Tag Archives: Joke

Ironic Doctor Joke

Nationality: Iranian-American
Age: 77
Occupation: Small Business Owner
Residence: La Canada, CA, USA
Performance Date: March 12, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Persian/Farsi

Would you mind sharing a joke from your childhood with me?

“This is a joke that my dad, uhh, told me. Uhh… [tells the joke in Farsi, but the phonetics are muddled in the recording.]

The English translation is that my dad told me that ‘Whenever you get sick, be sure to go to the doctor. Uhh… Because, you know, the doctor has to make a living, he has to live. So when you go to the doctor, make sure you get a prescription, and take it to the pharmacist, and get your, you know, get your medication, because the pharmacist has to make a living too, he has to live also. And when you get your prescription, make sure you don’t take it yourself, because you want to live, too!'”

And what was the context that that would be delivered in, like, why was that a joke, why was that funny?

“Uhh, generally, everybody’s out there to make a living, you know, but you want to make sure it’s not at your expense. So you’re not a, uhh, sacrificial lamb for everyone else to make a living.”

Analysis: Keeping with the trend of cautionary proverbs and stories, this ironic joke from MB explains through humor that not everyone, even often-trusted authorities, ought to be trusted outright. With Masood’s background growing up poor in Iran, this may make some sense, but it is interesting to note how often distrust or wariness comes up in the lessons that he and Tahereh were taught when they were growing up.

Hands Mean Cancer?

Nationality: Chinese and Korean
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: California
Performance Date: 4/11/16
Primary Language: English

The Main Piece
“If your hand is bigger than your face then it means you have cancer.” After hearing that one usually puts their hand in front of their face and the performer slaps the performee with their own hand.
Background Information
My informant is my roommate, Sarah Kwan. She is an undergraduate at USC and considers herself a hilarious person making people laugh at the jokes she tells. She enjoys telling this joke because she feels it is a “old-school classic.” She can recall when her own friend pulled the joke on her when she was in high school and has used it to prank others ever since. It was a good way for her to make groups of people laugh, although it did not work all the time. Because of its “classic”-ness many people had heard of it and did not find it amusing, however she continues to use it despite naysayers’ attitudes.
Context
This joke was performed in front of me and a couple other of my roommates. Unfortunately, many of my roommates did not particularly enjoy the joke, but it was an ice breaker as we half heartedly laughed at the joke. This may have occurred because of the fact that we were only a couple of weeks into the school year and did not know each other too well.
Personal Thoughts
I felt her attempt to break the ice with this joke had good intentions even if it did not work out the way she expected it to. It also revealed to me the usefulness of a joke and how these joke would get passed down from person to person, not necessarily being told by one another as stories are, but in the way that pranks are pulled on each other, thus creating a chain reaction of jokes or pranks.

Making Fun of the Portuguese (From Brazil)

Nationality: Brazilian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Sao Paulo Brazil
Performance Date: April 5 2016
Primary Language: Portuguese
Language: English

Title: The Portuguese Joke (from Brazil)

Interviewee: Rafael Blay

Ethnicity: Brazilian

Age: 19

Situation (Location, ambience, gathering of people?): In his room in Webb, with 3 other friends playing video games in the background. It was a Thursday in April, all the work done for the week, so spirits were high. The interviewee sat on his bed to recount some tales and such.

Piece of Folklore:

Interviewee- “You ask a Portuguese person if they have the time. He says yes.”

Analyzation:

This joke and all the humor targeted towards the Portuguese seem to speak for itself. The humor is target towards the country that once “owned” them, the country that started them as a colony. This phenomena is common amoung all colonies, much like Americans make fun of British people, and Mexicans make fun of Spaniards. The jokes always seem to center around their people being silly or stupid, and just generally not in touch with the modern day and in touch with the average person. Remaining hatred left from colonialism is probably the reason for that type of humor. And generation to generation, that humor is then passed down and repeated, until you end up with the jokes of today.

Tags: Joke, Brazil, Portuguese

And That’s Why the Bear Lost It’s Tail

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/27/16
Primary Language: English

Piece:

“Do you have any Romanian proverbs?”

Well there’s this Romanian story about how the bear lost it’s tail. I don’t remember how it goes, but I remember it, because every time I did something that disappoint my mom, she would look at me and go ‘And that’s why the bear lost its tail’

“Does it have an exact meaning”

It does in Romanian, but that’s how it’s translated–it doesn’t really make the same sense in English.

Informant & Context:

My informant is a student at the university of southern California, originally from Sammamish, Washington and of Romanian descent. She described her family as very Americanized. This proverb originates from a Romanian origin myth about why the bear has no tail.

Thoughts:

It’s interesting to me that the informant does not actually remember the story, but simply the title—which has become a proverb in her family (if it was not already one). Aside from that, it doesn’t really have a direct meaning, instead it is more a vague association with shame and disappointment. It sounded like the phrase was used to be comedic—as more of a punch line.

Aggie Joke

Nationality: Irish-American
Age: 76
Occupation: Homemaker
Residence: Dallas, Texas
Performance Date: March 15, 2016
Primary Language: English
Language: n/a

“The Aggie Joke would be: How many Aggies does it take to change a lightbulb?

And the answer is: One, plus twelve to turn the ladder.

 

And this has an interesting context to me because polish jokes were the same, or very similar. For example, in the lexicon of south-side of Chicago, it would be how many “polacks” does it take to change a ladder. That was how people used to take before political correctness. I grew up in Chicago and of course and it was very ethnically divided and intense city like New York, or many other places in the country where a lot of immigrants came, and there were a lot of specific neighborhoods: the Polish neighborhood, the Lithuanian neighborhood, the Italian neighborhood, the Irish neighborhood, and they all had their own Church, and if you were Polish you didn’t walk across a couple of streets to go to the Italian Church and everybody kind of kept in their own little neighborhood or enclave. And back in the day, when I was growing up, of course political correctness had not reared its head, and so it was very common and not really thought much of for people to refer to people of other nationalities in a way that would today be considered horrible. You would never today call an Italian person a “dago”, you wouldn’t call an Irish person a “mick” you wouldn’t call a Jewish person a “kike,” but that was very common back then and nobody thought much of it, so that kind of language is no longer acceptable.”

 

Informant: the informant was born in Chicago, and attended high school and college there, graduating with a degree in English. After marrying and having one child, she moved to Dallas, Texas where she raised three children with her husband. She is of Irish descent, her father being from Ireland, and her mother was born in Wisconsin after her parents moved from Ireland, and her heritage and tradition are very important to her. She is a grandmother of five children.

 

Analysis:

To me, it seems like the cultural context of this joke is well-captured by the informant. Aggies, which is a name given to those who attend Texas A&M University, are usually considered to be their own group of people. If you attend A&M, as people refer to it in Texas, you are an Aggie and are now associated with that group of people. There has long been a rivalry between the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M, a rivalry that could have given way to Aggie jokes.

It is fitting that the Aggie joke fits that of the Polish joke that the informant, who is seventy-six years old, was used to. The joke was meant to be derogatory toward a specific group of people. Within the context of the informant’s age it was the Polish group, because this was a time in Chicago when ethnic groups kept to themselves and formed groups and lived in the same neighborhoods. Because it is meant to point-out how one group is slow-witted, this joke is especially belittling.

Therefore, in the state of Texas, it is no surprise that such a joke would be made with the Aggies as the subject. This is due to the rivalry with the University of Texas, because it has often been understood that it is harder to get into the University of Texas than Texas A&M, giving way to “dumb Aggie” jokes like this one. To me, this emphasizes how a joke pointed at one group can be changed to target another group, thereby continuing to be popular despite the changing times. Although it is no longer directed at Polish groups, this joke is still able to be told because it points at Aggies, something that is culturally accepted, especially in Texas. This demonstrates how a joke can keep its basic framework but vary in context and change to fit the modern culture.