The Engineer and the Frog Princess (Sal LaRussa)

Title: The Engineer and the Frog Princess (Sal LaRussa)

General Information about Item:

Informant Data:

Sal LaRussa is currently a field applications engineer at Texas Instruments in Massachusetts. He went to college at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in Rochester, New York. His first job was at Taylor Instruments, an engineering company in Rochester that was well known for making measuring instruments, including thermometers.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context: Most of the engineering jokes the informant can remember were heard during his time at RIT or Taylor Instruments. His example was used to make fun of people who exemplified common engineering stereotypes, such as social ineptitude. This joke is also influenced by the fairy tale “The Frog Prince,” collected by the Brothers Grimm. There are also other versions of the story that have the genders reversed.
Social Context: This joke was recalled after the the informant was asked prior to the interview to think of engineering jokes. The interview took place over the phone. The joke was likely told and originally heard during the informant’s time in college. It may have been used to comment on the behavior and personality of other engineering students.

Item:

Interview Recording:

Transcript:

(2:14) “There was the one about, you know, a guy finding a frog on the street and it was a princess and all you had to do was kiss the frog and there would be a princess and he never…, um, he never kissed the frog and the frog finally got upset with him and said ‘why don’t you ever kiss me, I’ll be a beautiful princess’ and he goes, ‘well I don’t really care about princesses, but a talking frog is really cool.'”

Informant’s Comments:

This joke reminded him of one of his colleagues at Taylor Instruments, but he is not sure where he first heard it. He thought it might have been more likely heard and performed while he was in college rather than at work.

Collector’s Comments:

This joke seems to be a common example of an engineering stereotype joke. A variant was also collected from Eric Hansen as part of this project. The informant asked me to redact the name of one of the people mentioned in the interview, as it portrayed him in a negative light. Besides this joke, the full recorded interview contains some discussion of engineering stereotypes and folklore.

Collector’s Name: Ben Wolsieffer

Dartmouth Folklore Archive