From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!floyd!cmcl2!philabs!sdcsvax!phonlab!sdcatta!wa277
Newsgroups: net.jokes
Title: Where Do Jokes Come From? (Discussion)
Article-I.D.: sdcatta.447
Posted: Wed Jun  9 14:06:20 1982
Received: Fri Jun 11 00:49:16 1982


     I remember distinctly a conversation my parents had when I
was about ten years old.  Who, they wondered, made up all the
jokes that people tell at parties, at work, and in magazines?
They themselves had never made up jokes, and as far as they knew
their friends hadn't.  Their conclusion was that it must be prison
inmates, since they have lots of time on their hands.  The jokes get
started in prisons and then spread around the country.
     Maybe, but I still wonder.  It's a question closely related to
study of "urban folklore" (apocryphal tales of alligators in the sewers,
or the recent National Enquirer headline: "Boy Killed by Video Game!").
If you read William Labov's outstanding sociolinguistic study, Language
in the Inner City, you find numerous examples of jokes and put-downs
spontaneously generated by kids "playing the dozens"--engaging in
ritual insult contests.  In mainstream Anglo culture, though, it
seems people mostly rely on jokes and insults they've heard from
others.
     Do any of you invent jokes?  If so, what sort?  Are they
successful?  Are short jokes easier than long narrative ones?
I'd be curious to know.  (I guess you ought to use mail rather
than net.jokes in order not to clutter net.jokes up with too
much *serious* material, but a general discussion might be
interesting--is there an appropriate newsgroup?)
     Here's an example of a joke I made up.  I'm not totally
satisfied with it; it doesn't seem up to the standard of the
"folk jokes" we hear every day.

     Two ethnic cops are walking their beat in the park one night.
One of them asks the other, "Say, do you know what time it is?"
"Sorry," says the other, "I forgot my watch tonight."
     "Hold on a minute," says the first.  "There's a sundial over
by the fountain.  I'll go check what it says."  So he goes over
towards the sundial.  A minute later he comes back and says, "It's
two o'clock."
     "Hey, now how can you tell the time from a sundial in the dark?"
asks his pal.
     "Stupid!  Why do you think they issue us flashlights?!"

     A suggestion: when posting jokes that you've made up, tack
on "(original)" to the title if you want it recognized as such.

     David Sewell sdcsvax!sdcatta!wa277