Title: Whiskey Joke (Christina Wulff)

General Information about the Item:

• Verbal Lore, Joke
• Language: English
• Country of Origin: Germany
• Informant: Jean D.
• Date Collected: 10-25-18

Informant Data: 

• Jean D. is a 52-year old female attorney who was born and raised in the United States and does not speak German. She currently lives in Virginia.

Contextual Data: 

• Cultural Context: Jokes originating in other countries are passed from culture to culture through oral traditions.  As many people from Germans have married American servicemen and assimilated into the United States, they have brought with them lore, including jokes.
• Social Context: This specific joke was told to the informant from her 75-year-old German-American neighbor.  The neighbor was born in Germany and married an American serviceman.  Since she has lived in the United States for almost 50 years, she says she considers herself an American.  In addition, the neighbor shared that most of the jokes that she is sent today via email from her friends and family in Germany are sent in English, not in German.

Associated File: 

Informants Comments:

• “My neighbor told me that even though this joke is old-fashioned and sexist, she still finds it funny because it indicates that the wife was unaware of what her late husband was doing.  When asked to relay any German jokes that she knew, she said that she didn’t know too many and probably needed to find some funnier friends!”

Collector’s Comments: 

• I agree that the joke is sexist. It could be turned around to have the husband discovering what “medicine” his late wife used to take.  But, it also a representative of Germany being a traditional, patriarchal society.  And, the joke still works when translated into English.

Collector’s Name: Christina Wulff

Tags/Keywords

• Verbal Lore
• Joke
• Whiskey Joke from Germany