Type of riddle whose proposition (question) serves as a setup for the punch-line answer.
Some riddle jokes draw on the resources of the riddle conundrum in that they depend on
word play (for example, “What would happen if a girl ate bullets?—She would grow
bangs”) or on sound play (“What happened when the cow jumped over the barbed wire
fence?—Utter [udder] destruction”). Parody riddle jokes extend the nature of riddle-joke
humor into absurdity and nonsense. Typically, they violate mainstream assumptions of
what can happen in the everyday, “real” world (“What’s black, sits in a tree, and is
dangerous?—A crow with a machine gun”). In addition, riddle jokes can attempt to
extend the durational impact of the humor through the use of the riddle chain—that is, a
series of two or more interactionally sequential and topically related riddles in which
subsequently given riddles build upon previously given ones. An example of a riddle joke
chain is: “What’s red and white and sits in a corner?—A baby chewing on razor blades.
What’s red and green and sits in a corner?—The same baby, two weeks later.”
Riddle jokes often occur in topical cycles—that is, riddle jokes exploring a single
topic develop as a fad; eventually, interest in that set of jokes declines, and the set is
subordinated to, or replaced by, the next (and newer) joke fad. For instance, little moron
jokes became popular in the 1940s and 1950s (“Why did the little moron tiptoe past the
medicine cabinet?—He didn’t want to wake the sleeping pills”). After World War II,
Polack jokes surfaced. In their initial versions, they served as satiric commentary on the
Polish army’s ineffective defense of its homeland against invading Nazi forces in 1939
(“How do you tell a veteran Polish soldier from a rookie?—By the bullet holes”). By the
1960s, Polack-joke topics had broadened beyond the historical and had come to replace
little moron jokes. Polack jokes then became the most frequently employed riddle-joke
means for portraying stereotypically inept characters.
Various joke cycles have developed over the years. One cycle, popular during die
1970s, considered the nonsensical activities of fruits. There were, for instance, banana
jokes (“What’s yellow and goes click-click?—A ballpoint banana”) as well as grape
jokes (“What’s purple and conquers continents?—Alexander die Grape”). Some of the
cycles current in recent years have focused on celebrities such as the popular singer Dolly
Parton, who is also known for her well-endowed bustline (“Why are Dolly Parton’s feet
so small?—Nodiing grows in the shade”), on natural as well as human-made disasters
(“What’s 12–8– 12?—The measurements of Miss Ethiopia” [referring to the 1980s
Ethiopian drought and resulting famine], and “Have you heard the weather forecast for
Kiev?—A high of 9,000 degrees and cloudy” [referring to the 1986 nuclear plant disaster
in the Chernobyl-Kiev region of the USSR]), and on incurable medical conditions (“Do
you know why all die alligators in Florida are dying?—They’ve got gator–AIDS” or
“What’s one advantage of [having] Alzheimer’s? [The condition eventually results in
severe memory loss and disorientation.]—You keep on meeting new people”).
Typically, ethnic riddle jokes attribute a ludicrous and socially inappropriate trait to
the ethnic group allegedly about whom the joke is told. The word “allegedly” is important because with many ethnic joke formulas—for instance, “How do you tell the
bride at a(n)–——wedding?”—the ethnic name “slot” in the riddle question can be filled
with a reference to any one of a number of different ethnic groups (“How do you tell the
bride at an Irish wedding?” or “How do you tell the bride at a Polack wedding?”). In each
case, the answer—“She’s the one in the maternity dress”—remains the same. Ethnic
riddle jokes may accuse the target group of, for instance, physical dirtiness (“Why don’t
they allow Italians to swim in the Hudson River?—They would leave a [dirty] ring on the
shoreline”), the inappropriate manage-ment of body apertures (“How do you break a
Polack’s finger?—Hit him in the nose”), spousal abuse (“What’s an Irish theater party?—
Watching a neighbor beat up his wife”) or “uncivilized” food practices (“What happens
to the garbage in Italian restaurants?—They serve it in Puerto Rican restaurants”).
Christie Davies has reported that, around the world, the most frequently told type of
ethnic joke is that which attributes the qualities of stupidity, ineptness, and/or ignorance
to some target group (Davies 1990). An example is: “How many Polacks does it take to
pull off a kidnapping?—Six. One to kidnap the kid and five to write the note.” According
to Davies, the 20th century’s emphasis on the acquisition of information (particularly of
specialized knowledge), coupled with conditions of rapid social and economic change,
have fostered people’s anxieties concerning what they do not know about the world
around them. Jokes emphasizing other people’s stupidity, Davies has suggested, may
reflect and partly assuage those anxieties. Furthermore, feelings of superiority or of
concern regarding others’ ineptness may become especially focused if an allegedly inept
group leader or group is viewed as having considerable influence on people’s lives. This
is illustrated in Polish Pope jokes told about a supposedly simpleminded Pope John Paul
II (“What does TGIF on the Pope’s slippers mean?—Toes Go in First”) and in jokes
about NASA’s technological failings with respect to the Challenger space shuttle (which
exploded in flight in January 1986, killing all seven aboard) (“What does NASA stand
for?—Need Another Seven Astronauts”). Within the Challenger cycle, some jokes allege
teacher and crew member Christa McAuliffe’s incompetence as an astronaut. This
incompetence was presumably due to her naiveté as a civilian and to her supposedly
inherent weaknesses as a woman (“What were the last words of the [shuttle’s]
commander?—‘Not that button, bitch!’”). Regional riddle jokes can also attribute to
targeted groups the qualities of stupidity ( “What happened when the smart Okies
[residents of Oklahoma] moved to California?—It lowered the IQ of both states”) or of
cultural backwardness (“Do you know why they had to drop the teaching of drivers’
education at Tech [Virginia Polytechnic Institute] this year?—The mule died”).
The United States is not the only country whose citizens tell ethnic riddle jokes. For
example, the following was told by Belgians about the Flemish (an ethnic group in
Belgium): “Why did the Americans have the Negroes and the Belgians have the
Flemish?—Because the Americans had first choice.” Related to the ethnic joke is the
international slur (blason populaire), a derisive joke (or other insult) that the citizens of
one country tell about the citizens of another country. One example is the Belgian joke
given above. In addition to poking fun at the ethnic Flemish, it also manages to insult the
residents of another country (African Americans). Another example is a joke that
Americans have told about the residents of Mexico, allegedly all of whom want to enter
the United States as illegal immigrants: “Why aren’t there any swimming pools in
Mexico?—Because everyone who could swim [across the river separating the two
countries] is in the United States.”
Simon J.Bronner has summarized various folklorists’ hypotheses as to why certain
riddle-joke cycles developed in particular sociopolitical and/or socioeconomic
environments (Bronner 1988). Roger D.Abrahams and Alan Dundes (in Dundes 1987)
have speculated, for example, that the elephant riddles of the 1960s developed among
European Americans as a tension-releasing response to African Americans’ involvement
in the civil rights movement. Abrahams and Dundes point to the metaphoric
awkwardness of a large, powerful, dark-colored animal from the jungle—that is, the
riddle-joke elephant (representing African Americans)—as it tries to fit into “civilized”
society (that is, a society dominated by European Americans). An example emphasizing
the idea of “fitting in” is: “What is harder than getting a pregnant elephant into a
Volkswagon?—Getting an elephant pregnant in a Volkswagon.” In addition, such jokes
can suggest defensive measures to be taken against the elephant: “How do you keep an
elephant from charging?—Take away his credit card.”
Secondly, one hypothesis about the dead-baby jokes of the 1960s and 1970s suggests
that they arose as a response to the brutality of the Vietnam War, during which
assumptions about the sanctity of life were severely tested. Typically, deadbaby jokes
consider ways in which babies can die (“What’s blue and sits in the corner?—A baby in a
[plastic, food-storage] Baggie”) as well as ways in which the bodies can be disposed of
(“What is easier to unload: a truckload of dead babies or a truckload of bowling balls?—
A truckload of dead babies because you can use a pitchfork”). A related hypothesis
emphasizing the sanctity-of-life theme associates deadbaby jokes with concern over
contraception and the abortion rights movement.
Thirdly, the proliferation of lightbulb jokes, from the late 1960s into the 1980s, has
been associated with that era’s increasing reliance on technology, with people’s growing
concern over energy shortages, and with people’s increased awareness of (and sometimes
lack of patience concerning) the special interests claimed by a variety of regional-,
ethnio-, and genderbased groups as well as by foreign groups whose activities have
impacted upon Americans. Examples of lightbulb jokes that comment humorously on
special-interest groups include the following:
How many Californians does it take to change a lightbulb?—Six. One to
screw the bulb in, and five to share the experience.
How many JAPs (Jewish American Princesses) does it take to change a
lightbulb?—Two. One to call her father, and the other to open a can of
Diet Pepsi.
How many gay men does it take to change a lightbulb?—Five. One to
screw in the Art Deco lightbulb, and four to stand back and yell,
“Fabulous!”
How many Iranians does it take to change a lightbulb?—One hundred.
One to screw the bulb in, and ninety-nine to hold the house hostage
[referring to the period in 1979–1980 during which Americans were held
hostage in the American Embassy in Iran].
Finally, some folklorists have linked riddle jokes about sensational murders and disasters
to people’s possible disgust with media reports of those events. In Willie Smyth’s
opinion, media presentations exploit viewers’ emotional reactions to such events while, at
the same time, promoting the media’s and corporate America’s own interests through
product commericals (Smyth 1986). The folk response to this manipulation, it seems,
comes in the form of riddle jokes that propose their own uncomfortable connections
between death, disaster, and commercialized product, for example:
Why should (assassinated Prime Minister of India) Indira Gandhi have
changed her deodorant?—Because her Right Guard couldn’t protect her.
Why do they drink Pepsi at NASA?—Because they can’t get 7-Up
(that is, seven astronauts up).
Danielle M.Roemer
References
Bronner, Simon J., comp. and ed. 1988. American Children’s Folklore. annotated ed. Little Rock,
AR: August House.
Davies, Christie. 1990. Ethnic Humor around the World: A Comparative Analysts. Bloomington:
Indiana University Press.
Dundes, Alan. 1987. Cracking Joker. Studies of Sick Humor Cycles and Stereotypes. Berkeley: Ten
Speed.
Smyth, Willie. 1986. Challenger Jokes and the Humor of Disaster. Western Folklore 45:243–260.