Tag Archives: humor

School Prank – Setting Clocks Back

Context:

My informant is a 19-year-old student who lives in Philadelphia. There she previously attended an all girls high school where her mom also attended. She talks about a prank that her mom started while she was in school and later became a tradition with later students.

Text:

“When she was there, they had nuns and we had this thing called the mansion, which was like a really old building that the nuns lived in. And she lived walking distance from the school. Like, I could walk to my grandmother’s house, so she would come in and like, after hours and like change the nuns clocks. So they woke up late and like, like school starts like 8 am that she would change it like an hour or two later. So the nuns wouldn’t wake up and they wouldn’t have class and they’d all be at school just doing whatever they wanted.

And then another day, she took frogs from, like, the lab and put them in the pool.”

I asked, “Was this a thing that continued throughout the years?”

She responded, “Yeah, like, she had, like, her younger friends started to, like, adopt the prank on the nuns thing, and then it continued.”

Analysis:

This humorous piece of folklore shows an example of school folklore. These pranks continued through the years with the succeeding classes. This seems to be a version of what other high schools call a senior prank, often conducted in their last year of school to leave their lasting mark. It seems that this prank was not only for the benefit of the class but to leave a legacy for later years.

The Phrase “Lock in”

Context: The use of the phrase “lock in” has become widely used by many, especially from the younger generation (Example: gen-z)

MC: “Basically when something gets like super serious, usually someone will say ‘it’s time to lock in’ or ‘let’s lock in.’ Its basically like telling someone or usually a group of people that they have to focus to like win something like in a game or a race.”

Q: Do you know when you first started hearing the phrase?

MC: “Maybe like around the middle of senior year in high school (2023-24) when I heard people shouting it during football games or during track practice and it used a lot on social media like TikTok and Reels.”

Analysis: The phrase “lock in” has become a commonly used slang that was popularized through social media. Telling someone to “lock in” means telling someone to enter a state of focus/concentration in order for them to excel at their best. It has become a commonly used term, especially in common activities such as studying, work, or sports. It’s been seen as a positive term in order to motivate people to try their best.

“Sampanelli” (Family Recipe)

Age: 20

Text:

“My dad makes sampanelli, which is like an Italian dish, because my grandmother is 100% Italian. So they grew up having a lot of olive oil and vegetables and that type of stuff, but there weren’t that many recipes fully passed down.

My dad doesn’t really cook, like we don’t want him to cook, but one thing he does make is sampanelli, which is kind of disgusting—it’s raw meat, garlic, Parmesan cheese, and like a crepe. The meat is raw—like salted pork—and he makes the crepe himself.

But the funny thing is, we were doing research this year, and I think it’s actually called something else, like “sampanel,” but they just assumed it was sampanelli because they wanted to make it sound Italian.

So now whenever people come over and my dad says, ‘I think I’ll cook,’ we all know what that means.”

Context:

The informant describes a dish made by their father that is understood within the family as an “Italian” recipe connected to their grandmother’s heritage. The dish often in social situations when guests are present. It has become a recognizable and somewhat humorous tradition within the family, especially as her father isn’t much of a cook. The name “sampanelli” is the family interpretation rather than an accurate term, showing how the dish has been adapted and redefined over time. The informant now lives in the US on the east coast with her family.

Analysis:

This is an example of material culture and foodways folklore, where cultural knowledge is expressed through preparation and sharing of food. A key aspect of foodways is its nature of bricolage, where people create tradition by piecing together available ingredients, memories, and cultural influences rather than following a fixed and original recipe. So, even though this recipe may not be authentically or accurately Italian, or prepared as such, it functions as a symbol of heritage and identity within the family.

The uncertainty around the name and origin of the dish demonstrates the variation that occurs in performance and through generations. This highlights how folklore adapts overtime and this doesn’t make the recipe less valid. The family maintains a version that reflects their own understanding of their culture background. It shows that folklore doesn’t need to be historically accurate to have meaning and still functions in preserving their culture.

This dish is also a form of family humor and shared knowledge. When guests come over they are brought into the collective experience of disappointment in the father cooking and therefore join the folk group of the family while present for the event. It is a way for all the bond and constructs an identity through performance and even for those experiencing the performance.

“Time is money, you’re a big spender”

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Text:
The informant, A, recalls a high school classmate saying, “Time is money, you’re a big spender,” whenever they were working on tedious task such as a project or in-class exercise and felt it was taking too long.

Context:
The classmate would usually say this during group projects or in class work sessions, especially when the work felt repetitive or long.

Analysis:
This saying twists the common phrase “Time is money” by adding humor. Instead of saying they’re wasting time, the classmate plays with the idea that they’re “spending” it freely. Even though they weren’t literally losing money, the comparison made it clear that spending too much time on something unproductive can feel like a loss, similar to a financial loss. The lighthearted delivery might also suggest a coping mechanism for dealing with the frustration of tedious work.

White Elephant

Nationality: American
Age: 65
Occupation: Unemployed
Residence: United States
Language: English

Text:

“My family has this tradition for Christmas Eve and we get everyone together at one of our houses and celebrate. Towards the end of the night we play this game called White Elephant, where everyone has to bring a wrapped gift and set it by the tree so no one knows whose gift is whose. Everyone gets a number that tells the order of who goes when. We each take turns going up and picking a random gift and then opening it up in front of everyone. There’s rules though. Someone can steal a gift from somebody else, but it can only be stolen 3 times and then it’s dead, meaning you can’t steal it anymore. It gets really competitive between everyone, but we always laugh it off.”

Context:

The informant recalls that this tradition has been going on since she was a child. It’s meaningful to them because of how connected they can feel with their family and bring everyone together, creating really happy memories of all of them. It’s also a time for them to see family that they haven’t seen in awhile and even meet new members of the family and catch up with everyone. The tradition itself helps creating these memories and positive times by doing a fun activity.

Analysis:

This resembles a ritual tradition or folk custom associated with a holiday: Christmas. It’s specific to one family, but attached to the holiday as a creative way to bring a sense of love and family to the community. It also presents as gift-giving behaviors in the format of a game with a tradition that still isn’t the same each year since different moments ensue each time the game is played. Unlike other American traditions this doesn’t bother trying to make sense of the uncertainty but rather embraces the unpredictable. It also consists of rules giving the tradition a structure that has to be followed. It acts a both a celebration for Christmas and family in the format of healthy competition that is also designed to be humorous and fair. It’s more localized as family tradition and acts as behavior that is passed down by learning from family members and watching the activity.