telling it which definitely made it more fun.

“Atithi Devo Bhava” – Indian Custom

Nationality: Indian
Age: 25
Occupation: Recent Graduate (Master's)
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 05/02/2021
Primary Language: English
Language: Telugu, Hindi

Informant’s Background:

My informant, SV, is a recent graduate with a Master’s from the University of Southern California. He is 25, was born in Hyderabad, Telangana, India, and moved to the United States to attend a graduate program at USC. Post-graduation he remains in Los Angeles hunting for a job.

Context:

My informant is my roommate and a close friend of mine. I asked him if he could share some Indian traditions, customs, or folklore with me.

Performance:

SV: “Ok so… there’s this thing in India which is… predominantly for the Hindu culture, which is in one of the ancient Hindi texts called “Atithi Devo Bhava” which roughly translates to “guest is equal to God”. So the… in India the guest is considered holy and usually when they’re entering your house, when you invite a guest over there’s a kind of ritual kind of thing which is similar to like when your in-uhh… like you’re… when your inviting a God into your house there’s certain like religious things that they do. Like there’s something called an “Arti”, and then they usually like, uhh.. like light a lamp and then they sort of do a prayer and then they invite the guests over and then the guests usually are treated very respectfully and they’re given like as much comfort as possible, and like the host will adjust as much as they can. So that’s one of the common… I guess like, ideas or traditions that Indians have, mostly the Hindus, but I think that sort of permeated once India tried to make it like a tourism slogan so it sort of permeated through all religions so… in general that’s the common thing, so… but I guess more modern it gets and more people err-like become… less religious some of the things like they have the prayer when they’re entering and stuff gets turned down or completely removed but it’s still like a thing where you treat your guests well.”

Informant’s Thoughts:

SV: “Overall, I think its a positive thing, uhm… Like mostly it’s like treating people well, which is always good, because India has a lot of issues about like the caste system and there are other issues so at least this is one of the things that like helps reduce some of this inequality and like helps people treat others well.”

Translation:

  • Original Script: अतिथि देवो भव
  • Transliteration: “Atithi Devo Bhava” or “Atithidevo Bhava”
  • Translation: “The guest is equivalent to God.”

Thoughts:

I thought it was very interesting how what primarily started as a religious custom and practice has been so widely and readily adopted by India’s tourism industry. A quick search for the phrase brought up dozens of restaurants, vacation destinations, and the like that all state “Atithi Devo Bhava” as being their mission statement in order to please their customers. The adoption and outward marketing of what was initially an intimate and kind religious tradition, and it’s transformation into a promise of service to outsiders in order to make India appeal more to foreigners seems bleak, but not unexpected for the tourism industry.

La Casa Matusita B

Nationality: Peruvian
Age: 62
Residence: San Francisco, CA
Performance Date: December 17,2012
Primary Language: Spanish

During the 19th century, the house was inhabited by a migrant Chinese (sometimes Japanese) family. The father worked very hard and came back late at night every day. One day, he came back earlier and was surprised to hear strange noises coming from his and his wife’s bedroom. He went there and fount his wife in bed with a lover, irate, he grabbed a knife and hacked them both up into pieces. When his kids got home, he decided to kill them as well since he saw no feasible explanation of his deeds and he didn’t want them to hate him. After that, he committed suicide.
While property records show that a Chinese family did indeed live in the house during the early 19th century, there is no proof that the above events transpired. This story’s popularity however could be attributed to lingering xenophobia, staring from the mid 19th century to the early 20th century, there was a very large wave of Chinese migrants to Lima. These immigrants were brought to Lima under false pretenses of wealth and opportunity when in reality, they were brought to collect guano since there was a dearth of cheap labor in Lima (the remaining Africans who were brought over as slaves were too few and the indigenous population had fled to the Andes to avoid being enslaved). These Chinese immigrants suffered horrendously and died by the thousands; however, there was a good number who survived the Guano age and established themselves in the city. In spite of their work which had brought an immense level of prosperity for Lima, these migrants were viewed with distrust by the Peruvians of European descent and were actively discriminated against. This version of the story is a vestige of that sentiment.