Category Archives: 18F Jokes

The Cabot Cheese Taste Test

Title: The Cabot Cheese Taste Test

General Information about Item:

  • Customary, Practical Joke
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Brad Stone
  • Date Collected: This data was collected on October 29th, 2018 during a one-on-one interview in the library of Dartmouth College with Brad Stone.

Informant Data:

  • Brad Stone ‘19 is a male student studying neuroscience at Dartmouth College. He is originally from Tampa, Florida. Brad has lead several trips before as a member of the Dartmouth Outing Club First Year Trips staff.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
    • Brad encountered this joke first when he was leading a trip during August of 2018. Brad noted that this specific practical joke was not very common on other trips, but that the practice of unknown visitors arriving at random trips and playing practical jokes on the tripees is a widespread part of the First Year Trips experience.
    • This joke is typically played by upperclassmen or students leading trips on their first year tripees. As the objects of the prank, the new freshmen are supposed to be initiated and bonded together as a new class by going through the embarrassment of this prank together.
  • Cultural Context
    • This joke occurs on first year trips, which close to 95% of every incoming class at Dartmouth College participates in. Trips are used as a way to welcome each new class to Dartmouth and to break down whatever misconceptions they might have. Accordingly, jokes on trips are used often as they offer a great way to subvert expectations and to make everyone have a good time. Typically, the practical joke is played once the members of the trip and the leaders have left Dartmouth’s campus and are together somewhere in the surrounding wilderness of New Hampshire/Vermont. In this way, practical jokes like this one are very common to the Trips setting as they serve to bring everyone closer together through group humiliation/embarrassment.

Item:

While a land-based trip is in progress (typically hiking), a random member of the First Year Trips staff unknown to the tripees arrives dressed in a lab coat posing as an employee of the well-known cheese company, Cabot Cheese. The visitor asks tripees and trip leaders if they want to give feedback about some new types of cheese that Cabot is rolling out that are targeted at hikers and other outdoorsy individuals. When the tripees say yes, the visitor gives them several samples of cheese, which are actually all the same cheese and asks them several prodding questions about how the cheeses taste, which is their favorite, etc. Eventually, after the victim of the prank is unable to tell that each cheese is the same and that they are being pranked, the truth is revealed to their embarrassment.

 

Transcript:

  • Jackson: Hey Brad, do you think you could tell me like a little bit about your background and where you’re from?
  • Brad: Yeah. Sure. So my name is Brad Stone. I’m a ‘19 from Tampa, Florida, and I’m a neuroscience major here at Dartmouth College.
  • Jackson: So, when you were coming here to Dartmouth, did you know anything about the school in advance or anything about trips or was that totally new for you?
  • Brad: So, interestingly enough, my dad was an ’87. So I knew a bit about the College. He told me that trips were an awesome experience for him, but he never really went into detail. So I was I knew to expect something positive but was kind of flying blind other than that.
  • Jackson: I know you’ve also led trips before too, so you must now have a lot of exposure. What are what are some funny jokes that you’ve heard before or pranks that you’ve heard being played on trips?
  • Brad: Sure. So this past fall, I was leading a trip had a group of eight ‘21s, and I had a ‘20 as a co-leader. One of the more interesting pranks that was pulled on our trip was a raid done by Vox Crew. So, Vox Crew is sort of the logistical division of some trips. They get make sure you have enough food and water etc. while you’re out on the trails. Any sort of emergency medical that wouldn’t be straight to 9-1-1, they would take care of. So, we met a member of Vox Crew coming down a trail. We just hiked like eight miles, and we were hitting an intersection of the trail around a main road when we met an upperclassman dressed in a lab coat. She approached us and said she was from Cabot Cheese Factory, and they were really interested in polling hikers as that as that was a Target demographic of theirs. So, they led us to a van. Outside the van, they had set up this table with a bunch of different plates of cheese labeled “A,” “B,” and “C.” At a glance, knowing they were Dartmouth students, it was pretty obvious they’d stolen the plates from Foco and had put out the same slices of cheese on each plate, but I decided to play along. And so, we told each of the tripees that they were taking an objective survey quiz asking various questions. The questions kept getting sillier and sillier, until it became obvious to everyone that it was a prank. At that point, we broke out cookies and chatted and had a good time, but it was pretty amusing to see them think it was an actual Cabot employee.

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

Audio file

Informant’s Comments:

  • “I had never heard of this prank being played except a couple times, so I was really excited when it happened to us while I was leading Trips. Definitely brought my tripees a lot closer together and was just a great time.”

 

Collectors’ Comments:

  • This joke seems to function in-line with the goals of Trips as a whole, where the tripees have no idea what to expect. As the object of the humor, the tripees are pranked and embarrassed together, bringing them closer together and helping to build lasting friendships before their time at Dartmouth truly begins.

 

Collector’s Name: Jackson Baur

Tags/Keywords:

  • Joke. Pranks. Practical Jokes. Trips. Dartmouth.

Canadian Ground Fruit

Title: Canadian Ground Fruit

General Information about Item:

  • Customary, Practical Joke
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Myself
  • Data Collected: This data was collected on November 1st, 2018 via a recording of Jackson’s experience with how the Canadian Ground Fruit prank is usually performed on trips.

Informant Data:

  • Jackson Baur ‘20 is a male student studying Economics at Dartmouth College, who is originally from Houston, Texas. Jackson is of German descent and had never been to New Hampshire prior to going on First Year Trips at the start of his freshman fall.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
    • Jackson encountered this joke first as a participant in trips.
    • This joke is typically played by upperclassmen or students leading trips on their trip members (referred to as tripees). As the objects of the prank, the new freshmen are supposed to be initiated and bonded together as a new class by going through the embarrassment of this prank together.
  • Cultural Context
    • This joke occurs on first year trips, which close to 95% of every incoming class at Dartmouth College participates in. Trips are used as a way to welcome each new class to Dartmouth and to break down whatever misconceptions they might have. Accordingly, jokes on trips are used often as they offer a great way to subvert expectations and to make everyone have a good time. Typically, the practical joke is played once the members of the trip and the leaders have left Dartmouth’s campus and are together somewhere in the surrounding wilderness of New Hampshire/Vermont. In this way, practical jokes like this one are very common to the Trips setting as they serve to bring everyone closer together through group humiliation/embarrassment.

Item:

To perform this practical joke, First Year Trip’s leaders from each trip will wait until their trips leave campus.  Once they are in the wilderness together, one leader runs ahead and buries a pineapple that they brought along with them in the ground up to the tip of its pointy leaves/stem. Upon returning to their tripees, the trip leader will suggest that the trip goes on a walk or continues in the direction of the partially buried pineapple. When they approach, the trip leaders make note of the odd looking, half buried fruit and highlight for their tripees that they have come across a rare feature of Northeastern plant life called the Canadian Ground Fruit. Excited tripees inevitably gather around and are encouraged by their trip leaders to dig up the Canadian Ground Fruit and even taste it, reassuring them repeatedly that, although it may look like and even taste like a pineapple, it is not a pineapple.

 

Transcript:

  • Jackson: I’m Jackson Baur. I’m a ‘20 here at Dartmouth from Houston, Texas, and I’m studying Economics. Prior to coming to Dartmouth, I had no experience with Dartmouth. I’d never even been in New Hampshire. So, First Year Trips were really my first introduction to the school. On first year trips, one of the most prominent, seems like one of the most archetypal, pranks that was played on us was this one referring to something the trip leaders called the Canadian Ground Fruit. This happened when I was on a hiking trip, and, once we were out in the wilderness, my trip leaders ran away from the group or one of them did and buried a pineapple on the ground up to its stem. When we came across this later, they pointed it out, drew a bunch of attention to it, and said it was something that only grew in the Northeast, a rare plant called the Canadian Ground Fruit. They encouraged us to dig it up, at which point we all noticed that it looked like a pineapple, but they really were insistent that it wasn’t a pineapple, that it was this thing called a Canadian Ground Fruit. And so, when we pulled it out, they encouraged us to even like, you know, cut it open and even take a bite out of it. They said it was edible, at which point, we realized that we were the butt end of a prank, that this was, in fact, a pineapple, and they had just fooled all of us naïve, will-be freshman into thinking that a pineapple was something that is just totally nonexistent, a totally made-up thing.

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

Audio file

Informant’s / Collectors’ Comments:

  • As one of the most fondly remembered practical jokes of Dartmouth Trips, this practical joke is also one of the most widely repeated and referenced after many students are done with their trips.

 

Collector’s Name: Jackson Baur

Tags/Keywords:

  • Joke. Pranks. Practical Jokes. Trips. Dartmouth.

Dear Diary

Title: Dear Diary

General Information about Item:

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

Informant Data:

  • Eyal was born and raised in Kibbutz Ein Hamifratz, Israel. He is currently the assistant coach of the Dartmouth women’s varsity volleyball team. He competed on the Israeli National team for many years, attended the University of Hawaii, and played a professional beach volleyball player in the AVP . 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 in computer science from the University of Hawaii. The joke was told to him by a native Hebrew Speaker back in Israel. The interviewee said this joke was a ‘family friendly’ joke he had learned from friends when growing up.

Item:

  • This joke in Hebrew is a play on words. It is about an eskimo. The joke is funny because it is actually a play on words, which is not apparent until the end of the joke.

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

deardiary-w6cx0m

Hebrew Transcript:

“MA ES’KI’MO’I KO’TEV BA’YO’MAN SHE’LO: YO’MA’NI HA’YA-KAR.”

English Transcript of Translation:

  • A man writes in his diary, “Dear diary, what is an eskimo person?” But the “Dear diary” in Hebrew, if you break it down, the “dear” can be read as “it was cold.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • When I asked the informant for some jokes he had learned as a teenager, this was the first one he gave. He said it was one of the few ‘family friendly’ jokes he could share. He also noted that in Israel wittiness and word play are very common. Not only is it funny, but is meant to test someones wits and smarts.

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. I did not really understand the joke at first, and still don’t quite understand the humor, but the fact that the informant had to think of ‘family friendly’ jokes and came up with this one felt like he was trying to relate to me as an American in an appropriate way. 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
  • Wordplay
  • Eskimo

Blonde Joke

Title: Blonde Joke

General Information about Item:

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

Informant Data:

  • Eyal was born and raised in Kibbutz Ein Hamifratz, Israel. He is currently the assistant coach of the Dartmouth women’s varsity volleyball team. He competed on the Israeli National team for many years, attended the University of Hawaii, and played a professional beach volleyball player in the AVP . 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 in computer science from the University of Hawaii. The joke was told to him by a native Hebrew Speaker back in Israel. The interviewee said this joke was a ‘family friendly’ joke he had learned from friends when growing up.

Item:

  • This is a joke in Hebrew making fun of blondes. It targets the American stereotypes of blonde women being dumb and ditzy. The joke pokes fun at the blonde’s ability to decipher a confusing situation, such as a card that says to flip it over on both sides.

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

Blondejoke-10g087x

Hebrew Transcript:

“ECH ME’SHA’G’IM BLONDI’NIT: NOT’NIM LA PE’TEK VE’BE’SHNEY HA’TSDA’DIM “TA’HA’FCHI”

English Transcript of Translation:

  • “How do you drive a blonde crazy? You hand her a note that has the word ‘flip’ written on both sides.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • When I asked the informant for some jokes he had learned as a teenager, this was the first one he gave. He said it was one of the few ‘family friendly’ jokes he could share. He also noted that in Israel the ‘blonde’ stereotype is widely known, and often times included in much raunchier jokes and comments.

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 the informant had to think of ‘family friendly’ jokes and came up with this one felt like he was trying to relate to me as an American. 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
  • Blonde

Husband and Wife Driving

Title: Husband and Wife Driving

General Information about Item:

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

Informant Data:

  • Eyal was born and raised in Kibbutz Ein Hamifratz, Israel. He is currently the assistant coach of the Dartmouth women’s varsity volleyball team. He competed on the Israeli National team for many years, attended the University of Hawaii, and played a professional beach volleyball player in the AVP . 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 in computer science from the University of Hawaii. The joke was told to him by a native Hebrew Speaker back in Israel. The interviewee said this joke was a ‘family friendly’ joke he had learned from friends when growing up.

Item:

  • This is a joke in Hebrew about  a husband and a wife. The joke ends by poking fun at the wife and her driving abilities, implying that she looses control of the vehicle and is driving all over the sidewalks, and the pedestrians should watch out as they are in danger of her bad driving.

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

WifeDriving-21gnkjh

Hebrew Transcript:

“AL TID’A’GI MAMY AT NO’HE’GET ME’U’LE. MI SHE’YESH LO BA’A’YA IM ZE SHE’LO YE’LECH AL HA’MID’RA’CHA.”

English Transcript of Translation:

  • A husband and wife are talking. The husband says to the wife, “Oh don’t worry dear, you are driving excellent! Anyone who has a problem with your driving not should walk on the sidewalk.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • When I asked the informant for some jokes he had learned as a teenager, this was the first one he gave. He said it was one of the few ‘family friendly’ jokes he could share. He also noted that in Israel there is a stereotype that women are terrible drivers, and that they should not be on the road at all.

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 the informant had to think of ‘family friendly’ jokes and came up with this one felt like he was trying to relate to me as an American. 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
  • Husband
  • Wife
  • Driving

Coffee & Pastries

Title: Coffee & Pastries

General Information about Item:

  • Verbal/Visual Lore, Joke, Meme
  • Language: English
  • Origin: Dartmouth Athletic Teams
  • Informant: Shannon Ropp
  • Date Collected: 10-29-18

Informant Data:

  • Shannon Ropp was born in West Bloomfield, Michigan. Her parents are Jefferey and Debra Ropp. She has one older brother, and grew up playing hockey. She has a dog named Frodo. She is currently a senior at Dartmouth College, and is studying Engineering Sciences. She is a member of the Dartmouth Women’s Ice hockey team.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: The Dartmouth women’s ice hockey head coach, Laura Schuler believes that in order to be a peak athlete, you must fuel your body for performance. One day while she was speaking to her team, she said that they needed to stop “exclusively fueling their bodies with coffee and pastries”.
  • Social Context: The team drinks a lot of coffee during the school term in order to stay awake for classes and assignments, as well as eats lots of pastries as they are easy to grab and go. The team thought this was humorous that their coach would reprimand them for something as minuscule as that. The team then began making memes out of the incident.

Item:

  • This is a combination of a visual joke/meme and a spoken joke. The team created a serious of memes and shared them. Whenever someone is making unhealthy decisions, they are told to stop “fueling their body with only coffee and pastries”.

Informant’s Comments:

  • This was one of our favorite jokes so far this year, and it has sparked many following memes and jokes. We have also renamed out group chat “Coffee & Pastries” as a nod to the incident.

Collector’s Comments:

  • The joke here is a paradox for athletes. You would not expect division 1 athletes to eat excess unhealthy foods. Its also interesting to see the first meme I collected from a sports team, and may reflect the culture of the generation of current Dartmouth athletes.

Collector’s Name: Sydney Hill

Tags/Keywords:

  • Verbal Lore
  • Joke
  • Meme
  • Coffee
  • Hockey
  • Pastries
  • Athlete

 

 

FACT

Title: FACT

General Information about Item:

  • Verbal Lore, Joke
  • Language: English
  • Origin: Dartmouth Athletic Teams
  • Informant: Eva Klein
  • Date Collected: 10-25-18

Informant Data:

  • Eva Klein was born Los Angeles, CA and grew up in Santa Clarita, CA. She is currently a junior at Dartmouth College, and is studying Film/Media and French. She began playing rugby when she was 12 years old. Her father played rugby for the University of Buffalo. Eva was recruited to play rugby for Dartmouth and has been playing since her freshman year.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Eva’s teammate, Ale Ada, is a freshman at Dartmouth College. She is from Sinajana, Guam. Her teammates give her a hard time because she speaks in what Eva described as a “matter of fact” tone.
    Social Context: The team thought that the way that Ale spoke was very funny, as it seemed that she was constantly telling everyone cold hard “facts”. This then developed into a reoccurring joke repeated by members of the team. 

Item:

  • This is a joke spoken by the members of the Dartmouth Women’s Rugby team, following whenever Ale Ada speaks. Whenever she speaks, whether it be a question, opinion or statement, a fellow teammate yells out “FACT” in response as a nod to the way she presents herself.

Informant’s Comments:

  • This was a joke that was started when Ale began speaking. It may not seem very funny to others, but it makes most of us laugh

Collector’s Comments:

  • The joke here serves as a way to incorporate the freshman Ale, as well as allows the team to bond over their kinship. The true humor derives from the parallel between what Ale is saying, usually a question or an opinion which is presented as a statement and is said to be a “fact”.

Collector’s Name: Sydney Hill

Tags/Keywords:

  • Verbal Lore
  • Joke
  • Rugby
  • Fact
  • Team
  • Freshman
  • Inclusion

 

 

Randall

Title: Randall

General Information about Item:

  • Verbal Lore, Joke
  • Language: English
  • Origin: Dartmouth College Athletics
  • Informant: Clay Han
  • Date Collected: 10-24-18

Informant Data:

  • Clayton Han was born in Cincinnati, OH on February 23, 1995. His father’s family is originally from Indonesia and immigrated to the United States in 1974. His mother is from Barbourville, KY, a small town in the southeastern portion of the state. Clayton grew up in Cincinnati, until he graduated from high school and moved to Lexington, MA in order to play hockey. In addition, Clayton and his family are members of the Methodist Church. Currently, Clayton is a Junior at Dartmouth College, where he is also a member of the Men’s Varsity Ice Hockey team

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: When Brendan Less, Clay’s teammate, joined the team during Clay’s sophomore year, his teammates saw similarities in both face and personality between Brendan and Randall Bogs from the animated film “Monsters Inc.”
  • Social Context: The joke is shared amongst the men’s hockey team, and is reoccurring through conversation.

Item:

  • This is a men’s hockey team joke, in the form of a nickname

Informant’s Comments:

  • This was a joke that was created to include the freshman Brendan Less. It is in good spirit and not meant to be mean, but rather a way to bond.

Collector’s Comments:

  • The joke here is a good way for teammate’s to bond over past experiences and create a social dynamic together. There is a parallel between expecting a hockey player to be a lot different than a Pixar character.

Collector’s Name: Sydney Hill

Tags/Keywords:

  • Verbal Lore
  • Joke
  • Hockey
  • Randall
  • Monsters Inc
  • Nickname
  • Team

 

 

Kill the Principal

Title: Kill the Principal

General Information about Item:

  • Verbal Lore, Joke
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: Marshall Islands
  • Informant: Sanders Leon
  • Date Collected: 10-27-18

Informant Data:

  • Sanders is a native to the Marshall Islands. He was born in the Marshall Islands on the capital Majuro. Sanders moved to the Hawaiian Islands in the United states when he was five years old. He spent two years serving a mission for his church in Texas with Marshallese people.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: The Marshall Islands are a part of the larger Micronesian island group and are largely surrounded by water. The typical diet of the Marshallese people includes a lot of fresh fish, tropical fruits and nuts. The Marshallese Public School system is similar to the United States in that the system is a network of elementary schools that are guided by central guidelines but managed by an internal leadership staff.
  • Social Context: The interviewee heard this joke when he was a kid on the Marshall Islands. He was educated at a young age in Majuro where the country’s public school system is headquartered. For young Marshallese children, jokes and other forms are verbal lore are sometimes used as educational tools for learning the language.

Item:

  • English Translation of the Joke:
In school one teacher was teaching his class. He said follow me. “Banana taste good”

Then the class said “banana taste good”

Now coconut “coconut taste good”

Then the class said “coconut taste good”

Pandanus?

Then the class said “pandanus taste good”

Breadfruit?

Then the class said “breadfruit taste good”

In the class the teacher saw a rat, then he yelled “kill the rat!”

The class also yelled out “kill the rat”

The principal hearing the teacher came to see if there was any problem.

The teacher saw the principal and said “principal!”

Then the class yelled out “kill the principal”

  • The joke is sort of a play on words, or rather a play on the situation. You can see the prevalence of foods that are important in Marshallese culture. Particularly the mention of pandanus and breadfruit which are fruits native to the old world tropics and the south Pacific region of the world.

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

Transcript:

  • “Mā”? Im class eo raar ba ‘enno mā.’ Ilo class eo rikaki eo eaar lò juon kijirik. I’m eaar lamuj ñan class eo ‘mane kijirik eo.’ Im class eo raar ba ‘mane kijirik eo.’

    Principle eo eaar roñ rikaki eo I’m eaar tal im lale ewōr ke joran. Rikaki eo eaar lo principle eo im ba ‘principle!’ Im class eo raar ba ‘mane principle eo!’

Informant’s Comments:

  • This joke was something from the informants childhood that stayed with him. He enjoyed the joke when he was young and still enjoys telling it today.

Collector’s Comments:

  • The joke may seem kind of silly, however, this is just the type of humor that would thrive in a group of young school children. The food elements of the joke make it distinctly Marshallese, but the punchline is one that could be familiar in many cultures.

Collector’s Name: Jimmy McHugh

Tags/Keywords:

  • Verbal Lore
  • Joke
  • Marshall Islands
  • Elementary School
  • Teacher
  • Principal
  • Fruit
  • Food

I ate my grandma

Title: I ate my grandma

General Information about Item:

  • Verbal Lore, Joke
  • Language: English
  • Origin: Dartmouth College Athletics
  • Informant: Bailee Brekke
  • Date Collected: 10-21-18

Informant Data:

  • Bailee Brekke was born in. Naperville, IL. Her family moved lots throughout her childhood due to her father’s work. She moved away from home her sophomore year of high school to attend Culver Academy in Indiana, to pursue hockey. Her father, Brent is the assistant coach of the Clarkeson University men’s ice hockey team. She is currently a junior at Dartmouth College, where she is studying Psychology and Economics. She has been playing for the women’s ice hockey team since her freshman year.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: The Dartmouth women’s ice hockey team often travels to other schools in the NCAA division 1 league to compete.  While travelling, they watch films to pass the time. Freshman traditionally pick out the films to bring on the bus and seniors choose which films are played. On a recent bus trip, the Disney film “Moana” was chosen and played. During a scene featuring a crab and the main character, Moana, the crab tries to steal a necklace given to Moana by her grandmother. Moana is protective of this necklace, which causes the crab to mumble and state that he “ate his grandma.”
    Social Context: This scene caused a lot of the Dartmouth women’s players to laugh, and in turn players began repeating the line “Mnm Mnm mm I ate my grandma” as well as replacing the word grandma for other relevant and miscellaneous things such as trailmix, hockey tape, and phone chargers.

Item:

  • This is a joke shared by the Dartmouth Women’s ice hockey team. It is verbal, and is related to the film “Moana”.

Informant’s Comments:

  • “This was a joke that is shared by our team. It still makes me laugh.”

Collector’s Comments:

  • The joke is used to bond over the experience of watching a film together, as well as relating to the team’s favorite past times. It allows the team to bond and connect.

Collector’s Name: Sydney Hill

Tags/Keywords:

  • Verbal Lore
  • Joke
  • Moana
  • Film
  • Hockey
  • Grandma
  • Exclusive