Title: Skeleton at the Doctor

General Information about Item:

• Verbal Lore, Joke
• Language: Hebrew
• Country of Origin: Israel
• Informant: Gilad Doron
• Date Collected: 11-3-18

Informant Data:

• Gilad was born and raised in Kibbutz Ein Hamifratz, Israel. He is currently the head coach of the Dartmouth women’s varsity volleyball team. He competed on the Israeli National team for 10 years, and later served as a coach for Mate Asher professional volleyball club in his native country. Hebrew is his native language, but he is also fluent in English.

Contextual Data:

• Cultural Context: The state of Israel is located in the Middle East, with Hebrew being its primary language. Over 9 million people speak the language worldwide. Humor has been present here in this location, historically through works of Judaism, but in today’s culture primarily expressed in a mainstream, anecdotal form, most frequently mirroring American humor.
• Social Context: The interviewee is a native Hebrew Speaker, who learned English while growing up and preparing to serve in the Israeli military. He later graduated with a degree from Temple University. The joke was told to him by a native Hebrew Speaker back in Israel. The interviewee went to the doctor for some pains, and this joke is what the doctor replied to him with.

Item:

• This is a joke in Hebrew about a skeleton who goes to the doctor. He complains to the doctor that he is need of some help, so the doctor replies to him with a witty answer, saying he can not help him because it is a bit too late to help someone who is already a skeleton.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Skeleton2-2mny5vt

Hebrew Transcript:

English Transcript of Translation:

• “A skeleton goes to the doctors office, and tells him he doesn’t feel well. The doctor says he is a bit too late”.

Informant’s Comments:

• The informant said this was a joke his doctor made to him when he was younger and went to the doctors office because he was having some body pains. When I asked for a literal translation, he noted that there were a few words and concepts he could not specifically translate into English, so he provided me with a ‘loose translation’.

Collector’s Comments:

• This joke is a funny example of a short joke, which provides a normal context, then finishes with an unexpected punch line. The fact that a doctor told the joke to his patient is funny in itself as the joke is about a doctor and patient interaction. Although there are no specific references to the Jewish culture or life in Israel, the joke still provides insight in to the type of witty and sarcastic humor often found in modern Jewish humor.

Collector’s Name: Zoe Leonard & Bun Straton

Tags/Keywords:

• Verbal Lore
• Joke
• Skeleton
• Health
• Doctor