Tag Archives: Joke

The Unique Rabbit

Nationality: American
Age: 24
Occupation: University Administrator
Residence: Auckland, NZ
Performance Date: March 26, 2016
Primary Language: English

The informant is a new professional in post-secondary administration. He lives in New Zealand, but he is originally from Apple Valley, California and went to university at the University of California, Irvine, where he was involved in student affairs and studied computer science. His background is Italian and Polish, and he has 3 older siblings.

This piece is a joke that the informant finds rather corny, but is his sister’s favorite.

“So my sister’s favorite joke is, um…I almost forgot it for a second [laughs]. How do you catch a unique rabbit?”

I don’t know. How do you catch a unique rabbit?

“Unique up on it!”

Okay. Is that it?

“No, there’s more. Uh, how do you catch a tame rabbit?”

I don’t know. How do you catch a tame rabbit?

“Tame way, unique up on it.”

[laughs] Okay, I get it. Very clever.

“I have another joke also. So how do you catch a common rabbit?”

I don’t know, you tell me.

“Common, tame way! Unique up on it.”

Do you know where your sister got the joke?

“Actually, I do. She was on a cross country road trip. So she got super Catholic in college, and so she went on a cross country road trip for, like, something, I don’t remember what. And she learned it from that from one of the other people who was on her bus with her.”

Analysis:

This joke is a very “American” joke in a lot of ways—it’s driven not just by the first punchline, but by how each added part of the joke builds on the original to a final punchline, the culmination of the rest of the joke. The humor is found in punchline rather than in the build up. As is common in Abrahamic cultures, the joke is told in three parts, with the third being the final destination.

The joke also relies on the recipient having a strong grasp of the English language, as each of the punchlines makes use of words that sound vaguely similar—“unique” and “you sneak,” “tame” and “same,” and “common” and “come on.” The first one in particular could be challenging for anyone who is not a native speaker of the language.

The Louvre Heist

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 9, 2016
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish, Italian

The informant is a second year student at the University of Southern California, studying History. He is from Chicago, IL, and he lived abroad in Rome when he was younger. At USC, he is involved with student affairs and television production.

This piece is one of the informant’s favorite jokes.

“A bunch of art thieves are escaping from the Louvre, and they’ve stolen millions of dollars worth of art, and they’re in this van. So they’re chasing down Paris, you know the cops are right behind them, and news camera are watching them, the eyes of the world are glued to these art thieves. And then, they pull into a gas station, and suddenly stop. The police cars pull right up to them, and encircle them, and boom! They caught ‘em.

So the reporters descend on them like vultures on a corpse, and they’re like, “Why didn’t you just get away? You were, you were by far like, you were gonna make it home free, you were not going to get caught, et cetera. The lead ringleader just looks at the reporter and he says [the informant adopts a French accent], “Uh, ve didn’t have de monay for de gas to make de van go.””

Analysis:

This joke has a long, narrative build up compared to a relatively short punchline. While the joke could still be told effectively in a question and answer format, it is clear that the informant gets a lot of enjoyment from setting the stage and describing a more elaborate and vivid setup. The punchline plays on the slight alterations in English pronunciation by native French speakers as well as the play on words—“monay” with “Monet,” “de gas” with “Degas,” and “van go” with “Van Gogh.” The setting contextualizes the joke further, providing the foundation for the French and art references in the joke.

 

Tomato Joke

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Primary Language: English

Informant: A baby tomato, a mom tomato, and a dad tomato were on a walk, and the mom and dad went aheaad of the baby tomato, and it was left behind, and the papa went over and smashed it and yelled, “Catch up!”

Collector: Where’d you hear that from?

Informant: My friend grace.

 

Informant is a freshman at the University of Southern California. She is studying Theater Arts in the School of Dramatic Arts here. She is from Austin Texas. I spoke to her while we were eating lunch at my sorority house. Much of what she told me was learned from her sister or her own experiences.

 

This is a good piece of folklore because the joke relies on a punchline that is a play on words. This might be difficult for some people to understand if they’re not familiar with Ketchup, so this joke may be restricted to certain places in the world with access to this specific product.

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

There is a very common joke: “Why did the chicken cross the road?”

Usually, it’s followed by the answer: “To get to the other side.”

From that joke, there has been many other jokes that stemmed from the joke, such as: “Why did the chicken cross the playground?” “To get to the other slide.”

These types of literal jokes are called anti-jokes, in which the punchline is not a clever play on words, but a literal, mundane answer.

For reference of the first time this joke was published, please see: The Knickerbocker, or The New York Monthly, March 1847, p. 283.

Knock-Knock Anti-Joke

Nationality: USA
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: USC
Performance Date: April 29, 2015
Primary Language: English
Language: Hebrew

“There’s this stupid knock-knock joke that my friend always did to me, and I kind of picked up on it and I do it all the time now. It just goes like this:”

 

Him: Okay lemme tell you this knock-knock joke.

 

Me: Okay, go for it.

 

Him: No but you have to start it.

 

Me: *looks puzzled* Wait what?

 

Him: Yeah you just start the joke!

 

Me: Uhhhh….. okay then, knock-knock?

 

Him: Who’s there?

 

Me: …………

 

*Awkward-but-hilarious silence ensues*

 

“So yeah that’s pretty much it, it’s kind of an anti-joke. I honestly don’t know why it’s so hilarious to me but it just is. I guess because it just makes the other person so confused and uncomfortable when they suddenly realize that the joke makes no sense whatsoever.”


This one is from one of my friends who’s lived in California his whole life and has pretty much been a joke-teller for all of his life. This is one of my personal favorites of his jokes, so I really wanted to include it. He said that he just learned it from one of his friends in elementary school, and it’s been a staple of his for years. Additionally, he said that the joke always entertains him and brings some joy to the atmosphere because of the confused reactions he gets.