Tag Archives: joke riddle

Brown and Sticky Anti-Joke

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: United States
Performance Date: 2/16/23
Primary Language: English
Language: N/A

Text

The informant was very nonchalant about telling this joke. It was the kind of “let’s get this over with” demeanor that someone has when they expect you to already know the joke they’re about it tell. Regardless of that mutual understanding, they had a grin on their face that made it evident it was a joke they liked to tell.

“Okay. What’s brown and sticky?”

I responded, “Ohh, yeah. I’ve heard this one before.”

“Sticks,” we said together. And despite both knowing the punchline to the joke, we both shared a brief laugh as it was still an effective joke.

Context

RELATIONSHIP –
The informant considers to be their “first joke ever,” and it was the first subversive joke that they had ever heard. Because of this, it’s the first joke that comes to mind when they think about telling a joke. Even then, they don’t consider it to be a “funny joke.”

WHERE THEY HEARD IT –
The informant attributed this joke to playground humor around when they were in the “second grade.”

USE OR INTERPRETATION –
Typically used as their go-to joke to tell, the informant tells this joke as something easy and clever– if the audience hasn’t heard it before. They described the joke being especially effective for kids, but much less effective for adults who can automatically infer the correct response.

Analysis

This joke is both simple and subversive. It baits the audience into expecting the question of “What’s brown and sticky” to result in something more akin to a riddle where the answer would simply be an object that is both visually brown and texturally sticky. Part of what makes this subversion particularly effective for children is the inherent potty/gross-out humor that arises from asking someone for something brown and sticky. When the punchline (and more joke-y aspect) is revealed to be “sticks,” it additionally serves as a moment to embarrass the audience for their “gross” thoughts.

I have a head and I have a tail, but I do not have a body. What am I?

Q: I have a head and I have a tail, but I do not have a body. What am I?

A: A coin

Background: Y is a 20 year old who was born and raised in New Jersey. She now resides in Los Angeles, California. 

Context: This riddle was told to me at a hangout among friends.

Analysis: I liked this riddle because of its simplicity. It relies on knowledge that everyone would have about coins and, perhaps, animals. The barrier to entry for understanding this joke is very low, which is what makes it so compelling. Like most riddles, the answer is not impossible, but just out of reach. It’s simple enough for the audience to have an “oh, of course!” moment when the answer is revealed. This shared moment among audience members and the performer of the riddle works well with the riddle’s wordplay. 

Mexican riddle

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 50
Occupation: Housewife
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 04/28/2020
Primary Language: Spanish

Main piece: 

The following was transcribed from a riddle between the informant and interviewer. 

Informant: De qué color es el caballo blanco de Napoleon? 

Interviewer: el color? Uhhh haber… 

Informant: Hay de veras? Esta no la tienes que pensar! Ya ni laces!

Interviewer: Ahh blanco verdad? 

Informant: Pues si. De qué otro color podría ser un caballo blanco?

Full Translation: 

Informant: What color is Napoleon’s white horse? 

Interviewer: The color? Uhhh let me think…

Informant: Really? You don’t have to think about this one! Cmon…

Interviewer: Ahh white… right? 

Informant: Well yes. What other color can a white horse be? 

Background: My informant was my mom. She was born in Mexico City. According to her, this is a joke that appeared on tests as a “free point” but most people would get it wrong because since it was a test, they’d overthink and write a different color. She uses it to mess around with people. 

Context: I was helping her with dishes and asked her if she knew of any jokes or riddles from when she was a kid. She immediately referred to this one. She made fun of me for not getting it right away. 

Thoughts: This one is to make a quick joke on the textbook overthinkers, including myself. I also panicked a little because I felt like I knew the answer but hesitated to say “white”. I can see why students would miss this free point. They probably thought to themselves it was too easy to be true. Overall I liked the joke because the answer is right there in the question, literally but still missable.

Plane Crash Joke

Nationality: United States
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/3/13
Primary Language: English

The informant grew up in Southern California and spent a lot of time in and around planes. His father is a pilot and he is also the first person who told him the joke. Although the inclusion of a plane is more of a device to produce humor, the joke could be considered a piece of pilot’s lore.

Informant: “Uhm…let’s see…alright. So, a plane crashes right on the border of the  U.S.-Canadian border. Right in the middle, no closer to one side than the other. Where do you bury the survivors?”

Interviewer: “Uh…wherever they’re from?”

Informant: “No”

Interviewer:”Um…I don’t know”

Informant: “You don’t bury them because they survived”

The informant was told this joke by his father when he was a young child. He calls it a “gotcha” joke because it is actually a very simple, straightforward question disguised as a clever riddle. When it is asked, one does not initially think that there is anything humorous about the riddle; the answer seems to be a logistical question about the burying the dead. When the answer is revealed  the person being told the joke is supposed to be embarrassed that he or she was unable to answer this easy question. The informant remembers being fooled by it the first time his father told it to him, and that feeling of being “had” stayed with him, imprinting the joke in his memory. Although it does deal with death, the riddle’s impact does not come entirely from the incongruity of morbidity and humor, but rather the incongruity of being stumped by a question anyone should be able to answer. Everyone knows that survivors are not buried; the way it is phrased leads one to overlook this fact in favor of a more complicated answer.