Reber 1 Riddle: When Is a Joke not a Joke? When it is a Dart, a ...
Reber 1 Riddle: When Is a Joke not a Joke? When it is a Dart, a ...
Reber 1 Riddle: When Is a Joke not a Joke? When it is a Dart, a ...
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<strong>Riddle</strong>: <strong>When</strong> <strong>Is</strong> a <strong>Joke</strong> <strong>not</strong> a <strong>Joke</strong>?<br />
<strong>When</strong> <strong>it</strong> <strong>is</strong> a <strong>Dart</strong>, a Revolution, or a Good Way to Tell Innies From Outties<br />
Ed <strong>Reber</strong><br />
<strong>Reber</strong> 1<br />
A couple had been married for about 40 years, and the wife was beginning to have some<br />
health problems. They were <strong>not</strong> life threatening, but they did remind her that life <strong>is</strong> fragile. One<br />
day, depressed, she asked her husband, “Honey, if I were to die, would you remarry?” He<br />
replied, “Oh, don’t be silly. Don’t start thinking about dying. You are going to be fine.” But she<br />
pressed, “I know, but really, do you think you would remarry?” He said, “Th<strong>is</strong> <strong>is</strong> silly to talk<br />
about, but I guess I might. But we shouldn’t be talking like th<strong>is</strong>.” She reflected a moment,<br />
“Maybe <strong>it</strong>’s silly, but I’ve been wondering. If you remarried, would you live w<strong>it</strong>h her here–in our<br />
house?” Again he protested, “Don’t you think th<strong>is</strong> kind of talk will just make you more<br />
depressed?” “Please tell me,” she urged. “Well,” he said, “<strong>it</strong>’s hard to say, but I love our home,<br />
so I suppose we would live here.” She pressed on, “Do you think you would even sleep in our<br />
bed, where we have slept together?” He replied, “Honey, I guess we would. I love that bed, and I<br />
would <strong>not</strong> want to throw <strong>it</strong> out.” The wife asked, “Would you let her just take over; would you<br />
let her use my golf clubs?” “No,” the husband replied, “I wouldn’t do that.” “Why <strong>not</strong>?”<br />
“Because she’s left handed.” Think of the effect of th<strong>is</strong> if you told <strong>it</strong> in a straightforward way.<br />
Th<strong>is</strong> woman was very ill and thought she was dying. While she was talking to her husband about<br />
what would happen if she died, she found out he already had planned who he would marry if she<br />
died.<br />
I have been d<strong>is</strong>cussing jokes and riddles in folklore classes for over 20 years, but I always
<strong>Reber</strong> 2<br />
felt I was never close to a real understanding of jokes. Why do humans create and enjoy humor?<br />
Why <strong>is</strong> <strong>it</strong> that something <strong>is</strong> funny? I decided to see if I could find some answers. I have <strong>not</strong> found<br />
exhaustive, certain answers to my questions. In fact, I feel now as a student did as he fin<strong>is</strong>hed my<br />
ethics class a few years ago. After the final, he thanked me for the class and gave me a <strong>not</strong>e that<br />
read: “I am more confused as I leave th<strong>is</strong> course than I was when I came into <strong>it</strong>, but I feel that I<br />
am now confused about more important things than I used to be.”<br />
To see how my research applies to humor, I will first share some b<strong>it</strong>s of humor w<strong>it</strong>h you,<br />
humor of various types, <strong>not</strong> merely jokes. Second, we will look at two competing theories about<br />
the functions and structure of humor, third, we will <strong>not</strong>e some dangers of sex<strong>is</strong>t humor, and,<br />
finally, we will examine a variety of uses for ethnic humor.<br />
Smatterings of humor<br />
The first b<strong>it</strong> of humor occurred in 1967, while I was s<strong>it</strong>ting in a final exam in Orson<br />
Spencer Hall, scratching my head and trying to say something brilliant about T.S. Eliot’s “The<br />
Wasteland,” or at least give the impression that I had understood <strong>it</strong>. The class and the building<br />
were absolutely silent. Suddenly, out in the hallway a young man w<strong>it</strong>h a booming tenor voice<br />
began singing, “We shall overcome, We shall overcome, We shall overcome, someday . . .” As<br />
the singing began, we all looked up and turned our heads to the door in aston<strong>is</strong>hment. Then the<br />
entire class burst into laughter. Why? What was so amusing about hearing that song that we had<br />
only heard before in connection w<strong>it</strong>h the grief and courage of those in the serious struggle for civil<br />
rights? Later, we will look at a theory of humor that may tell us what caused the humor.<br />
Let’s now look at a couple of jokes made at the expense of blondes. So, why do you
marry a blonde? So you can park in the handicap parking space. Or, why couldn’t the blonde<br />
<strong>Reber</strong> 3<br />
double her cookie recipe. Her oven didn’t go up to 700 degrees. Blonde jokes are similar to jokes<br />
we call ethnic jokes. E<strong>it</strong>her of these jokes could be told of Pollacks, Norwegians, or BYU coeds.<br />
We will also look at what theories tell us about such jokes.<br />
And a last type of humor, two riddles: <strong>When</strong> <strong>is</strong> a door <strong>not</strong> a door? <strong>When</strong> <strong>it</strong>’s ajar. How<br />
do you get down from an elephant? You don’t; you get down from a goose.<br />
Now, let me share some observations, ideas, and theories about humor that perhaps can<br />
help explain how we respond to jokes and humorous incidents.<br />
Biology of Humor<br />
Science has given us new insights about humor. In 2000, the journal Behavioral Brain<br />
Research reported that rats responded w<strong>it</strong>h playful nips and ultrasonic chirps when psycholog<strong>is</strong>ts<br />
tickle their ribs and bellies. The rats that chirped loudest were also the most eager to be tickled.<br />
More interesting, when these tickl<strong>is</strong>h rats were interbred for four generations the offspring chirped<br />
twice as often as their great-grandparents” (qtd. in Johnson 24).<br />
Some studies have even located the spot in the brain where humor <strong>is</strong> perceived. Scient<strong>is</strong>ts<br />
d<strong>is</strong>covered that those w<strong>it</strong>h damage to their right frontal lobes had defective senses of humor.<br />
Oddly, the could still answer logical puzzles, but could <strong>not</strong> pick out the punchline of a joke<br />
(Johnson 24).<br />
Theories of Humor<br />
St. Augustine, wr<strong>it</strong>ing in the 4 th and 5 th centuries A.D., accounts for how Chr<strong>is</strong>tians can<br />
respond to jokes that are generally lies. <strong>Joke</strong>s apparently violate the “Thou shalt <strong>not</strong><br />
lie”commandment. But St. Augustine sensed that jokes are like other art<strong>is</strong>tic expressions that, as
Picasso says, are lies that can reveal a truth. St. Augustine says we must treat jokes differently<br />
<strong>Reber</strong> 4<br />
than other lies, “‘<strong>Joke</strong>s should never be accounted lies, seeing they bear w<strong>it</strong>h them in the tone of<br />
voice, and in the very mood of the joker, a most evident indication that he means no dece<strong>it</strong>,<br />
although the thing he utters be <strong>not</strong> true. . . .A person should <strong>not</strong> be thought to lie, who lieth <strong>not</strong>’”<br />
(qtd. in Sanders 92). <strong>Joke</strong>s, though untrue, were <strong>not</strong> sins since we don’t expect them to be true.<br />
More than ten centuries later, Thomas Hobbes, in h<strong>is</strong> Leviathan, further defined and<br />
developed a theory of humor. In 1651 he wrote, “Sudden glory <strong>is</strong> the passion which makes those<br />
grimaces called laughter, and <strong>is</strong> caused e<strong>it</strong>her by some sudden act of their own that pleases them<br />
or by the apprehension of some deformed thing in a<strong>not</strong>her, by compar<strong>is</strong>on whereof they suddenly<br />
applaud themselves” (57). He says we find humor when we suddenly realize we are superior or<br />
when we see a blind, deformed, stupid, or lame person.<br />
There <strong>is</strong> truth here. H<strong>is</strong> theory accounts for a lot of what we see happening among<br />
elementary children and adolescents. Many children spend time teasing, humiliating, and applying<br />
ep<strong>it</strong>hets to others such as “s<strong>is</strong>sy,” “dumbbell,” “fatty,” “gay,” and worse; they take pleasure at<br />
“put downs.” We like to say “na-na, na-na, na-na” when we are “one up” on someone. Although<br />
Hobbes’ theory describes a real<strong>it</strong>y we all can recognize, I am <strong>not</strong> sat<strong>is</strong>fied that he accounted for<br />
all occasions of humor. Hobbes’ account of humor emphasizes the suddenness of apprehension,<br />
which <strong>is</strong> a necessary part of a joke’s capac<strong>it</strong>y to make us laugh, though <strong>not</strong> necessarily a part of<br />
an amusing anecdote.<br />
One of h<strong>is</strong> modern day supporters says, “[. . .]all of these theories [about humor] can be<br />
classified into two groups: those that do, and those that do <strong>not</strong> agree w<strong>it</strong>h the theory of<br />
seventeenth-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes”(Gruner 13). Th<strong>is</strong> theory of humor, beginning
<strong>Reber</strong> 5<br />
w<strong>it</strong>h Hobbes and continuing to our time, says that humor <strong>is</strong> a way that we show ourselves to be<br />
superior or make others seem inferior. Th<strong>is</strong> attempt to make others appear inferior may account<br />
for the blonde jokes, for example.<br />
One reason that Hobbes’ theory <strong>is</strong> held so strongly today <strong>is</strong> <strong>it</strong>s essence was re<strong>it</strong>erated in<br />
th<strong>is</strong> century by Sigmund Freud. H<strong>is</strong> lyrics were a l<strong>it</strong>tle different, but the tune was the same. A<br />
modern folklor<strong>is</strong>t and humor scholar has observed, “two major theories have held sway in the<br />
conceptualization and analys<strong>is</strong> of humor. The better known <strong>is</strong> psychoanalytic theory that was first<br />
formulated by Sigmund Freud in h<strong>is</strong> 1905 classic, <strong>Joke</strong>s and Their Relation to the Unconscious.”<br />
(Oring 1). “Freud’s emphas<strong>is</strong> on the aggressiveness of jokes conveniently corralled earlier<br />
<strong>not</strong>ions that laughter depends upon a sense of superior<strong>it</strong>y or the expression of malice”( Oring 1).<br />
Freud acknowledged that there could be innocent humor, but he argued that most jokes<br />
were hurtful. H<strong>is</strong> theory emphasizes the purposes of a hurtful joke: “There are only two purposes<br />
that <strong>it</strong> may serve [. . . .] It <strong>is</strong> e<strong>it</strong>her a hostile joke (serving the purposes of aggressiveness, satire or<br />
defense) or an obscene joke (serving the purpose of exposure)” (Freud 96-97). As Freud<br />
concluded: "By making our enemy small, inferior, despicable or comic, we achieve in a<br />
roundabout way the enjoyment of overcoming him--to which the third person [the one l<strong>is</strong>tening to<br />
the joke], who has made no efforts, bears w<strong>it</strong>ness by h<strong>is</strong> laughter"(Freud 103).<br />
Freud mentioned a second type of non-innocent joke, an obscene one, but as Elliott Oring<br />
observes, the obscene jokes tend to slide into the aggressive, “In the case of jokes [in Freud’s<br />
theory], these motives are invariably aggressive or sexual, although aggression <strong>is</strong> the more<br />
pervasive of the two; for even sexual motives are transformed into aggressive ones”(Oring 1). A<br />
casual survey of much modern humor seems to support Freud’s theory. Many of us take delight
<strong>Reber</strong> 6<br />
in watching the pratfalls of comedians from Charlie Chaplin to the present. We laugh as the three<br />
stooges tw<strong>is</strong>t each other’s noses and poke fingers in each other’s eyes. We laugh at Jerry Lew<strong>is</strong>’<br />
clumsy spills down stairs and the m<strong>is</strong>haps that ar<strong>is</strong>e in Seinfeld from George’s social ineptness.<br />
And a variety of shows have sprung up to show us home videos of common folk falling in mud,<br />
wrecking bikes, ripping clothes, and experiencing personal d<strong>is</strong>asters. We watch, and we laugh.<br />
Add to th<strong>is</strong> sort of humor the cruel stereotypes portrayed in jokes about Mexicans, Jews, Poles,<br />
Italians, blacks, blondes, and so on. Many jokes do contain hostil<strong>it</strong>y, even if <strong>it</strong> <strong>is</strong> playfully<br />
presented; many jokes delight in the supposed inferior<strong>it</strong>y or deform<strong>it</strong>y of the joke’s target. Hobbes<br />
and Freud have theories that capture the hostil<strong>it</strong>y in what may seem only play.<br />
Or look at the myriad expressions we use to insult, w<strong>it</strong>h humor, someone’s intelligence:<br />
He <strong>is</strong> <strong>not</strong> the sharpest knife in the drawer. She’s got an IQ of about room temperature. He <strong>is</strong> a<br />
few bricks shy of a full load. H<strong>is</strong> elevator doesn’t go all the way to the top. These humorous<br />
insults seem to go down more easily, than the “dumbbell” and “hey, stupid” ep<strong>it</strong>hets many of us<br />
heard and used while young, yet they contain the same hostil<strong>it</strong>y.<br />
There <strong>is</strong> hostil<strong>it</strong>y, too, in jokes told by Utes and Cougars about each other. For example:<br />
How do you get a U. of U. grad off your front porch? Pay him for the pizza. Or, What do you call<br />
a Cougar w<strong>it</strong>h half a brain? Gifted. What do you say to a U. of U. graduate in the three-piece su<strong>it</strong>?<br />
Will the defendant please r<strong>is</strong>e.<br />
There are mult<strong>it</strong>udes of BYU coed jokes that also f<strong>it</strong> hostil<strong>it</strong>y theory. For example: Why<br />
do BYU coeds wear high heels? To keep their knuckles from dragging on the ground. How can<br />
you tell if a BYU coed <strong>is</strong> level headed? She drools out of both sides of her mouth. BYU students<br />
and fans have jokes about Utes. What did the U. of U. student get on h<strong>is</strong> SAT. Drool. Such jokes
<strong>Reber</strong> 7<br />
contain the surpr<strong>is</strong>e or “sudden glory’ as we ‘get’ them; they also contain the hostil<strong>it</strong>y described<br />
by Freud and the pleasure at the infirm<strong>it</strong>ies of others described by Hobbes.<br />
Legman, a collector and publ<strong>is</strong>her of “dirty jokes,” says “‘Under the mask of humor, our<br />
society allows infin<strong>it</strong>e aggressions, by everyone against everyone. In the culminating laugh, by the<br />
l<strong>is</strong>tener or observer . . . the teller of the joke betrays h<strong>is</strong> hidden hostil<strong>it</strong>y and signals h<strong>is</strong> victory.’”<br />
[Oring concludes] <strong>Joke</strong>s, then, are assaults against real individuals and groups in the social world.<br />
They serve the emotions by allowing the expression of aggression safely ‘masked’ as play” (qtd.<br />
in Oring 16).<br />
Gruner, a modern neo-Freudian wr<strong>it</strong>er on humor, says, “My point <strong>is</strong> that humor cons<strong>is</strong>ts<br />
of basically two elements: one <strong>is</strong> conflict, contest, compet<strong>it</strong>ion, aggression, hostil<strong>it</strong>y, or whatever<br />
synonym you w<strong>is</strong>h. The other <strong>is</strong> ‘sudden perception’ of the result of the contest, a ‘win’ and a<br />
‘loss.’ And that the subtraction of the first element from the test of a so-called humorous<br />
incident or story makes the humor van<strong>is</strong>h, whereas the loss of ‘suddenness’ can eliminate or<br />
greatly reduce the humor” (Gruner 80). Gruner identifies the aggression or hostil<strong>it</strong>y as the<br />
necessary ingredient to humor, if <strong>not</strong> the sufficient one.<br />
Think of the torrent of Bill Clinton jokes that flowed through society after the news of h<strong>is</strong> trysts<br />
w<strong>it</strong>h a Wh<strong>it</strong>e House intern. Although most are offensive, obviously many people are passing them<br />
on. Q: What <strong>is</strong> the t<strong>it</strong>le of Hillary Clinton's new book? A: It takes a village to watch my<br />
husband. Here <strong>is</strong> one that manages to insult Clinton and the whole state of Arkansas: Arkansas <strong>is</strong><br />
very proud of Mr. Clinton. All of these women confessing to having had sex w<strong>it</strong>h him, and none<br />
of them are [sic] h<strong>is</strong> s<strong>is</strong>ter!<br />
In fact, perhaps the most horrific confirmation of the hostil<strong>it</strong>y in much humor comes from
<strong>Reber</strong> 8<br />
Alan Dundes, a folklor<strong>is</strong>t at UC Berkeley, who collected the ultimate gallows humor for the 20th<br />
century, “Auschw<strong>it</strong>z jokes” that he found circulating in Germany, among German people that we<br />
hope are still feeling a collective guilt about the murder of millions of Jews. These “Auschw<strong>it</strong>z<br />
jokes,” to most of us, suggest deprav<strong>it</strong>y on the part of those who tell and laugh at such jokes.<br />
Dundes, too, defends h<strong>is</strong> own collecting of such jokes by asking, “Do you really think <strong>it</strong> would be<br />
better <strong>not</strong> to report on the popular<strong>it</strong>y of such jokes? [ . . . .] Prejudice, stereotyping, gross<br />
inhuman<strong>it</strong>y, and even ethnic genocide do <strong>not</strong> seem to be on the wane. Folklor<strong>is</strong>ts w<strong>it</strong>h a sense of<br />
social responsibil<strong>it</strong>y have an obligation to do what they can to fight injustice” (Dundes 38). I<br />
agree. I would <strong>not</strong> tell these jokes to my acquaintances; my friends would <strong>not</strong> tell them to me, but<br />
they may help us understand humor, <strong>it</strong>s dangers and <strong>it</strong>s virtues. Here are some samples: “How<br />
many Jews can you f<strong>it</strong> in a Volkswagen? Fourteen. Two in front, two in back, ten in the ashtray. [<br />
. . . . ] What were Jews used for in connection w<strong>it</strong>h the 1936 Olympics [held in Berlin under<br />
H<strong>it</strong>ler’s direction]? For the cindertrack and the Olympic flame” (Dundes 20-21). Th<strong>is</strong> humor has a<br />
frightening level of aggression and hostil<strong>it</strong>y.<br />
The failings of the Hobbes/Freud/Gruner’s aggression/hostil<strong>it</strong>y/game theory struck me at<br />
a recent birthday for a family member. The humor was simple and unremarkable. We were seated<br />
around a table laden w<strong>it</strong>h spicy Korean d<strong>is</strong>hes. My wife sat next to Alex, a two-year old, a<br />
beautiful l<strong>it</strong>tle boy whom my wife often cares for. As we were looking for a food that might <strong>not</strong><br />
be too spicy for him, I suggested to my wife, “Give him some chicken; he could eat that.” As she<br />
was putting l<strong>it</strong>tle chunks of honey-sesame coated chicken on h<strong>is</strong> plate, my wife and I realized that<br />
Alex was saying, “Cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck.” We broke into laughter. What made that funny?<br />
Gruner and Hobbes would argue that we are laughing at h<strong>is</strong> innocence or, in Gruner’s word,
<strong>Reber</strong> 9<br />
“stupid<strong>it</strong>y.” In h<strong>is</strong> naivete, Alex only thinks of chicken as the animal that goes “cluck, cluck”; we,<br />
older, w<strong>is</strong>er, and superior, laugh at him for <strong>not</strong> knowing that chicken can also be food on h<strong>is</strong><br />
plate. We win; he loses, Gruner would say.<br />
However, there <strong>is</strong> a<strong>not</strong>her theory of humor that better explains what was funny in the<br />
s<strong>it</strong>uation w<strong>it</strong>h Alex and h<strong>is</strong> “cluck, cluck” response to the word “chicken.” Elliott Oring, in a book<br />
called <strong>Joke</strong>s and Their Relation, outlines that theory. He says, “the perception of humor depends<br />
upon the perception of an appropriate incongru<strong>it</strong>y–that <strong>is</strong> the perception of an appropriate<br />
interrelationship of elements from domains that are generally regarded as incongruous” (Oring 2)<br />
In Alex’s case, the “cluck, cluck” was an incongru<strong>it</strong>y; <strong>it</strong> apparently made no sense in the context<br />
of the l<strong>it</strong>tle tiny chunks of honey-sesame chicken. But as my wife and I recalled the moments<br />
s<strong>it</strong>ting on the floor w<strong>it</strong>h picture books, teaching Alex what the dog, pig, cat, and chicken say, the<br />
sudden recogn<strong>it</strong>ion of the appropriateness of Alex’s response sparked the humor. ( And, as you<br />
know, the only thing worse than a bad joke <strong>is</strong> the laborious explaining of a good one.) Ordinarily,<br />
if we don’t get <strong>it</strong> suddenly, the joke does <strong>not</strong> work for us. As we say, you had to be there.<br />
Remember the humorous incident I recalled from 1967, when the intense concentration of<br />
a final exam was broken by a loud voice in the hallway singing “ We Shall Overcome.” First we<br />
looked up in a surpr<strong>is</strong>ed daze. Then we burst into laughter. “Appropriate incongru<strong>it</strong>y” theory<br />
would explain the humor by pointing out the apparent incongru<strong>it</strong>y of the loud singing of a civil<br />
rights song in a quiet test s<strong>it</strong>uation. The laughter erupted, I believe, because we almost<br />
simultaneously saw the appropriateness of the particular song to our s<strong>it</strong>uation, mired in the<br />
angu<strong>is</strong>h of final exams. The incongru<strong>it</strong>y become appropriate, and in our sudden recogn<strong>it</strong>ion of that<br />
appropriateness, humor was born. Th<strong>is</strong> does <strong>not</strong> mean that to enjoy a joke, one has to be able to
<strong>Reber</strong> 10<br />
identify the incongru<strong>it</strong>y and the appropriateness. That <strong>is</strong> part of theoretical analys<strong>is</strong>, after the fact.<br />
At the time when we laughed, I could <strong>not</strong> have said why.<br />
A<strong>not</strong>her joke helps illustrate appropriate incongru<strong>it</strong>y theory further. A couple of<br />
strangers, a man and a woman, find themselves in the same sleeping compartment on a train. After<br />
some awkward d<strong>is</strong>cussion, he suggests, “ I’ll sleep on the top bunk, and you sleep on the bottom<br />
one. I think <strong>it</strong> will be all right.” In the middle of the night, he leans over the side of the upper<br />
bunk, awakens the woman, saying, “I’m sorry to bother you, but I am really cold. Would you<br />
mind getting me a<strong>not</strong>her blanket?” She replies, w<strong>it</strong>h a gleam in her eye, “Why don’t we, just for<br />
tonight, pretend that we are married.” Surpr<strong>is</strong>ed, he smiles and says, “Okay.” She says, “Fine. Get<br />
your own darn blanket.” The humor here <strong>is</strong> explained by the appropriate incongru<strong>it</strong>y theory.<br />
Her reply, which at first seems incongruous w<strong>it</strong>h her apparent seductive inv<strong>it</strong>ation, becomes<br />
appropriate when we reflect how quickly the honeymoon sweetness of a marriage can fade into a<br />
“Do <strong>it</strong> yourself” mental<strong>it</strong>y.<br />
A similar b<strong>it</strong> of humor recently took place in a bar in Virgin, Utah, called the Rancho 101.<br />
It <strong>is</strong> a hangout for a lot of real rugged-looking cowboys. One day a young Eastern woman, who<br />
had been v<strong>is</strong><strong>it</strong>ing Zion National Park, walked in and walked directly up to a tall cowboy. “I want<br />
you to make me feel like a real woman,” she said. He turned, looked at her, and began<br />
unbuttoning h<strong>is</strong> shirt. Taking <strong>it</strong> off, he handed <strong>it</strong> to her, and said, “Here, wash my shirt, “ as he<br />
turned back to h<strong>is</strong> beer. The humor here <strong>is</strong> the same incongru<strong>it</strong>y in what you expect, but the<br />
realization that <strong>it</strong> <strong>is</strong> appropriate. By the way, I think a joke <strong>is</strong> helped by giving <strong>it</strong> a concrete<br />
setting. It adds to the surpr<strong>is</strong>e, especially if some are <strong>not</strong> sure that the story <strong>is</strong> a joke until the<br />
punch line.
Oring’s theory of humor <strong>is</strong> similar to those of Hobbes, Freud and Gruner in <strong>it</strong>s shared<br />
<strong>Reber</strong> 11<br />
emphas<strong>is</strong> upon the importance of a suddenness of recogn<strong>it</strong>ion: “The punchline must come at the<br />
end of the joke because the abrupt and surpr<strong>is</strong>ing revelation of an appropriate incongru<strong>it</strong>y marks<br />
the end of the joke as a d<strong>is</strong>course. It <strong>is</strong> the point of the joke–<strong>it</strong>s ra<strong>is</strong>on d’etre” (Oring 224).<br />
However, the differences are more important. For example, Gruner’s psychoanalytic theory <strong>is</strong><br />
based on what <strong>it</strong> perceives as the function of humor, specifically the aggressive function. In<br />
contrast, Oring’s theory <strong>is</strong> based on the structure of the joke. If we look at the story of the man<br />
and woman in the sleeping compartment, <strong>it</strong> may be that Gruner could say, “Sure, that’s funny.<br />
What makes <strong>it</strong> funny to me <strong>is</strong> that the fellow gets h<strong>is</strong> hopes up and they get punctured by the<br />
woman’s hostile reply. He loses; she wins. The purpose <strong>is</strong> to show a putdown of the man. It all<br />
f<strong>it</strong>s in my theory.” Perhaps <strong>it</strong> does–for him.<br />
Certainly w<strong>it</strong>h many jokes, both theories help explain what <strong>is</strong> going on. But in the joke just<br />
told, I was struck suddenly by the thought that pretending to be married does <strong>not</strong> always mean<br />
sweetness and cuddling–except in my own marriage, of course. It <strong>is</strong> the lingu<strong>is</strong>tic structure that<br />
lets you expect one thing, hear a<strong>not</strong>her that <strong>is</strong> incongruous, and realize the second meaning <strong>is</strong> also<br />
appropriate. And in the examples of Alex’s “cluck, cluck” and “ We shall overcome” drifting in<br />
from the hallway, I am certain that I felt no aggression, hostil<strong>it</strong>y, or superior<strong>it</strong>y towards Alex or<br />
the unknown singer. There was no hostile purpose. I felt delight at them and for them. For that<br />
reason, aggression theory <strong>is</strong> empirically unprovable as a theory. It must prove that everyone<br />
in every humorous s<strong>it</strong>uation responded in a certain way. Such a claim <strong>is</strong> beyond proof.<br />
The creative interplay in the appropriate incongru<strong>it</strong>y theory does a better job of showing<br />
how jokes may be used to express hostil<strong>it</strong>y, but at the same time, the structure of a joke’s
<strong>Reber</strong> 12<br />
punchline appeals to a creative, playful part of human nature. Oring also observes that jokes seem<br />
to have emerged from one of the earliest forms of humor and word play: the riddle. Many riddles<br />
and jokes depend on a primary meaning that <strong>is</strong> somehow overridden by our recogn<strong>it</strong>ion of a<br />
secondary, also appropriate interpretation. How do you get down from an elephant? You don’t;<br />
you get down from a goose. Th<strong>is</strong> riddle has humor because the seeming incongru<strong>it</strong>y becomes<br />
appropriate when we see a secondary meaning built on a pun on the word “down.”<br />
For a few minutes, I want to look at sex<strong>is</strong>t humor (dirty jokes), ethnic/religious<br />
humor, jokes that circulate after a d<strong>is</strong>aster, and jokes that seem to be a lament.<br />
Sex<strong>is</strong>t Humor<br />
The second focus of my research concerns sex<strong>is</strong>t jokes. A researcher named Raskin has<br />
<strong>not</strong>ed that having strong feelings about a subject [such as sex] being joked about prevents us from<br />
enjoying <strong>it</strong>. He and others say <strong>it</strong> <strong>is</strong> too bad we “can<strong>not</strong> take a joke.”<br />
However, th<strong>is</strong> encouragement to accept all joking as “good sports” <strong>is</strong> shocking when we<br />
read what Gruner and others have to say about sex<strong>is</strong>t humor. Gruner <strong>not</strong>es that “[t]elling sexual<br />
jokes and expressing appreciation for them in the presence of females may be rooted in the<br />
(conscious or unconscious) attempt of the male to enhance opportun<strong>it</strong>y for sexual activ<strong>it</strong>y”<br />
(Gruner 128). He quotes Camille Paglia to show how sex and aggression are inextricably mingled:<br />
“‘Modern femin<strong>is</strong>m’s most naive formulation <strong>is</strong> <strong>it</strong>s assertion that rape <strong>is</strong> a crime of violence but<br />
<strong>not</strong> of sex, that <strong>it</strong> <strong>is</strong> merely power masquerading as sex. But sex <strong>is</strong> power, and all power <strong>is</strong><br />
inherently aggressive’” (qtd. in Gruner 112). Freud, in h<strong>is</strong> volume on humor, refers to such sex<strong>is</strong>t<br />
jokes as “smut.” He says that “smut <strong>is</strong> directed to a particular person, by whom one <strong>is</strong> sexually<br />
exc<strong>it</strong>ed and who, on hearing <strong>it</strong>, <strong>is</strong> expected to become aware of the speaker’s exc<strong>it</strong>ement and as a
<strong>Reber</strong> 13<br />
result to become sexually exc<strong>it</strong>ed [ . . . .] Smut <strong>is</strong> thus originally directed towards women and may<br />
be equated w<strong>it</strong>h attempts at seduction”; if the joke <strong>is</strong> told to men by a man, says Freud, “the<br />
original s<strong>it</strong>uation, which owing to social inhib<strong>it</strong>ions can<strong>not</strong> be realized, <strong>is</strong> at the same time<br />
imagined. A person who laughs at smut that he hears <strong>is</strong> laughing as though he were the spectator<br />
of an act of sexual aggression” (Freud 97). Gruner found that when men and women were angry,<br />
they were more likely to find sex<strong>is</strong>t humor funny. That suggest that much sex<strong>is</strong>t humor <strong>is</strong> hostile<br />
and aggressive. Sex<strong>is</strong>t humor <strong>is</strong> <strong>not</strong> merely four-letter word jokes; the jokes usually portrays<br />
someone (often a male) taking sexual advantage because of deception or force. In one study, a<br />
cartoon depicted a young man and women s<strong>it</strong>ting on the edge of a bed. As he <strong>is</strong> removing her bra,<br />
she says, “Now tell me again how th<strong>is</strong> will help stop the war in Viet Nam.” <strong>Is</strong> <strong>it</strong> really a good idea<br />
to tell and l<strong>is</strong>ten to such forms of humor, as a good sport? Studies show that to be dangerous.<br />
Although some suggest that accepting such humor might allow a carthars<strong>is</strong> of aggressive<br />
or sexual att<strong>it</strong>udes, in the Ryan and Kanjorski study, they found the oppos<strong>it</strong>e:“[their] study<br />
supports previous research that found a direct relationship between anger arousal and hostile<br />
humor” (Ryan and Kanjorski). And Legman, a collector of dirty jokes,<br />
ins<strong>is</strong>ts that the telling of dirty jokes has a<strong>not</strong>her function other than just<br />
enjoyment: a functional one, as far as the male <strong>is</strong> concerned. He likens telling<br />
sexual jokes in the presence of females to ‘verbal rape.’ If the women don’t laugh,<br />
they can be teased as ‘poor sports.’ If they do laugh (even if against their will) they<br />
show pos<strong>it</strong>ive affect in the presence of words that create pictures in the mind of<br />
sexual activ<strong>it</strong>y.(qtd. in Gruner 127-28)<br />
Other studies support the same view. Fine says, “By laughing, the audience affirms the point of
<strong>Reber</strong> 14<br />
view expressed in the joke. [ . . . and Pryor <strong>not</strong>es that] sexual teasing, jokes, and remarks are the<br />
most common form of sexual harassment” (qtd. in Ryan and Kanjorski).<br />
Perhaps the most alarming d<strong>is</strong>covery was that the enjoyment of sex<strong>is</strong>t jokes in men was<br />
pos<strong>it</strong>ively correlated w<strong>it</strong>h acceptance of the “Rape Myth,” the idea that women want to be forced<br />
into sex; w<strong>it</strong>h the acceptance of “Adversarial Sexual Beliefs”; and the “Acceptance of<br />
Interpersonal Violence and the self-reported likelihood of forcing sex.” Further, while women<br />
who enjoyed sex<strong>is</strong>t jokes did <strong>not</strong> generally accept the Rape Myth, there was a significant<br />
correlation w<strong>it</strong>h “Adversarial Sexual Beliefs [the idea that women are ‘sly, manipulative, and self-<br />
centered’ in their personal relationships] and Acceptance of Interpersonal Violence (the belief that<br />
violence against women <strong>is</strong> acceptable)” (Ryan and Kanjorski).<br />
These studies suggest that rather than forgetting pol<strong>it</strong>ical correctness and being “good<br />
sports,” we should guard against the potentially seductive and aggressive motives behind some<br />
jokes, as well as the m<strong>is</strong>ogyn<strong>is</strong>t views that may be held by men and women who show a pattern of<br />
enjoying and telling sex<strong>is</strong>t jokes.<br />
The Functions of Ethnic Humor<br />
A<strong>not</strong>her area of my research explored how humor <strong>is</strong> used among ethnic, religious, and<br />
other groups. As I d<strong>is</strong>cuss some of these uses, I will rely heavily on jokes told about and w<strong>it</strong>hin<br />
the Mormon culture since I have collected more of those and more of you can relate to them. An<br />
important use <strong>is</strong> to set boundaries.<br />
Ethnic humor <strong>is</strong> <strong>not</strong> only shared w<strong>it</strong>hin groups to establ<strong>is</strong>h the superior<strong>it</strong>y of the members<br />
of a group, however. As Leveen points out, “four basic combinations of joke relationships ex<strong>is</strong>t:<br />
1) a group member telling a joke to a<strong>not</strong>her member; 2) a member telling a joke to a non-
<strong>Reber</strong> 15<br />
member; 3) a nonmember telling a joke to a member; and 4) a non-member telling a joke<br />
to a non-member” (Leveen). Each of those four relationships may regulate which jokes are told,<br />
and <strong>it</strong> may change the purpose and the effect of the joke. Non-members of a dominant culture or<br />
group telling jokes to other non-members have the highest chance of expressing hostil<strong>it</strong>y and<br />
cr<strong>it</strong>ic<strong>is</strong>m; members telling jokes to other members of the same group have the highest chance of<br />
being self-laudatory or only mildly cr<strong>it</strong>ical.<br />
In fact, the same joke may be told in different settings w<strong>it</strong>h different effects. Consider the<br />
following joke collected in the South before the civil rights movement changed voter reg<strong>is</strong>tration<br />
requirements that were often contrived to prevent blacks from voting. A black man <strong>is</strong> attempting<br />
to reg<strong>is</strong>ter to vote in M<strong>is</strong>s<strong>is</strong>sippi. He quickly passes the l<strong>it</strong>eracy test which the reg<strong>is</strong>trars give him.<br />
So the reg<strong>is</strong>trars confer for a moment and give him a Chinese newspaper, asking him if he knows<br />
what the headline means. “Yeah, I know what <strong>it</strong> means,” he replies, “It means niggers don’t vote<br />
in M<strong>is</strong>s<strong>is</strong>sippi again th<strong>is</strong> year” (Leveen). If that joke <strong>is</strong> told among wh<strong>it</strong>es, <strong>it</strong> might be told w<strong>it</strong>h<br />
pride at the successful ruse which kept undesirables from voting. If the joke <strong>is</strong> told among<br />
African-Americans, <strong>it</strong> would express b<strong>it</strong>terness, hopelessness and grief.<br />
Innies to innies<br />
Ethnic and religious jokes help us define ourselves by characterizing the group that we<br />
belong to, the “innies,” and identifying the differences between us and others, the “outties.” For<br />
example, let’s look at th<strong>is</strong> riddle joke: How do you know if you are at a Mormon wedding? The<br />
bride <strong>is</strong> <strong>not</strong> pregnant, but her mother <strong>is</strong>. Th<strong>is</strong> joke pokes fun at large Mormon families, w<strong>it</strong>h one<br />
child getting married (perhaps at a very young age) while the mother continues bearing children;<br />
however, w<strong>it</strong>hin the Mormon commun<strong>it</strong>y, having large families <strong>is</strong> generally looked at favorably,
<strong>Reber</strong> 16<br />
so the cr<strong>it</strong>ic<strong>is</strong>m <strong>is</strong> slight. The first part of the joke defines Mormon brides as being more apt to be<br />
chaste than “outties,” people outside of the culture. It allows Mormons to take pride in the<br />
(supposedly unique) emphas<strong>is</strong> upon chast<strong>it</strong>y. A similar b<strong>it</strong> of humor, part of a “You might be a<br />
Mormon if . . .” l<strong>is</strong>t, says “You might be a Mormon if you are an aunt or uncle by age three.” Th<strong>is</strong><br />
identifies the Mormon character<strong>is</strong>tics of having large families, extending the bearing years over<br />
two or three decades, and perhaps, of having women marry at a young age. If told w<strong>it</strong>hin the<br />
group, there would be l<strong>it</strong>tle offense since <strong>it</strong> merely defines how Mormons are different. A<strong>not</strong>her<br />
riddle joke asks, “What do you get if you play Mormon Tabernacle Choir records backwards?”<br />
“You get Jell-O salad recipes.” Th<strong>is</strong> too has a light spoof at the Mormon tra<strong>it</strong> of having Jell-o<br />
salads at many gatherings. More importantly, <strong>it</strong> emphasizes that we will <strong>not</strong> hear the satanic<br />
messages supposedly encrypted onto some “Gentile” outsider records. Mormons are the good<br />
folks, d<strong>is</strong>tingu<strong>is</strong>hed from those outside the fold.<br />
Other humorous stories show Mormons as more clever than the “outties.” Two Mormon<br />
Elders pass the residence of a Catholic priest each day as they go out proselyting. They endure<br />
quietly h<strong>is</strong> daily abusive harangues as they pass. One day he strolled out, calling, “Hello, sons of<br />
the Devil.” Respectfully, they reply, “Hello, Father.” A<strong>not</strong>her: There were two Bapt<strong>is</strong>t min<strong>is</strong>ters<br />
who approached the Mormon elders w<strong>it</strong>h a small vial of po<strong>is</strong>on. They say, “If you are believers in<br />
the true God, then you can drink th<strong>is</strong> po<strong>is</strong>on and <strong>it</strong> will <strong>not</strong> hurt you. Let’s see how much fa<strong>it</strong>h<br />
you have.” One of the elders replies, “Why don’t you drink <strong>it</strong>, and we’ll ra<strong>is</strong>e you from the<br />
dead.” That joke puts the burden of proof on the “outtie” accusers and assumes their fa<strong>it</strong>h will <strong>not</strong><br />
save them. Most self-laudatory jokes would be told among members since they might be seen as<br />
full of pride or offensive to outsiders. Such jokes show Mormons in a good light, so Mormons
can laugh proudly at such characterizations of themselves as superior to those “outties.”.<br />
<strong>Reber</strong> 17<br />
Mormon humor can adapt w<strong>it</strong>h the times. Over ten years ago I collected th<strong>is</strong> joke: What<br />
do you get when you cross a Mormon w<strong>it</strong>h a Mexican? A year’s supply of stolen hubcaps. That<br />
manages to pra<strong>is</strong>e the “innies” as people who prepare for future d<strong>is</strong>asters and insults the thieving<br />
“outties.” But the number of H<strong>is</strong>panics in the area and in the LDS church has made that joke<br />
more likely to offend. A more recent version of th<strong>is</strong> joke simply says, What do you get when you<br />
cross a Mormon w<strong>it</strong>h a thief? A year’s supply of stolen goods in the basement. That <strong>is</strong> less<br />
offensive to any particular ethnic group, but still draws a defining boundary of pra<strong>is</strong>e around those<br />
inside the group. One observer has pointed out that ethic groups can be defined by social,<br />
geographical, or moral boundaries or any combination of those. Ethnic jokes can help define<br />
those boundaries (Leveen).<br />
For example, What <strong>is</strong> the difference between a BYU coed and a U. of U. coed. A BYU<br />
coed <strong>is</strong> looking for a husband, and the U. of U. coed <strong>is</strong> looking for the father. Whether we looks<br />
at th<strong>is</strong> as just humor defining students or see <strong>it</strong> as an LDS joke because BYU <strong>is</strong> an LDS<br />
inst<strong>it</strong>ution, th<strong>is</strong> riddle joke clearly sets the moral boundaries. BYU coeds, the innies, do want to<br />
get married, but they are <strong>not</strong> prom<strong>is</strong>cuous as are the outties.<br />
Consider th<strong>is</strong> Jew<strong>is</strong>h joke: A rabbi and a priest got into a bad wreck. They were both<br />
okay, but both cars were badly damaged. The rabbi observed that God must have important work<br />
for both of them to do since they were both spared. Then the rabbi looked into the back of h<strong>is</strong> car<br />
and pulled out a bottle of wine. “Look,” he said, “here’s a<strong>not</strong>her miracle. Th<strong>is</strong> bottle of wine did<br />
<strong>not</strong> break. God must have intended for us to share <strong>it</strong> and celebrate that God has spared us.” He<br />
gave <strong>it</strong> to the priest, who took a few big swigs. He then handed <strong>it</strong> to the rabbi. The rabbi handed
<strong>Reber</strong> 18<br />
<strong>it</strong> back to the priest. “Aren’t you having any?” asked the priest. “No,” said the rabbi, “I think I’ll<br />
wa<strong>it</strong> for the police” (King 153).<br />
“A Catholic priest, a Protestant min<strong>is</strong>ter, and a rabbi were d<strong>is</strong>cussing what they would like people<br />
to say about them after they had died and their bodies were on d<strong>is</strong>play in open caskets.<br />
The priest said, ‘ I would like someone to say, “ He was a righteous man, an honest man, and very<br />
generous.”’<br />
The min<strong>is</strong>ter wanted someone to say, ‘He was very fair and kind, and he was very good to h<strong>is</strong><br />
par<strong>is</strong>hioners.’<br />
The rabbi said, ‘I would want someone to say, “Oh, look! He’s moving”’” (King 165).<br />
A number of Jew<strong>is</strong>h jokes that might be told w<strong>it</strong>hin the group emphasize the intellectual<br />
superior<strong>it</strong>y of Jews more than the moral superior<strong>it</strong>y.<br />
There are other uses for ethnic humor. Hobbes explained that one may tell a joke to show<br />
he <strong>is</strong> superior to h<strong>is</strong> former self. Gruner explains in several places in The Game of Humor that I<br />
may tell or laugh at a joke that <strong>is</strong> directed toward my own group or profession, thinking that the<br />
stereotypical label doesn’t qu<strong>it</strong>e f<strong>it</strong> me (Gruner 85). As example, let’s look at jokes that were<br />
shared w<strong>it</strong>hin the Mormon commun<strong>it</strong>y in which we laugh at our stereotypes a b<strong>it</strong>:<br />
Q: How many Mormons does <strong>it</strong> take to screw in a light bulb?<br />
A: Five. One to screw <strong>it</strong> in and four to bring casseroles.<br />
Q: How many RMs [returned m<strong>is</strong>sionaries] does <strong>it</strong> take to screw in a light bulb?<br />
A One. He just stands under <strong>it</strong> and expects the world to revolve around him.<br />
Q: What <strong>is</strong> the pushiest thing in the world?<br />
A: A Mormon m<strong>is</strong>sionary w<strong>it</strong>h an Amway d<strong>is</strong>tributorship on the side.
Q: What <strong>is</strong> Utah’s official wine (whine)?<br />
A: I wanna get married in the temple.<br />
Also consider some Jew<strong>is</strong>h jokes that also laugh at some Jew<strong>is</strong>h stereotypes:<br />
Q: “Why does Orthodox Juda<strong>is</strong>m forbid pre-mar<strong>it</strong>al sex?<br />
A: Because <strong>it</strong> might lead to mixed dancing” (Leveen)<br />
Q: “How do we know that Jesus was Jew<strong>is</strong>h?<br />
<strong>Reber</strong> 19<br />
A: Because he lived at home w<strong>it</strong>h h<strong>is</strong> mother until he was thirty; he went into h<strong>is</strong> father’s business,<br />
and he had a mother who thought he was God” ( qtd in Leveen).<br />
Or there <strong>is</strong> the story of the tour group in heaven. As they approach one commun<strong>it</strong>y, the<br />
guide asks them to be silent as pass the area. After they pass, someone asks why they had to be<br />
quiet. The guide replies, “ Oh those are the Mormons [or Catholics or Lutherans], and we don’t<br />
want to bother them. They think they are the only ones up here.” These jokes poke fun at some<br />
aspect of Mormon culture, while the joke-teller (and the joke-l<strong>is</strong>teners who laugh) perhaps think,<br />
“Th<strong>is</strong> doesn’t f<strong>it</strong> me.”<br />
Much of th<strong>is</strong> humor, I have observed, <strong>is</strong> <strong>not</strong> only in joke form. Much of <strong>it</strong> <strong>is</strong> in true<br />
narratives, narratives that show how, in a church w<strong>it</strong>h lay leaders, <strong>not</strong> all will go well.<br />
A colleague has shared w<strong>it</strong>h me the delightful incident during a “testimony meeting,” in<br />
which members ar<strong>is</strong>e from the congregation, give thanks or express love or appreciation for their<br />
testimonies and blessings. The last speaker of the day, S<strong>is</strong>ter Jones, had cried a great deal as she<br />
spoke of the blessings in her life. “I am sorry I am such a boob,” she lamented. As the b<strong>is</strong>hop<br />
stood up to close the meeting, he tried to comfort her, “S<strong>is</strong>ter Jones, don’t worry; we are sure<br />
the Lord loves big boobs just as much as everybody else.” The ambigu<strong>it</strong>y there sparks humor.
<strong>Reber</strong> 20<br />
I received some e-mail humor which spoofs some Mormon stereotypes. It says that in<br />
celebration of Barbie’s 40 th birthday, Mattel has created a Mormon Barbie for the folks in Utah.<br />
The most popular, Celestial Barbie, comes w<strong>it</strong>h 8.4 children. She wears a mid-calf flower print<br />
Laura Ashley dress w<strong>it</strong>h conservative flats (no heels), a bow in her flowing shoulder-length hair<br />
w<strong>it</strong>h puffy bangs. Barbie wears a permanent smile, knows how to bake bread, store wheat, feed a<br />
family of 12 on less than $200.00 a week, make casseroles and Jell-O salads (w<strong>it</strong>hout a recipe),<br />
and still finds time to read her scriptures. She comes w<strong>it</strong>h a MAV, Mormon Assault Vehicle (a<br />
Dodge, Ford, N<strong>is</strong>san mini-van). <strong>When</strong> you pull the cord in her back, she becomes emotional,<br />
teary, and says things like, “You have such a sweet spir<strong>it</strong>, S<strong>is</strong>ter Jones,” or “Love ya.”<br />
Occasionally you can find one that says “Oh my heck!” but be warned: th<strong>is</strong> <strong>is</strong> a manufacturer’s<br />
defect. Celestial Barbie would never say “heck” because <strong>it</strong> <strong>is</strong> a swear word. Whoever has time to<br />
make up and promulgate jokes like these probably does <strong>not</strong> have 8.4 kids. It <strong>is</strong> likely that the<br />
teller of th<strong>is</strong> sort of joke <strong>is</strong> an “innie,” but one who can laugh at the truth hidden therein and<br />
perhaps think she <strong>is</strong> <strong>not</strong> qu<strong>it</strong>e the one described.<br />
One of the first such jokes that I recall hearing <strong>is</strong> the story of some folks from heaven<br />
who had been down touring hell. They report back to St. Peter that things were <strong>not</strong> so bad.<br />
Everywhere they looked, there were orchards, wheat and corn fields, and wonderful gardens. St.<br />
Peter shakes h<strong>is</strong> head, “Those damned Mormons have been irrigating again.” Th<strong>is</strong> reinforces the<br />
pride Mormons take in having made “the desert bloom like a rose.” There <strong>is</strong> also the joke about<br />
the Pope going in to speak to the college of cardinals. “I have some good news and some bad<br />
news,” says the Pope. “I just received a call from the Lord telling me that He has returned and<br />
the millennium <strong>is</strong> set to begin. The bad news <strong>is</strong> that the call came from Salt Lake C<strong>it</strong>y.”
Such jokes adm<strong>it</strong> to others w<strong>it</strong>hin a group that we too have minor follies. If they are told to<br />
people outside the group, they are adm<strong>is</strong>sions of humanness.<br />
We choose carefully to whom we tell certain jokes. As Elliott Oring points out, “An<br />
<strong>Reber</strong> 21<br />
emotional tie to a particular topic may produce the feeling that the subject should <strong>not</strong> be joked<br />
about at all . . . ” (Oring 12). I may <strong>not</strong> tell the joke about large families to my brother’s s<strong>is</strong>ter-in-<br />
law who just had her thirteenth child. I may <strong>not</strong> tell the RM jokes to a m<strong>is</strong>sionary freshly returned.<br />
But w<strong>it</strong>h an appropriate target l<strong>is</strong>tener, these jokes might be told among “innies” to laugh at our<br />
stereotypical cultural tendencies, while feeling that we ourselves may be aware of and above some<br />
of those tendencies. Likew<strong>is</strong>e, BYU coeds and lawyers often tell the jokes aimed at them, thinking<br />
they do <strong>not</strong> apply to themselves.<br />
Turning more closely to Mormon humor, we do see jokes that laugh at parts of the<br />
culture w<strong>it</strong>hout much self pra<strong>is</strong>e woven in. Such jokes are more b<strong>it</strong>ing. For example, Bert Wilson,<br />
a folklor<strong>is</strong>t working at BYU tells of a young girl who comes back home pregnant after her first<br />
semester at BYU, planning to drop out of school. The parents try to make the best of a bad<br />
s<strong>it</strong>uation, asking if the girl could marry the father. The girl replies, “Oh, I couldn’t marry him. He<br />
smokes!” (Wilson, “Seriousness” 11-12). Th<strong>is</strong> mocks the cultural emphas<strong>is</strong> upon conform<strong>it</strong>y to<br />
the Word of W<strong>is</strong>dom, which by emphas<strong>is</strong> seems to be more serious than conform<strong>it</strong>y to chast<strong>it</strong>y.<br />
There <strong>is</strong> also a moving story of an LDS soldier in Viet Nam who was shot directly in the<br />
chest. The medic crawled over to where he lay, assuming he was dead. However the Mormon<br />
boy soon revived. The bullet had h<strong>it</strong> h<strong>is</strong> small service ed<strong>it</strong>ion of the Book of Mormon that he<br />
carried in h<strong>is</strong> pocket. It seems the bullet just couldn’t get through 2 nd Nephi. The miraculous<br />
sparing of life becomes a d<strong>is</strong>paraging comment on reading the Mormon scripture. Or there <strong>is</strong> the
<strong>Reber</strong> 22<br />
riddle joke, one that might be told by those w<strong>it</strong>hin or w<strong>it</strong>hout the Mormon commun<strong>it</strong>y: why do<br />
you always take two Mormons f<strong>is</strong>hing (or hunting) w<strong>it</strong>h you? Because if you only take one, he’ll<br />
drink all the beer. Th<strong>is</strong> jokes at the hypocr<strong>is</strong>y of some Mormons, who may sin if they are <strong>not</strong><br />
watched. But Leonard Arrington, the former LDS Church H<strong>is</strong>torian observes, “‘Revelatory self-<br />
directed humor concerning the weaknesses and special difficulties of Mormons <strong>is</strong> rare’” (Wilson,<br />
“Suffering” 7).<br />
Other jokes may be told by some w<strong>it</strong>hin a group to those outside the group. One purpose<br />
may to refute or scoff at stereotypes. Lo<strong>is</strong> Leveen says, “Ethnic jokes may indicate that <strong>it</strong> <strong>is</strong> <strong>not</strong><br />
the ethnic individual who <strong>is</strong> laughable, but rather the stereotype–and those who believe the<br />
stereotype to be truthful and accurate–at which the joke teller and the joke l<strong>is</strong>tener laugh<br />
together” (Leveen). Leveen gives an example: “Phil Nee, a Chinese-American comic, challenges<br />
stereotypes of Asians” who are assumed to all look alike, even to themselves. He says “‘It’s <strong>not</strong><br />
always fun being Chinese. My girlfriend left me last week, for a guy who looks exactly like me’”<br />
(Leveen). Such humor <strong>not</strong> only pokes fun at stereotypes, but being able to joke about our own<br />
culture can be a way of making us appear more approachable or less likely to be too offended.<br />
My wife and I l<strong>is</strong>tened to a Korean comic who said he would explain to the crowd, nearly all<br />
Caucasians, how to tell Koreans, Chinese and Japanese apart. Grabbing the skin on h<strong>is</strong> temples he<br />
pulled <strong>it</strong> up and back. “Koreans have eyes that slant up, see.” Next, he stretched the skin<br />
downward. “Chinese have eyes that slant down, see.” Then he stretched open h<strong>is</strong> right eyelids.<br />
“Japanese have one eye that slants straight back; the other one <strong>is</strong> very open from taking so many<br />
photographs.” Th<strong>is</strong> joke says, “Hey, I’m a regular guy. I can laugh at myself and at stereotypes.”<br />
Let’s look at a<strong>not</strong>her Jew<strong>is</strong>h joke that laughs at stereotypes about Jews:
“Here are three Gentile jokes that Jews love to tell:<br />
<strong>Reber</strong> 23<br />
A gentile goes into a clothing store and says: ‘Th<strong>is</strong> <strong>is</strong> a very fine jacket. How much <strong>it</strong> <strong>is</strong> <strong>it</strong>?’ The<br />
salesman says: ‘Five hundred dollars.’ The Gentile says, ‘OK, I’ll take <strong>it</strong>.’<br />
A man calls h<strong>is</strong> mother and says, ‘Mother, I know you’re expecting me for dinner th<strong>is</strong> evening,<br />
but something important has come up and I can’t make <strong>it</strong>.’ H<strong>is</strong> mother says: ‘OK.’<br />
Two Gentiles meet on the street. The first one says, ‘ You own your own business, don’t you?<br />
How’s <strong>it</strong> doing?’ The other Gentile says, ‘Just great! Thanks for asking’” (King 170-71). Th<strong>is</strong><br />
works if you are acquainted w<strong>it</strong>h stereotypes about Jew<strong>is</strong>h haggling for a better price and the<br />
complaining nature of Jew<strong>is</strong>h mothers and businessmen. (I did <strong>not</strong> grow up knowing any Jew<strong>is</strong>h<br />
people, but the stereotyped of haggling reached our ranch in Arizona. People spoke of “jewing”<br />
someone down to get a better price.)<br />
Such humor deflates stereotypes and confirms the humanness of the ethnic group. It helps<br />
tellers and l<strong>is</strong>teners to safely cross ethnic boundaries into the larger commun<strong>it</strong>y of laughter.<br />
Leveen concludes, “Humor <strong>is</strong> a means of ingratiating one’s self, earning acceptance of one’s self<br />
and –through collective ident<strong>it</strong>y–one’s group w<strong>it</strong>hin the establ<strong>is</strong>hed culture” (Leveen).<br />
Ethnic and religious jokes can serve many purposes, w<strong>it</strong>hin and across ethnic boundaries,<br />
depending on who <strong>is</strong> the joke-teller and who <strong>is</strong> the l<strong>is</strong>tener. Groups can pra<strong>is</strong>e and define<br />
themselves, demean others, challenge stereotypes, and show an abil<strong>it</strong>y to laugh at themselves that<br />
can help them cross group boundaries. But a more serious use of ethnic humor can come from<br />
people who are feeling oppressed or marginalized. Th<strong>is</strong> occurs among much humor told by<br />
“outties” to other “outties”; that <strong>is</strong> people who feel marginalized by a more dominant group or<br />
groups. “Ethnic joke tellers use humor to challenge playfully and penetrate gradually the d<strong>is</strong>course
<strong>Reber</strong> 24<br />
relations of the dominant culture w<strong>it</strong>hin which they are marginalized. Humor serves as an outlet<br />
through which repressed feelings can safely be released” (Leveen). Such jokes often have a<br />
pol<strong>it</strong>ical target and may be shared in a minor<strong>it</strong>y ethnic group, or even among a minor<strong>it</strong>y w<strong>it</strong>hin a<br />
group. “George Orwell called pol<strong>it</strong>ical jokes ‘tiny revolutions.’ Under tyranny, humor <strong>is</strong> a form of<br />
coping . . . .” (qtd. in Will). For example, during the Soviet crackdown in Poland some years ago,<br />
a Warsaw sociolog<strong>is</strong>t (who did <strong>not</strong> want h<strong>is</strong> name known) said, “‘<strong>Joke</strong>s are the one relatively safe<br />
way of saying you hate the Soviets or the government [ . . . .] The only weapons most of us have<br />
left are our w<strong>it</strong> and sense of humor’” (qtd. in Kempe). For example, there were many jokes about<br />
the ZOMO, the much feared Pol<strong>is</strong>h riot police. “Why do ZOMO’s travel in threes? One reads, one<br />
wr<strong>it</strong>es, and the other keeps an eye on the two intellectuals” (Kempe).<br />
Similar jokes circulated in the former Soviet Union. According to one joke, when<br />
Gorbachev first addressed the nation, he said, “‘ <strong>When</strong> I came to power the economy stood on the<br />
edge of an abyss. I am proud to say that since then we have taken a bold step forward’” (qtd. in<br />
Will). A<strong>not</strong>her goes, “‘After the revolution everyone will have strawberries and cream.’ ‘But I<br />
don’t like strawberries and cream.’ ‘After the revolution, everyone will like strawberries and<br />
cream’” (Will). Th<strong>is</strong> sin<strong>is</strong>ter joke suggests that any who do <strong>not</strong> agree w<strong>it</strong>h the party will be brain-<br />
washed or dead. Or, “A boy asks, ‘What will commun<strong>is</strong>m be like when perfected?’ H<strong>is</strong> father<br />
replies, ‘Everyone will have what he needs.’ The boy asks, ‘But what if there <strong>is</strong> a shortage of<br />
meat?’ The father replies, ‘There will be a sign in the butcher shop saying, “No one needs meat<br />
today”’” (Will). Some Jew<strong>is</strong>h jokes also are b<strong>it</strong>ter, but humorous, expressions pointed at<br />
d<strong>is</strong>crimination towards Jews. For example, “A rabbi and a priest got into a car accident. It seems<br />
the priest had been tooling along at a rapid clip and smashed right into the rabbi.
<strong>Reber</strong> 25<br />
Along came a cop, who looked the s<strong>it</strong>uation over quickly and then said in h<strong>is</strong> thick Ir<strong>is</strong>h brogue,<br />
‘Now, father, tell me . . . How fast was the rabbi backing up when he h<strong>it</strong> you?’” (King 169).<br />
“Two nuns were d<strong>is</strong>cussing their travel plans. ‘Where should I go on vacation:’ the first nun<br />
asked the other. ‘Go to <strong>Is</strong>rael,’ said the second nun.<br />
‘No. There are too many Jews there,’ said the first nun.<br />
‘Well, go to New York, then.’<br />
No, said the second nun [sic], ‘there are too many Jews there!’<br />
“How about Miami?’ asked the first nun [sic}.<br />
Once again the second nun replied, ‘No. There are two many Jews there.’<br />
A Jew<strong>is</strong>h lady who had been s<strong>it</strong>ting nearby heard the whole conversation and replied: ‘Go to hell.<br />
There are no Jews there!’” (King 165).<br />
Those are groups w<strong>it</strong>h whom most of us have much sympathy. But in our own country<br />
there have been some wh<strong>it</strong>es who res<strong>is</strong>ted the civil rights movement, for example. A joke<br />
collected in the South during the Civil Rights movement asks: What do they call a Negro w<strong>it</strong>h a<br />
Ph. D.? Nigger (qtd. in Oring 18). Such jokes, Orwell says, are ‘tiny revolutions’ against<br />
changes that caused some people anxiety. The humor makes them seem less offensive.<br />
W<strong>it</strong>hin the LDS commun<strong>it</strong>y, there was a similar outcropping of rebellious humor after the<br />
1978 revelation declaring the priesthood was to be given to African-Americans. “According to<br />
Leonard Arrington and Dav<strong>is</strong> B<strong>it</strong>ton, the announcement of the priesthood revelation ‘was<br />
received, almost universally, w<strong>it</strong>h elation’” (Wilson and Poulsen 11). However, William Wilson<br />
and Richard Poulsen, two BYU folklor<strong>is</strong>ts, collected a cycle of rac<strong>is</strong>t jokes which they claimed<br />
were “ubiqu<strong>it</strong>ous” along the Wasatch Front (Wilson and Poulsen 11). These jokes reflect the
<strong>Reber</strong> 26<br />
same kinds of anxiety among some about change and rebelliousness against author<strong>it</strong>y as do the<br />
southern jokes during the Civil Rights movement. Following are some: “Knock, knock. Who’s<br />
there? <strong>Is</strong>a. <strong>Is</strong>a who? <strong>Is</strong>a yo new home teacher. Have you heard they’re taking down the statue of<br />
Moroni from the temple? Yeah. They are replacing <strong>it</strong> w<strong>it</strong>h one of Lou<strong>is</strong> Armstrong. Do you<br />
know why President Kimball received h<strong>is</strong> revelation? He was doing h<strong>is</strong> genealogy and he found<br />
an ancestor named Kunta Kinta Kimball. Do you know how President Kimball received the<br />
revelation? In the form of a subpoena. Did you hear they are digging up the rose bushes at the<br />
temple? They’re replanting the area w<strong>it</strong>h watermelons. (Wilson and Poulsen 12). And many<br />
more. The use of humor by a frustrated minor<strong>it</strong>y in the LDS commun<strong>it</strong>y was also a covert,<br />
“harmless” rebellion, a way to express anxiety about uncomfortable changes.<br />
A<strong>not</strong>her joke which expresses frustration w<strong>it</strong>h the status quo <strong>is</strong> as follows: Do you know<br />
how b<strong>is</strong>hops are chosen? “The stake leaders find the most righteous, spir<strong>it</strong>ual, most loved person<br />
in the ward–and then they call her husband” (qtd. in Anderson A1) While th<strong>is</strong> joke <strong>is</strong> <strong>not</strong> as<br />
offensive as the racial jokes, many who hear or tell th<strong>is</strong> joke may feel a touch of b<strong>it</strong>terness at the<br />
unswerving nature of LDS male patriarchy, in sp<strong>it</strong>e of the advances made by women in other<br />
areas. Th<strong>is</strong> joke, too, <strong>is</strong> a “tiny revolution.”<br />
D<strong>is</strong>aster <strong>Joke</strong>s<br />
I want to turn to a<strong>not</strong>her kind of humor, one that <strong>is</strong> perhaps hardest to understand. These<br />
are labeled d<strong>is</strong>aster jokes. Most of you recall the Challenger spaceship d<strong>is</strong>aster some years ago, a<br />
m<strong>is</strong>sion in which Chr<strong>is</strong>ta McAuliffe, a teacher, was aboard. Soon after the d<strong>is</strong>aster, students<br />
reported hearing jokes such as the following:<br />
“Q: What does NASA stand for?
A: Need A<strong>not</strong>her Seven Astronauts.<br />
Q: What <strong>is</strong> the official NASA Cereal?<br />
A: Space Cr<strong>is</strong>pies.<br />
Q: How do we know Chr<strong>is</strong>ta McAuliffe, had dandruff?<br />
A: They found her head and shoulders on the beach.<br />
Q: What were Chr<strong>is</strong>ta’ last words to her husband?<br />
A: You feed the dog; I’ll feed the f<strong>is</strong>h” (Gruner 67-68).<br />
Q: “What color were Chr<strong>is</strong>ta McAuliffe’s eyes?<br />
A: Blue. One blew th<strong>is</strong> way and one blew that way.<br />
Q: Why do they drink coke at NASA?<br />
A: Because they can’t get seven up” (Oring 32).<br />
Similar joke cycles circulated after Chernobyl, and after smaller events such as the<br />
<strong>Reber</strong> 27<br />
Clinton/Lewinsky affair, and after John F. Kennedy, Jr.’s death in an air crash. Ordinarily, when<br />
we hear these jokes, the response <strong>is</strong> to groan and say, that’s terrible.” Then we look for someone<br />
to whom we can tell the joke..Many observers have tried to understand joking responses to<br />
d<strong>is</strong>asters. A folklor<strong>is</strong>t named Ell<strong>is</strong> collected humor related to the World Trade Center d<strong>is</strong>asters.<br />
He claims “that media d<strong>is</strong>asters provoke humor of a certain predictable kind, and that<br />
participation in <strong>it</strong> <strong>is</strong> <strong>not</strong> deviant but normal and predictable” (Ell<strong>is</strong>) One folklor<strong>is</strong>t says, “‘The<br />
more horrible things are the more you need these things.’” and psycholog<strong>is</strong>ts call the humor a way<br />
of coping (qtd. in Oring 34). Others see the humor as a way of d<strong>is</strong>tancing ourselves from the<br />
d<strong>is</strong>aster or a way to rebel against excessive media attention (Oring 34-36).<br />
Our d<strong>is</strong>aster <strong>is</strong> the destruction of the World Trade Center towers and the taking of
<strong>Reber</strong> 28<br />
thousands of lives just over a year ago. It <strong>is</strong> almost inconceivable but true that w<strong>it</strong>hin two hours of<br />
the fall of the towers humor was being posted on the internet. On alt.humor th<strong>is</strong> riddle was posed:<br />
Q: “What does World Trade Centre Stand for?<br />
A: Welcome to Canada; World Terror<strong>is</strong>t Convention; What? Trade Centre” (Ell<strong>is</strong>)<br />
The responses were full of anger and obscen<strong>it</strong>ies, as you might expect. But the jokes kept<br />
coming. On September 13, 2001, a New Yorker posted the following: “The only way I’ve ever<br />
been able to deal w<strong>it</strong>h something on a scale like that has been to make bad jokes about <strong>it</strong>, and<br />
hope that my friends know that they’re just bad jokes. I can’t remember having malicious intent<br />
in whole life, but I can’t keep myself from making stupid jokes and I hate myself for <strong>it</strong>.” (qtd. in<br />
Ell<strong>is</strong>). These are some of the other jokes that circulated; some obvious adaptations from earlier<br />
d<strong>is</strong>aster cycles.<br />
Q: “What was the last thing going through Mr. Jones’ head s<strong>it</strong>ting in the 90 th floor of the WTC?<br />
A: The 91 st floor.<br />
Q: What color were the pilot’s eyes?<br />
A: Blue. One blew th<strong>is</strong> way; the other blue that way.<br />
Q: Where do Americans go on vacation:<br />
A: All over Manhattan” [These were taken from a l<strong>is</strong>t of 45 <strong>it</strong>ems sent to alt.tasteless.jokes and to<br />
other l<strong>is</strong>ts on Sept. 17, 2001, including a “top ten” l<strong>is</strong>t of good things about the WTC attack]<br />
(Ell<strong>is</strong>). Others included<br />
Q: “Who are the fastest reader in the world?<br />
A: New Yorkers. Some of them go through 110 stories in 5 seconds.<br />
Q: What <strong>is</strong> the difference between the attack on New York and the Oklahoma C<strong>it</strong>y bombing?
<strong>Reber</strong> 29<br />
A: Again foreigners prove they can do <strong>it</strong> better and more efficiently. [and} KFC has a new meal<br />
deal . . . .2 Flaming Towers, 4 Hot wings, and A Big Apple Crumble” (Ell<strong>is</strong>). From Br<strong>it</strong>ain came<br />
jokes such as the following:<br />
Q: “What’s the difference between the World Trade Center and a wonderbra?<br />
A: A wonderbra can hold two jumbos.<br />
Q: Why <strong>is</strong> the USA the country where miracles come true?<br />
A: Because <strong>it</strong>’s the only country w<strong>it</strong>h a four-sided Pentagon” (Ell<strong>is</strong>).<br />
Shortly after these kinds of jokes, as attention began to focus on Osama Bin Laden and the<br />
Taliban in Afghan<strong>is</strong>tan, much humor was aimed that way. For example, on Oct. 3, 2001, John<br />
McCain went on the Letterman Show and asked a joke that had been going around for awhile.<br />
Q: “What’s Osama Bin Laden going to be for Halloween?<br />
A: Dead” (Ell<strong>is</strong>). Others circulating w<strong>it</strong>hin a few weeks of the attack included the following:<br />
Q: “What does [sic} Osama Bin Laden and General Custer have in common?<br />
A: They both want to know where those Tomahawks are coming from!<br />
Q: How <strong>is</strong> Bin Laden like Fred Flintstone?<br />
A: Both may look out their windows and see Rubble.<br />
Q: How do you clear a Afgan<strong>is</strong>tan [sic] bingo hall?<br />
A: Yell b52 as loud as you can.<br />
Q: What <strong>is</strong> the Taliban’s national bird?<br />
A: Duck.”<br />
A number of images of a proposed rebuilding of the WTC floated around as soon as September<br />
12 th showing four towers fashioned as an obscene gesture. Also a number of humorous l<strong>is</strong>tings
<strong>Reber</strong> 30<br />
suggested sending all the women under the Taliban to college as pun<strong>is</strong>hment or to give Osama<br />
Bin Laden a sex-change operation and turn him loose naked on the streets of Kabul (Ell<strong>is</strong>).<br />
Some Br<strong>it</strong><strong>is</strong>h WTC jokes were aimed at the Ir<strong>is</strong>h:<br />
Q: “Ir<strong>is</strong>h Air D<strong>is</strong>aster: a Cessna has crashed into a graveyard in Dublin. Ir<strong>is</strong>h Rescue workers have<br />
found 827 bodies so far; digging continues.(Sep. 19) The IRA have hijacked the goodyear [sic]<br />
blimp . . . apparently, they’ve h<strong>it</strong> Big Ben 5 times already. Apparently the Ir<strong>is</strong>h army has<br />
surrounded a department store in Dublin. They are acting on a tip-off that Bed linen <strong>is</strong> on the<br />
second floor” (Ell<strong>is</strong>). And Australians adapted the humor to joke at stereotypical views of the<br />
Aborigines. “Police have since released the names of two of the terror<strong>is</strong>ts–bin Smokin and bin<br />
Drinkin. An accomplice, bin Working, could <strong>not</strong> be found” (Ell<strong>is</strong>).<br />
We are better able to laugh at foreign humor and hostile humor aimed at Bin Laden of the<br />
Taliban, but <strong>it</strong> <strong>is</strong> a part of our psyche as humans to respond to these kinds of media w<strong>it</strong>h a humor<br />
that <strong>is</strong> <strong>not</strong> usually perm<strong>it</strong>ted when grandpa or Aunt Sarah dies. <strong>Is</strong> <strong>it</strong> a way to cope? To rebel? To<br />
speak the taboo? To grieve? <strong>Is</strong> <strong>it</strong> a combination of these. It <strong>is</strong> an area that still needs research.<br />
The humor that <strong>is</strong> grieving<br />
Some humor, I feel certain, <strong>is</strong> also a way of grieving. In Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro,<br />
Figaro <strong>is</strong> asked, “Why do you laugh all the time.” Figaro replies, “I laugh so I may <strong>not</strong> cry.” A<br />
Jew<strong>is</strong>h wr<strong>it</strong>er, Waldoks, described growing up in a home w<strong>it</strong>h parents who were Holocaust<br />
survivors; h<strong>is</strong> mother wept often about the Holocaust and h<strong>is</strong> father refused to ever speak of <strong>it</strong>:<br />
“Between h<strong>is</strong> father’s silence and h<strong>is</strong> mother’s pain, Waldoks faced a choice: laugh a lot or cry a<br />
lot. These two lie close to each other on the emotional spectrum–sobs and guffaws even sound<br />
alike, he says. ‘I decided laughing <strong>is</strong> better’” (qtd. in Oster). A<strong>not</strong>her Jew describes the hidden
pain of growing up in the home of a Holocaust survivor. It was like “‘Swimming in a sea of<br />
skeletons.’ Humor, she says, <strong>is</strong> the lifeboat that has carried them to san<strong>it</strong>y” (qtd. in Oster). A<br />
wr<strong>it</strong>er who has studied Jew<strong>is</strong>h Holocaust humor says, “Even in the camps there was laughter.<br />
Hannelore E<strong>is</strong>inger remembers toiling in the potato field at the Westerbork trans<strong>it</strong> camp in<br />
<strong>Reber</strong> 31<br />
Holland. She and her friends invented elaborate recipes or told jokes. It was a case of laugh or<br />
cry, she says” (Oster).<br />
One joke told about the camps among survivors tells of “Two Jews [who] are about to<br />
enter the gas chamber in Auschw<strong>it</strong>z. One of them turns to the SS guard to make a last request for<br />
a glass of water. ‘Sha, Moshe,’ says h<strong>is</strong> friend. ‘Don’t make a fuss’” (qtd. in Oster). Th<strong>is</strong> joke<br />
uses the stereotype of the long suffering chosen people. It may seem incongruous to think that<br />
even in the face of death, Jews would worry about making a fuss. But <strong>it</strong> <strong>is</strong> appropriate to the<br />
stereotype.<br />
A daughter of a Holocaust survivor, from London, talked about humor in her youth,<br />
“‘Looking back <strong>it</strong> was a way of dealing w<strong>it</strong>h something very painful and scary.’” <strong>Joke</strong>s she told as<br />
a child included, “‘Why did H<strong>it</strong>ler comm<strong>it</strong> suicide?’ she asks. ‘Because he got the gas bill.’ or<br />
‘What’s the difference between a loaf of bread and a Jew? A loaf of bread doesn’t scream when<br />
you put <strong>it</strong> in the oven’” (qtd. in Oster). <strong>Joke</strong>s such as these, told among Holocaust survivors<br />
w<strong>it</strong>hin their ethnic group are shared grievings, having a very different effect from those collected<br />
in Germany by Dundes.<br />
I first developed the bas<strong>is</strong> for a talk on humor a couple of years. I posted the talk on the<br />
internet for my students to read. About a year ago I got an e-mail from a young woman fin<strong>is</strong>hing<br />
her Ph.D. at a univers<strong>it</strong>y in <strong>Is</strong>rael. She had found 80 people who had all been youngsters who had
<strong>Reber</strong> 32<br />
survived the death camps in Nazi Germany. In her doctoral d<strong>is</strong>sertation, she had classified and<br />
l<strong>is</strong>ted the jokes that those in the camps had told to each other. She also did an analys<strong>is</strong> of the<br />
jokes, identifying those that seemed to be a way of laughing together in grief and those that were<br />
barbs aimed at their captors. She shared some w<strong>it</strong>h me. They were horrific; if they had been told<br />
by non-Jews, most of us would have desp<strong>is</strong>ed the tellers. But I wept as I read them.<br />
A recent joke goes like th<strong>is</strong>: “A v<strong>is</strong><strong>it</strong>or came to <strong>Is</strong>rael and saw the Western Wall. Not<br />
being too well versed in religious aspects, he inquired of a<strong>not</strong>her tour<strong>is</strong>t about the significance of<br />
the wall. The other tour<strong>is</strong>t explained, ‘Th<strong>is</strong> <strong>is</strong> a sacred Wall. If you pray to <strong>it</strong>, God may hear you.’<br />
The v<strong>is</strong><strong>it</strong>or walked close to the wall and started to pray. ‘Dear Lord,’ he said, ‘bring sunshine and<br />
warmth to th<strong>is</strong> beautiful land.’<br />
A commanding voice answered, ‘I will, my son.’<br />
The v<strong>is</strong><strong>it</strong>or said, ‘Bring prosper<strong>it</strong>y to th<strong>is</strong> land.’<br />
‘I will, my son.’ ‘Let Jews and Arabs live together in peace, dear Lord.’<br />
The voice answered, ‘You’re talking to a wall’” (King 5).<br />
A couple of jokes collected during a soviet crackdown on democratic reforms in Poland<br />
share the same qual<strong>it</strong>ies. “Did you hear that Soviet scient<strong>is</strong>ts have developed a new animal by<br />
crossing a cow w<strong>it</strong>h a giraffe? It can graze in Poland while being milked in the Soviet Union”<br />
(Kempe). And “President Reagan goes to God and inquires, ‘Tell me, Father, how long until my<br />
people are happy.’ God replies: ‘One hundred years.’ Reagan weeps and leaves. Helmut Schmidt<br />
of West Germany goes to God and asks, ‘Tell me, Father how long until my people are happy?’<br />
‘Two hundred years,’ says God. Schmidt weeps and leaves. Then Jarulzelski [the Pol<strong>is</strong>h leader]
<strong>Reber</strong> 33<br />
goes to God and asks the same question, ‘How long until my people are happy?’ God weeps and<br />
leaves” (Kempe). <strong>Is</strong> <strong>it</strong> possible to grieve while telling a joke. Yes.<br />
Humor <strong>is</strong> a sustaining part of our human<strong>it</strong>y. In Umberto Eco’s famous novel, The Name<br />
of The Rose, William has d<strong>is</strong>covered that the old blind monk, Jorge, has comm<strong>it</strong>ted several<br />
murders while intent on destroying Ar<strong>is</strong>totle’s wr<strong>it</strong>ings on humor lest they introduce<br />
lightheartedness into the church. William says that the wr<strong>it</strong>ings on humor are <strong>not</strong> the danger;<br />
rather, he says to Jorge, “You are the Devil. . . .The Devil <strong>is</strong> <strong>not</strong> the Prince of matter; the Devil <strong>is</strong><br />
the arrogance of the spir<strong>it</strong>, fa<strong>it</strong>h w<strong>it</strong>hout smile, truth that <strong>is</strong> never seized by doubt” (Eco 581).<br />
My mother reminds me that as a teenager, while I was musing on the odd<strong>it</strong>ies of animals<br />
and our neighbors, I said, “You know, Mom, God must have a great sense of humor.” As I look<br />
at the suffering in the world, and as I look at the difference between the person I would like to be<br />
and the person I am, I too must weep or laugh. In fact, I do both. Richard Cracroft, in h<strong>is</strong><br />
speaking of the value of humor to those in the LDS commun<strong>it</strong>y, quotes Mark Twain: “ Mark<br />
Twain was right when he wrote, ‘Humor <strong>is</strong> the great thing, the saving thing at last. The minute <strong>it</strong><br />
crops up all our hardnesses yield, all our irr<strong>it</strong>ations and resentments slip away, and a sunny spir<strong>it</strong><br />
takes their place” (qtd. in Cracroft 17). Hans Chr<strong>is</strong>tian Anderson wrote, “‘He who takes the<br />
serious only seriously and the humorous only humorously has understood everything only very<br />
poorly’” (qtd. in Cracroft). The abil<strong>it</strong>y to see the humor in things <strong>is</strong> fundamental to our human<strong>it</strong>y.<br />
While <strong>it</strong> can be used to emphasize boundaries, while <strong>it</strong> can cut to the bone, <strong>it</strong> can also meld tellers<br />
and l<strong>is</strong>teners into one shared commun<strong>it</strong>y. During th<strong>is</strong> talk, we have reviewed theories describing<br />
the aggressive, hostile purpose of much humor and a theory that shows how the structure of a<br />
joke creates humor, we have looked at the dangers of sex<strong>is</strong>t humor, and we have looked at the
<strong>Reber</strong> 34<br />
uses of ethnic humor by insiders, by outsiders, and by both to cross group boundaries. We have<br />
also seen how humor <strong>is</strong> one way of responding to d<strong>is</strong>asters and can be an expression of grief. In<br />
h<strong>is</strong> acceptance speech for the Nobel prize, William Faulkner talks about how l<strong>it</strong>erature can help<br />
sustain us. As w<strong>it</strong>h other l<strong>it</strong>erature, humor, the l<strong>it</strong>erature of the common folk, can be “one of the<br />
props, the pillars to help [humankind] endure and prevail.”
Works C<strong>it</strong>ed<br />
Anderson, Vern. “Oh My Heck! Who Says Latter-day Saints Are Always Serious.” Color<br />
Country Spectrum 3 April 1999: A1&A4.<br />
Cracroft, Richard. “The Humor of Mormon Seriousness.” Sunstone 10.1 (1985): 14-17.<br />
<strong>Reber</strong> 35<br />
Dundes, Alan. Cracking <strong>Joke</strong>s: Studies of Sick Humor Cycles and Stereotypes. Berkeley, CA,<br />
Ten Speed Press, 1987.<br />
Eco, Umberto. The Name of the Rose. New York: Harvest, 1994.<br />
Freud, Sigmund. <strong>Joke</strong>s and Their Relation to the Unconscious. New York: W. W. Norton, 1963.<br />
Gruner, Charles R. The Game of Humor: A Comprehensive Theory of Why We Laugh. New<br />
Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1997.<br />
Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan: Parts One and Two. New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1958.<br />
Johnson, Eric. “The Biology of . . . Humor.” D<strong>is</strong>cover May 2002: 24-25.<br />
Kempe, Frederick. “Warsaw W<strong>it</strong> Shows the Poles Aren’t Yet Totally D<strong>is</strong>armed.” Wall Street<br />
Journal 24 Sept. 1982.<br />
King, Alan. Alan King’s Great Jew<strong>is</strong>h <strong>Joke</strong> Book. New York: Crown, 2002.<br />
Kontorovich, E.V.”Personalized <strong>Joke</strong>s: <strong>When</strong> It Comes to Offending People, Nothing F<strong>it</strong>s the Bill<br />
Like Ethnic <strong>Joke</strong>s.” National Review 29 Sep. 1997. 12 July 1999.<br />
Leveen, Lo<strong>is</strong>. “Only <strong>When</strong> I Laugh: Textual Dynamics of Ethnic Humor.” MELUS 21.4 (1996).<br />
12 July 1999 .
Oring, Elliott. <strong>Joke</strong>s and Their Relations. Lexington, KY: Univ. Press or Kentucky, 1992.<br />
Oster, Shai. “Dark Laughter.” Moment April 1999. 5 Sep. 1999 < http://researcher.sirs.com/<br />
cgi-bin/hst-a...r_AND_Oster&source+Y&summary=N&graphic=N>.<br />
Ryan, Kathryn, and Jeanne Kanjorski. “The Enjoyment of Sex<strong>is</strong>t Humor, Rape Att<strong>it</strong>udes, and<br />
<strong>Reber</strong> 36<br />
Relationship Aggression [sic] in College Students.” Sex Roles: A Journal of Research May<br />
1998. 12 July 1999 .<br />
Sanders, Barry. A <strong>Is</strong> for Ox. New York: Vintage, 1995.<br />
Will, George F. “<strong>Joke</strong>s as Tiny Revolutions.” Newsweek 5 June 1989. 80.<br />
Wilson, William A. “The Seriousness of Mormon Humor.” Sunstone 10.1 (1985): 6-13.<br />
Wilson, William A., and Richard C. Poulsen. “The Curse of Cain and Other Stories: Blacks in<br />
Mormon Folklore.” Sunstone Nov./Dec. 1980: 9-13.