Tag Archives: Joke

What’s Green and Has Wheels?

Informant LO is an 18 year-old USC freshman from New York City, New York.

Text:

LO: “What’s green and has wheels?”

Me: “What?”

LO: “Grass. I lied about the wheels.”

Context:

The informant heard this joke while watching a Twitch streamer by the name of SaltyPhish, and often spams the joke to friends. 

LO: “I guess it’s funny because it’s just stupid. Whenever you ask a question you’re supposed to give the truth and this plays off that and it’s something completely unexpected which is a lot of my humor. It doesn’t make the joke at the expense of anyone. It’s an easy answer, technically — anything could fit — but the answer is grass because that’s one of the first things you think of when you say green.”

Analysis:

This joke operates on multiple levels that reveal how folklore evolved with the dawn of the internet. First, LO learned of the joke from watching Twitch, a live streaming website where content creators produce live video content, which is now a popular avenue for people — particularly in Generation Z and younger — to receive content. The fact that LO learned of this joke reflects how he, and others, have the ability to obtain and spread folklore easily on the internet. Since the premodern era, where folklore was spread person-to-person, culture slowly became concentrated into fewer hands after the introduction of the Gutenberg printing press in c. 1440 CE and large-scale businesses produced content which was unidirectionally transferred to consumers. In the postmodern era following c. 2000, this producer-consumer relationship shifted back into a person-to-person spread of culture as the internet democratized avenues for producing and sharing content. Twitch, though a means for one producer to reach a mass of consumers, is a more democratized platform than the publishing houses of the modern era for creators to share culture. LO learned the joke from Twitch, and subsequently uses the resources of the postmodern internet era to “spam” his friends with the joke, a technique of rapidly resending the same message which is popular in the postmodern era as an annoying joke in its own right. LO’s preference of this inoffensive joke reflects a growing sentiment amongst Americans, particularly in Generation Z and younger, to avoid blazon populaire and other jokes which may offend certain groups. This is reflected in trends like cancel culture where such jokes and behavior are punished through mass boycott of popular creators and media.

“Where does the Ocean Lay to Sleep?” Joke

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

Text

The informant’s demeanor was theatrical, adding to the comedy of the situation. It was overly fanciful, which made it evident that the joke they were planning to tell was something rather simple in structure and recitation.

“Where does the ocean lay to sleep?” they asked, prompting me for a response of some sort.

“Where?” I asked.

They grinned, genuinely a bit proud. “On the seabed.”

Context

RELATIONSHIP –
They stated that they hate the piece, but it happened to be the first joke that came to mind when they searched their brain for jokes that they knew. They wanted to tell another joke, but simply couldn’t think of one.

WHERE THEY HEARD IT –
The informant found the joke out-of-place in a “knock-knock” joke book they owned as a child.

USE OR INTERPRETATION –
They interpret the joke as a play on words. Specifically, they said “My interpretation of the joke is that it’s funny because the ‘seabed’ is obviously the floor of the sea… so where the ocean sleeps– well the ocean doesn’t sleep– which is, you know, it’s interesting and it’s fun to imagine: if it did sleep, where would it sleep? Naturally, on the seabed which is also a play on the English word of where we usually sleep: bed.”

Analysis

The joke is effective due to its play on words specifically in conjunction with the English language. It’s simple and easy to understand for an English speaker as a joke that places emphasis on having a double meaning. The joke personifies an inanimate object– the ocean– to provoke the audience’s imagination without immediately giving away the answer. The resulting punchline is easy to understand and is thus satisfying for the audience. “Seabed” is a rudimentary word in the English language that works in fulfilling the audience’s active imagination as they picture a personified ocean sleeping on the ocean floor.

Knock-Knock Joke with a twist

Nationality: USA
Age: 19
Occupation: Student of USC
Residence: Thousand Oaks
Performance Date: 2/20/2023
Primary Language: English

Background: A traditional American Joke with a prequel to build up the punchline.

Person1: “Why did the chicken cross the road?”
Person2: “I don’t know, why did the chicken cross the road?”
Person1: “To get to the idiot’s house”

Person1: “Knock-Knock!”
Person2: “Who’s there?”
Person1: “The chicken”

Informant: This is a cruel joke that I was the unfortunate victim of in my youth.

Analysis: As a non-American, this is the first knock-knock joke that I found funny. Knock-knock jokes are usually meant for children and the informant confirmed that they heard about this from their elementary school friend when they were young

Elephant Baseball Joke

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: USC Student Housing
Performance Date: 2/20/23
Primary Language: English

Main Performance:

BH: What do you do to an elephant with three balls?

Me: What?

BH: You walk him and pitch to the rhino.

Me: *Chuckling* I don’t get it

BH: It’s a baseball joke.

Me: OH haha… that’s good I like it!

Context: The informant is from San Diego and remembers hearing this joke as a child from his dad. He also didn’t get it at first, so his Dad told it to him multiple times.

Thoughts/Analysis: This joke plays upon many themes that are present in both American and global culture. Firstly, the set up sets the expectation for the listener that the joke is going to be a dirty one, as any use of the word balls in the context of a joke is most likely going to mean testicles. The punchline, however, works because it subverts the expectation of what “balls” mean in the first place. Additionally, it conjures up the idea that an elephant is playing baseball, which is an absurd and silly idea. The joke also relies upon the listener to be a baseball fan, or at least have base level knowledge of the rules, in order to understand that a fourth ball would be a “walk”. One last thing about this joke is that it contains the idea that those on the same team would be animals from the same region, perhaps alluding to American tendencies to have communities of similar ethnic origin.

“Pete and Repeat were on a boat. Pete jumped off. Who was left?”

Performance Date: February 17th, 2023

SM is an environmental studies major at USC. She grew up in Dallas, Texas. Her mother used to tell her jokes all the time when she was younger, and she would pass them off to the other kids at school.

“Pete and repeat were on a boat. Pete jumped off. Who was left?” “Repeat.” “Pete and repeat were on a boat. Pete jumped off. Who was left?” “Repeat.” “Pete and repeat were on a boat. Pete jumped off. Who was left?” “Repeat.” On, and on, and on.

Catch riddles are popular with children because they make them think they are outsmarting others. With this catch riddle, the joke is that the person hearing the joke will believe they’re answering the question correctly, only for it to be repeated. This goes on and on until they realize that not only are they answering the question, but they are in turn, asking the question to be told again. SM loved telling this catch riddle to people at her school because she liked when they got angry that she kept having to repeat herself. These riddles make children think they are smarter than their peers, just like SM thought.