Tag Archives: Joke

Jokes about Cows (and your mom)

Text

What do you call a cow with no legs? (Pause) Ground beef.
What do you call a cow with three legs? (Pause) Lean beef.
What do you call a cow with two legs? (Extra long pause) Your mom.

Context

AL – I like to collect jokes, specifically puns, on various topics so that no matter what situation I am currently in, I can say, “Oh, I know a joke about that!” I have found that most people have a love/hate relationship with puns; they tend to love telling them and hate hearing them. I mostly tell puns to family and friends, and their anger and frustration fuels me. Though my friends groan and sigh every time they hear a pun, they will still send me any good ones that they find. I also find puns on various social media platforms, in books, and on the occasional popsicle stick. Any time that I find or am sent a pun that I like, I write it in a book that I keep specifically for this purpose. My very favorite kinds of puns are the ones that are long and drawn out, ones that are a paragraph, maybe two, and you get to the end and the last line is a clever pun that uses many elements of the story that came before it. My second favorite kinds of puns are the short rude/dirty ones, because in addition to the reaction you get for any other pun, you also get the shock reaction from the vulgarity. I save the more risqué puns for close friends, as I don’t want to offend the delicate sensibilities of people that I don’t know very well.

Analysis

The three jokes must be told together. The first two are just generally in the category of “bad” jokes meant to get the listener to roll their eyes. Then there is a third joke, completing the rule of thirds, where two similar jokes feels like an unfinished trio, and four feels like too many. This third joke must be told last, because, as the rule of thirds often signifies, something unexpected happens in the third occurrence. The extra long pause the informant adds between the set-up and the punchline amplifies this expectation. The third joke is expected to be another eye-rolling joke, but it turns out to bring the trilogy into the genre of “your mom” jokes.

Grace

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: May 29, 2022
Primary Language: English

Context: Z. grew up in Los Angeles and is currently a student at university.

Z: “There is a joke that my family always makes that you know you know the people would always say grace before a meal, someone will always say ‘let’s say grace’ and someone will say ‘grace’ and we will start eating.”

Reflection: I think that this is a great example of how traditions can be adapted and changed for a different purpose. The tradition of saying ‘grace’ before eating was no longer used by the family and is now referred to for comedy and remembrance.

2B

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: California
Performance Date: April 28th, 2022
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English

“So like as you know there are like a million ways to call someone a dumbass on the internet. One way I like to is the phrase, ‘you are second in numbers and in letters’ which is Two-B. 

Chinese: 屄

Phonetic: bī

Transliteration: c*nt

Translation: ass, general expletive

has a negative meaning already, but it also sounds, like, phonetically stupid I guess. Then people started adding the word stupid in front of that. But, then, I think it’s because of internet censorship, which doesn’t allow people to insult each other explicitly. So people started saying two-bī to insult each other. And, I think, it might be just a historical reference that two has a negative meaning or it has an insult towards someone’s intelligence level but I think that’s how it comes as the word two-bī and now it frequently used by a lot of people.” 

Context:

Informant (ZZ) is a student aged 19 from Shanghai, China. He attended high school in the U.S. and currently goes to USC. This piece was collected during an interview over dinner in the dining hall. He learned the saying from friends and the internet. He believes, “it express the great intellectual ability of the Chinese people that we use our language so well that we can insult people with anything that we want.”

Interpretation:

Beyond the interpretation offered by ZZ, this story also demonstrates the growing influence of English in China. The insult phrase requires knowledge of the Roman alphabet in order to work. Additionally, it demonstrates a desire to resist internet censorship by the Chinese Government. The government can’t censor everything, and this insult, like the grass mud horse mentioned elsewhere, demonstrates a desire by Chinese netizens to circumvent censorship.

Grass Mud Horse

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: California
Performance Date: April 28th, 2022
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English

Text:

“The grass mud horse I think first emerged in like a videogame. They play it very smart. They use words that sound very–like they use the word grass mud horse in Chinese, which is a normal name for like a llama, but it shares the same pronunciation as like f*ck your mom in Chinese so it was kind of in–it was kind of like cursing but kind of not directly kind of way. So if you say it:

Chinese: 草泥马
Phonetic: Cǎonímǎ
Transliteration: grass mud horse
Translation: llama

grass mud horse in Chinese it basically means

Chinese: 操你妈
Phonetic: cào nǐ mā
Transliteration: f*ck you mother
Translation: f*ck your mom

or f*ck your mom.”

Context:

Informant (ZZ) is a student aged 19 from Shanghai, China. He attended high school in the U.S. and currently goes to USC. This piece was collected during an interview over dinner in the dining hall. He first learned this from a videogame, where a llama was a character, and he has also seen it online. To him, it “represents the great creativity in the Chinese language.”

Interpretation:

In addition to the sentiments expressed by (ZZ), this insult/joke also demonstrates a desire to circumvent government censorship. Much like 2B, the Chinese netizens seek to create new folklore as a result of Chinese internet censorship.

Guatemala a Guatepeor

TEXT: “Guatemala a Guatepeor”

INFORMANT DESCRIPTION: Female, 42, Mexican

CONTEXT: My friend said this phrase while referring to her old boyfriend and her new boyfriend. She said that she had gone from “Guatemala a Guatepeor”, I laughed and asked what that meant. Although it was kind of self-explanatory. She learned this phrase from her other female Mexican friends. She finds it very funny and useful, when referring to going from bad to worse.

ANALYSIS: There is a hierarchy between Latin countries and certain bias. So the use of Guatemala as if that is a step down (from Mexico) but then a play on words since the end of Guatemala, is “mala” which means bad, and then the change to Guatepeor, where “peor” means worse. Indicating you went from bad to worse while inserting some latin hierarchy bias.

ORIGINAL SCRIPT: “Guatemala a Guatepeor”

TRANSLITERATION: “Goo-ah-teh-mah-lah ah Goo-ah-teh-peh-or”

TRANSLATION: “Guate(bad) to Guate(worse)”

THOUGHTS: I thought this phrase was very funny since I speak Spanish and it is such a fast jab that is both funny and descriptive.