Category Archives: 19S Engineering Jokes Folklore

An Engineer, a Mathematician and a Fire

Title: An Engineer, a Mathematician and a Fire

General Information about Item:

  • Verbal lore, joke
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Sean Smith
  • Date Collected: 5-23-19

Informant Data:

  • Sean Smith is a 54 year old computer science professor at Dartmouth College. He teaches classes such as COSC 51, Computer Architecture, and COSC 58, Operating Systems. He is a self taught computer scientist, as there was no computer science major when he was an undergrad. He worked for the US government doing security consulting and then worked at IBM doing product development. At Dartmouth, he works on systems, as opposed to the more theoretical and mathematical side of computer science.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: This joke provides a comparison of two related but different fields, with the engineer being seen in a more positive light. The engineer is portrayed as practical and efficient, while the mathematician is implied to be disconnected from the real world because he is applying techniques used for proving mathematical theorems to a life or death situation.
  • Social Context: The joke was recorded during an in-person interview with the informant. The informant is not sure where he heard this joke, or where he would have said it.

Item:

Interview Recording:

Transcript of joke:

  • (4:18) “An engineer wakes up in a…, um, wakes up in a room and it’s on fire, but there is an empty bucket in the sink, so he fills the bucket with water and puts the fire out. A mathematician wakes up in a room and there’s a fire and there’s a full bucket of water and a sink and is like, ‘oh, now I’ve reduced it to the previous case.'”

Informant’s Comments:

  • This joke makes fun of how, in mathematical proofs, the efficiency does not matter as much as correctness.

Collector’s Comments:

  • The full interview contains lots of examples of engineering and computer science folklore other than jokes.

Collector’s Name: Ben Wolsieffer

Tags/Keywords:

  • Engineering
  • Verbal Folklore
  • Joke
  • Comparison between fields

A Pint of Milk and a Dozen Eggs

Title: A Pint of Milk and a Dozen Eggs

General Information about Item:

  • Verbal lore, joke
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Ulf Österberg
  • Date Collected: 5-23-19

Informant Data:

  • Ulf Österberg has been a engineering professor at Dartmouth College since 1989. He teaches classes such as ENGS 23, Distributed Systems and Fields and ENGS 26, Control Theory. He was born in Gothenburg, Sweden and lived in Sweden until after he had earned his PhD in optics.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Jokes were not common in classroom settings at the schools the informant attended, but he strongly believes that jokes are helpful for keeping students engaged and makes an effort to tell jokes such as this one in his classes. This joke makes fun of how the technical mind of an engineer might interpret a statement like a computer, without thinking about whether it makes sense.
  • Social Context: This joke was recorded during an in-person interview with the informant. This joke was specifically intended to be told to students when it was relevant to the class. Telling jokes helps to connect students to the class and to the professor. The informant heard this joke from another professor at Dartmouth.

Item:

Interview Recording:

Transcript of joke:

  • (8:44) “The wife of an engineer says to her husband, ‘when you come home tonight, can you go by the grocery store and pick up a pint of milk and if they have eggs, pick up a dozen,’ and he comes home in the evening with twelve pints of milk, and she goes ‘why did you buy twelve pints of milk,’ and he says, ‘because they had eggs.'”

Informant’s Comments:

  • The informant said he grew up telling jokes in Sweden, but he had difficulty learning how to tell jokes and especially puns in English.

Collector’s Comments:

  • The informant was my professor for ENGS 26, Control Theory, this semester, and he told this joke in class. I have also heard this joke in the past with the protagonist being a computer scientist instead of an engineer.

Collector’s Name: Ben Wolsieffer

Tags/Keywords:

  • Engineering
  • Verbal Folklore
  • Joke

Three Engineers, a Computer Scientist and a Broken Down Car

Title: Three Engineers, a Computer Scientist and a Broken Down Car

General Information about Item:

  • Verbal lore, joke
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Eric Hansen
  • Date Collected: 5-30-19

Informant Data:

  • Eric Hansen is a engineering professor at Dartmouth College. He teaches a number of classes at Dartmouth, including ENGS 23, Distributed Systems and Fields and ENGS 31, Digital Electronics. He grew up in California, and many members of his family and community were Scandinavian. His family has a tradition of storytelling, influenced by traditional tales such as the Icelandic Sagas.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: The joke is based on perceived differences between engineering fields and computer science. The engineers all attempt to identify the problem using technical knowledge relevant to their fields, while the computer scientist’s response is humorous because it uses a non-technical solution that is known to often work on computers. The narrative form of the joke is influenced by the storytelling culture of the informant’s family.
  • Social Context: This joke was recorded during an in-person interview with the informant. The informant was not sure where he had first heard this joke or when he would tell it, but it may have been told in a classroom setting.

Item:

Interview Recording:

Transcript of joke:

  • (6:26) “There’s three engineers and a computer scientist who are taking a ride down the road in a car and the car breaks down, and the…, uh, the mechanical engineer says, ‘well, you know, it’s, um, probably something in the drivetrain; we’re gonna have to take the…, drop the transmission out and figure out, you know, there’s probably some, you know, some broken gear or something and we gotta fix that,’ and the electrical engineer says, ‘nah, I think it’s probably in the ignition, you know, we’re gonna have to get in there and figure we’ve got a bad spark plug wire or something like that. We fix that and it could be right as rain and we’ll be back on the road. The chemical engineer says, ‘nah, no, I think it’s in the carburetion. Um, you know, that somehow the air-fuel mixture isn’t right and the fuel’s not getting where it needs to go and that’s undoubtedly the problem.’ And the computer scientist says, ‘we could just try all getting out and getting back in again.'”

Informant’s Comments:

  • This informant thought the joke had some literal truth to it, because turning things on and off again often ends up fixing problems.

Collector’s Comments:

  • From my perspective as someone who is studying both engineering and computer science, this joke seems to humorously portray how engineers usually rely on rigorous mathematical analysis of systems, while in computer science you sometimes have to just try things without understanding exactly how everything works underneath.

Collector’s Name: Ben Wolsieffer

Tags/Keywords:

  • Verbal Folklore
  • Joke
  • Comparison between fields

The Engineer and the Frog Princess (Eric Hansen)

Title: The Engineer and the Frog Princess (Eric Hansen)

General Information about Item:

  • Verbal lore, joke
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Eric Hansen
  • Date Collected: 5-30-19

Informant Data:

  • Eric Hansen is a engineering professor at Dartmouth College. He teaches a number of classes at Dartmouth, including ENGS 23, Distributed Systems and Fields and ENGS 31, Digital Electronics. He grew up in California, and many members of his family and community were Scandinavian. His family has a tradition of storytelling, influenced by traditional tales such as the Icelandic Sagas.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: The joke plays on traditional engineering stereotypes, such as lack of interest or skill in romantic relationships. It also reflects the fact the engineering has traditionally been male dominated. The informant’s family has a tradition of telling stories, which has influenced the narrative form of the informant’s version of this joke. 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 recorded during an in-person interview with the informant. The informant was not sure where he had first heard this joke, but he thinks it was after he was a student. He may have told the joke in a classroom setting, but the informant considered the joke to be part of his family folklore.

Item:

Interview Recording:

Transcript of joke:

  • (2:34) “There was a guy walking through the woods one day, enjoying…, you know, going somewhere, and, um, he was addressed by a frog by the side of the road, and the frog said ‘hey!, hey!’, and he looks at the frog and the frog says, ‘hey I want to talk to you’, and the guy says, ‘oh, what about?’, and the frog says, ‘I am actually a beautiful princess and a wicked sorcerer put a spell on me and turned me into a frog, but if you kiss me I will turn back into a human and we will live happily ever after,’ and the guy says, ‘oh,’ and he picks up the frog and puts it in his pocket and keeps walking on his way. And a little while later he hears this voice, ‘oeer, oeer’ coming out of his pocket. He pulls the frog out and the frog repeats the speech, and, um, that ‘I’m a beautiful princess and I have been transformed into a frog by a wicked sorcerer and if you only kiss me I will turn back into a princess and we will live happily ever after’, and the guy smiles and puts the frog back into his pocket, and a few more hundred yards down the road, um, the frog is very insistent, kind of jumping around in his pocket trying to get his attention, and he takes the frog out and says ‘yeah, what?’ and the frog says, ‘no, you don’t understand, I really am a princess and I really was turned into a frog by an evil sorcerer and if you only kiss me I will turn into…, back into a princess and we’ll live happily ever after’ and the guy finally looks at the frog and says, ‘look, I’m an engineer, I haven’t got time for a relationship, but I think a talking frog is pretty cool.'”

Informant’s Comments:

  • The informant was concerned that this joke could be viewed as sexist, and stated that the genders could easily be swapped, but he told it in the way he originally heard it. He credits the narrative style of the joke to his family’s tradition of storytelling.

Collector’s Comments:

  • This is very similar to the joke collected from Sal LaRussa, except it is longer and takes a narrative form. The interaction with the frog is trebled, as is common in folk tales. The wording of the punchline is nearly identical.

Collector’s Name: Ben Wolsieffer

Tags/Keywords:

  • Verbal Folklore
  • Joke
  • Stereotype

The Engineer and the Frog Princess (Sal LaRussa)

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

General Information about Item:

  • Verbal folklore, joke
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Sal LaRussa
  • Date Collected: 5-19-19

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

 

Fencing the Largest Area

Title: Fencing the Largest Area

General Information about Item:

  • Verbal lore, joke
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Ulf Österberg
  • Date Collected: 5-23-19

Informant Data:

  • Ulf Österberg has been a engineering professor at Dartmouth College since 1989. He teaches classes such as ENGS 23, Distributed Systems and Fields and ENGS 26, Control Theory. He was born in Gothenburg, Sweden and lived in Sweden until after he had earned his PhD in optics.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Jokes were not common in classroom settings at the schools the informant attended, but he strongly believes that jokes are helpful for keeping students engaged and makes an effort to tell jokes such as this one in his classes. This joke includes a clever logical trick that you might expect to find in a mathematical proof to allow the mathematician to best the engineer. It also provides an example of a woman using her intelligence to beat a man who simply tries to use strength.
  • Social Context: This joke was recorded during an in-person interview with the informant. This joke was specifically intended to be told to students when it was relevant to the class. Telling jokes helps to connect students to the class and to the professor. The joke was originally heard with a cowboy and an ordinary person, but the informant turned it into an engineering joke to tell in classes.

Item:

Interview Recording:

Transcript of joke:

  • (4:54) “So what we have here is an engineer and the engineer… And its very appropriate to do it this way. This is not the way I first heard it, but in my retelling of this joke the engineer is this macho male and his opponent that he’s gonna compete against is a female mathematician. And the whole thing is that they are gonna try, from the time the sun comes up to the time the sun sets, they’re gonna try to fence in the largest area, and the engineer thinks he’s gonna win because he’s this big strong man, but he also prepares himself, so he makes sure he has a lot of posts, he has a lot of barbed wire, he looks at the terrain, you know, “I don’t want to go up in that direction, because that’s gonna be more work” and he really thinks this through to get the biggest area. Uh, the female mathematician is a little bit more or less [unknown], and is like, not too worried,  ‘yeah I have a few posts, some barbed wire, its gonna be fine.’ Ok, the day comes; the engineer is ready. He gets started immediately and, um, the female mathematician, she also gets up and puts a few posts in and some barbed wire around it and then she has a parasol and she goes and sits under it because it’s a hot sun, and there she sits, and sips some lemonade or whatever most of the day, eats and reads math books. Um, the sun sets and the judge says… You know, the engineer managed by running the last bit with the barbed wire [to] get it around the first post and really enclosing this big area and the, uh, referee says, ‘well, it’s pretty clear who won,’ and the female mathematician says, ‘well, wait a minute.’ She jumps into her little fencing thing and she says, ‘I define this as outside.'”

Informant’s Comments:

  • The informant said he grew up telling jokes in Sweden, but he had difficulty learning how to tell jokes and especially puns in English.

Collector’s Comments:

  • It is interesting to see how the informant took a joke he had heard in one context and turned it into a piece of engineering folklore for the specific purpose of performing it in a classroom.

Collector’s Name: Ben Wolsieffer

Tags/Keywords:

  • Engineering
  • Verbal Folklore
  • Joke
  • Comparison between fields