All folklore tells us something about society, culture & way human mind works
Categories help order & structure reality, but they’re messy (overlap)
Transcending categories is necessary to adapt, learn, innovate, questions reality
Focus of riddles: fundamental intellectual process (symbolically powerful)
Speech puzzle – depends on METAPHOR – point out relations between categories (blur boundaries) – joins 2 disparate, even contradictory entities; borderline where 2 opposites meet & are joined
Essence: mirror the situation and symbolically express process taking place
Situational AREAS (when they are told/used):
1. Leisure-time riddling to entertain
2. In folk narratives
3. Greeting formula
4. Educational context (teacher to student)
5. Courting (test of worthiness)
6. Rituals (esp initiation & death)
Examples of Riddles at http://rec-puzzles.org/riddles.html & http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~wwu/riddles/intro.shtml & http://www.telacommunications.com/misc/riddles.htm
PROVERBS
Traditional statement passed on in fixed form by oral transmission & assumed to convey ethnical or philosophical truth (or wise observation)
Shorthand for cultural agreed-upon ideas, often with a rhetorical function
Often metaphorical
Can reveal & support a culture’s morality, values, attitudes
American proverbs -- speech undermines values (context is key)
Examples of Proverbs at http://www.manythings.org/proverbs/ (in puzzle form) & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proverb (from many countries)
JOKES
A form of humor intended to make us laugh, smile, enjoy, groan, shudder, and contemplate.
There are many forms (or sub-genres) of jokes including:
Narratives, One-liners, Question-and-Answer, Puns, Jests, & Practical
There are also many types of jokes including:
bar jokes, yo' momma jokes, sick jokes, dirty jokes, blonde jokes, ethnic jokes, elephant jokes, sexist jokes, religious jokes, shaggy dog stories, light bulb jokes, etc.
Many jokes revolve around appropriate incongruity
Jokes can have simple or complex structure and surface and deep meanings.
Oring discusses these three levels of meaning in jokes:
Base meaning cannot be formulated as statements – oppositions (only 1)
Propositional meaning proceed from base but incorporate aspects of “plot” & specific content elements (many possible)
Performance meaning discernible in situations of performance in relation to tellers, audiences, settings, interactions (innumberable)
Jokes deal w/ situations of unspeakability because they conjoin the unspeakable, incongruous universe to a speakable one
Disaster jokes: rebel vs world defined by media; battle for control of discourse about death & disaster (can’t be readily coopted)
A priori interpretations suspect
JOKES (like & unlike dreams). Jokes intelligible & conscious
SOME SAMPLE JOKES
Katrina (disaster) joke
Q: What's
George Bush's position on Roe v. Wade?
A: He really doesn't care how people get out of New
Orleans.
PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION JOKES
(A few examples)
BAD JOKE
How do you tell the difference between boy chromosomes and
girl chromosomes? You pull down their genes.
QUESTION JOKE
Q: Why did the golfer wear two pairs of pants? A: In case he got a hole in one.
BLONDE JOKE
Q: Why are blonde jokes so short? A: So men can remember them.
BAWDY JOKE
A little girl sits on Santa's lap at the department store. He asks, "What would you like for Christmas?" She thinks a moment and replies, "A Barbie and a GI Joe." Santa says, "Barbie doesn't come with GI Joe, she comes with Ken." The child says, "No, she comes with GI Joe, she just fakes it with Ken."
Q: What does a sexy linguist wear to the beach ? A: A dipthong.
BAR JOKES
A set of jumper cables walks into a bar and orders a drink.
The bartender looks the jumper cables over slowly and says, " I'll get you your
drink, but you better not start anything".
A guy walks into a bar and orders a drink. After a few more he needs to go to the can. He doesn't want anyone to steal his drink so he puts a sign on it saying, "I spat in this beer, do not drink!". After a few minutes he returns and there is another sign next to his beer saying, "So did I!"
Three vampires walk into a bar and sit down at a
table. The waitress comes over and asks the first vampire what he would like.
The first vampire responds, "I vould like some blood." The waitress turns to the
second vampire and asks what he would like. The vampire responds, "I vould like
some blood." The waitress turns to the third vampire and asks what he would
like. The vampire responds, "I vould like some plasma."
The waitress looks up and says, "Let me see if I have this order correct. You
want two bloods and a blood light?
An Irish man walks into a bar. The bartender looks at him and notices he has a steering wheel stuck down the front of his pants. "Hey," he says, "What's with the steering wheel down your pants?" "Ach," says the Irish man, "it's drivin' me nuts!"
LIGHTBULB JOKES
How many professors does it takes to screw in a lightbulb?
--One -- he just holds it and the whole world turns around it.
How many folklorists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
--Three -- one to do the deed, and two to record it and analyze it.
How many surrealists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
--Fish
How many Goth kids does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
--None, they
just sit and cry in the dark.
How many feminists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
--That's not funny!
How many voyeurs does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
--One, but he'd rather watch someone else do it.
How many Floridians does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
--They're still counting
How many Marxists does it take to
screw in a light bulb?
--None, the seeds of revolution and change are within the lightbulb itself.
How many paranoids does it take to
screw in a lightbulb?
--Who wants to know? Huh?
How many mutants does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
--Two thirds
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