Category Archives: Joke

Face Place

General Information about Item:

  • Customary, Practical Joke
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Jack Kinney
  • Date Collected: This data was collected during a one-on-one interview in the library of Dartmouth College with Jack Kinney on October 28th, 2018.

Informant Data:

  • Jack Kinney ‘19 is a male student studying Environmental Science and Geography at Dartmouth College. He is originally from Seattle Washington. Jack participated in a hiking trip before the start of his Freshman year at Dartmouth as part of the First Year Trips DOC program. Since then, he has led trips every year.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
  • Jack Kinney encountered this joke, during this own trip. Later he has made played joke himself on each of his trips.
  • 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:

  • During First Year Trips each year, Trip leaders will talk to their Trippees about Dartmouth traditions and way of life. Since Trips is the first introduction to Dartmouth for many of students, they are eager to learn from them. Trip leaders will share many parts of Dartmouth folklore and slang with their trips to integrate them into the Dartmouth community.

Transcript:

  • Gordon: Hi Jack, could you talk a little bit about yourself and your time with the Dartmouth Trips?
  • Jack: Yeah, so I’m Jack Kinney am a senior at Dartmouth and have been involved with Trips either a trippees or a leader my entire time here.
  • Gordon: What kind of pranks were played on you, and did you do any on your trips?
  • Jack: I thoroughly enjoyed Trips. They were one of the best experiences I had here at Dartmouth, I wanted to share this same experience with future students. One of my favourites jokes was this one about Dartmouth lingo.
  • Gordon: Nice, what was it?
  • Jack: Well, while we told them about all the different slangs we have we told also gave them some wrong ones. For example, we told them that First Floor Berry was called “Faceplace” by Dartmouth students.
  • Gordon: Great, so what happened?
  • Jack: When they got to campus, they were confused about what we meant. It was funny hearing them talk about  Faceplace.
  • Gordon: Thank you sounds, like a great joke.

Informant’s Comments:

  • “I remember when this same joke happened on my trip. It was the I liked the most. Some of our trippees actually still talked about Faceplace as their one inside joke.”

 

Collectors’ Comments:

  • This prank wasn’t played on my trip. However, I heard about it from friends from went on other trips. I think that it’s a great way to introduce students to Dartmouth folklore and slang.

Collector’s Name: Gordon Robinson

Tags/Keywords:

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

Fake Emergency

General Information about Item:

  • Customary, Practical Joke
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Malcolm Robinson
  • Date Collected: This data was collected during a one-on-one interview in the library of Dartmouth College with Malcolm Robinson on October 28th, 2018.

Informant Data:

  • Malcolm Robinson ‘22 is a male student studying Russian Area Studies and Geography at Dartmouth College. He is originally from London. Malcolm participated in a canoeing trip before the start of his Freshman year at Dartmouth as part of the First Year Trips DOC program. He has 2 older brothers (Austin Robinson ‘19 and Gordon Robinson 21′), who attend Dartmouth, but Trips were his first true introduction to life as a Dartmouth student.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
  • Malcolm encountered this joke, which is not specific to the caneoing section of trips and is actually quite common when he was a tripee during August of 2017.
  • 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:

  • During First Year Trips each year, Trip leaders carry a first aid kit for an emergency.  This is because the College Grant, the wilderness area where trip sections go is very isolated area several hours from the College and any serious medical care.  Trip leaders inform their trippees of the importance of helping each other if one has an accident. At a certain point during the Trip, one of the leaders will pretend they are having a medical emergency. They will tell their trippes that they need to find the first aid kit and help the leader. When the trippees find the kit they will open it, where they will see a pie from Lou’s. This local eatery in Hanover, is a student favorite.

 

Transcript:

  • Gordon: Hi Malcolm, great to be with you again, as you mentioned in our last conversation your leaders played multiple pranks on you guys?
  • Malcolm: Yeah, so besides the Robert Frost Ashe’s they also played this other joke on us..
  • Gordon: Great, so could you tell me a little bit about that joke?
  • Malcolm: Yeah so my trip leaders were great and liked playing jokes on us. After Robert Frost’s ashes, they had another joke for us. One day while we unloading the canoe one of our leaders pretended to have an asthma attack. The other one told us to quickly find the emergency kit in their bag, while he called for help on his phone.
  • Gordon: What happened?
  • Malcolm: My friend quickly found and we all opened it. Instead of a medical kit, we saw a box from Lou’s. I looked inside and there was a cherry pie from Lou’s. We realized that it was all a joke.
  • Gordon: What a great joke!

Informant’s Comments:

  • “We were all worried for a little. When we saw the box from Lou’s, we all started to laugh. Eating the pie was great, especially after the bland food we on the trip so far.”

 

Collectors’ Comments:

  • This prank is a great way to reinforce how everybody on the trip must work together. Lou’s is also a favorite of Dartmouth students, and this is a great way to introduce people to this great local institution.

Collector’s Name: Gordon Robinson

Tags/Keywords:

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

Robert Frost’s Ashes

General Information about Item:

  • Customary, Practical Joke
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Malcolm Robinson
  • Date Collected: This data was collected during a one-on-one interview in the library of Dartmouth College with Malcolm Robinson on October 28th, 2018.

Informant Data:

  • Malcolm Robinson ‘22 is a male student studying Russian Area Studies and Geography at Dartmouth College. He is originally from London. Malcolm participated in a canoeing trip before the start of his Freshman year at Dartmouth as part of the First Year Trips DOC program. He has 2 older brothers (Austin Robinson ‘19 and Gordon Robinson 21′), who attend Dartmouth, but Trips were his first true introduction to life as a Dartmouth student.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
  • Malcolm encountered this joke, which is not specific to the canoeing section of trips and is actually quite common, when he was a tripee during August of 2017.
  • 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:

  • During First Year Trips each year, Trip leaders will carry a bag that they claim is filled with the ashes of Robert Frost. This is supposedly to scatter them in the College Grant, the wilderness area where trip sections go as Frost wrote extensively on the beauty of the rugged New England landscape.  Eventually, they will choose a place that was allegedly meaningful to Frost to scatter these ashes. At this point, they will reveal that the ashes are actually chocolate powder and proceed to make hot chocolate for the group.

 

Transcript:

  • Gordon: Hi Malcolm, hope you’re doing well,  could you talk a little bit about yourself?
  • Malcolm: Yeah, so I’m Malcolm Robinson, I’m a 22 at Dartmouth College and I’m here with my brother Gordon Robinson. He’s gonna ask me some questions.
  • Gordon: Great, so let’s talk a little bit about jokes or pranks they played on your trip. Could you give an example of any jokes from your trip?
  • Malcolm: My first-year trip was awesome, I had a great time and they played a lot of jokes. For example one point during the trip, they told us that it was a Dartmouth tradition because Robert Frost was an alum we had to spread his ashes around the College Grant. It turns out that those were not Frost’s ashes, it was pretty funny.
  • Gordon: How did you figure it out?
  • Malcolm: It was pretty obvious when someone in the group figured it out. At the start, many genuinely believed that those were Robert Frost’s ashes.
  • Gordon: Alright, great! Thanks.

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

Informant’s Comments:

  • “They [the trip leaders] had some people convinced until we saw the bag. I think that this brought us closer as a group, and made me reflect on the beauty of the wilderness.”

 

Collectors’ Comments:

  • This prank plays off the trippees desire to participate in an experience that they believe is shared by the wider campus. It also shows them how they are part of a wider Dartmouth community of current students and alumni.

Collector’s Name: Gordon Robinson

Tags/Keywords:

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

Wayne’s World Joke (Jacob Cruger)

Title: Wayne’s World Joke

General Information About this Item:

  • Joke, workplace folklore
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Informant #1
  • Date Collected: 3/9/2018

Informant Data:

  • The informant is a Facilities, Operations, and Management Engineering Services employee who is not originally from the Upper Valley region.

Contextual Data:

  • This story dates back to when the Class of 1953 Commons (the main dining hall on campus) was still known as Thayer Dining.

Item:

  • Back before the ’53 Commons existed the same building was called Thayer Dining. The building had a long-serving maintenance employee with an office on the building’s upper level. This office was infamously messy, full of parts and equipment the employee saved over the years. It was such a distinctive office it received its own nickname: “Wayne’s World.” This name continues to be a joke recognized by some Facilities, Operations, and Management employees.

Collector’s Name: Jacob Cruger

Transcript:

  • “Before ’53 Commons was completed… the building that was there before was just called Thayer Dining. It was the same old building from the outside and the maintenance man in Thayer Dining… had his own space in sort of the attic… he tended to collect parts and pieces of equipment and he would collect them in case he ever needed them in the future. And you can imagine what that place looked like, you know he was here for like thirty five years or something. So it was termed, his name was Wayne I can’t remember his last name, so it was a ‘Wayne’s World.’ So everyone, if you say ‘Wayne’s World,’ around here, everyone will know ‘oh yeah Wayne’s World.'”

Tags/Keywords:

  • Joke
  • FO+M

Image Credit

Asking for a Raise

Title: Asking for a Raise

General Information about Item:

  • Joke
  • English
  • United States

Informant Data:

  • Jiachen Jiang is a ’20 at Dartmouth College studying Computer Science.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
    • Jiachen encountered this joke on the internet, as it is one of the more popular jokes that does not require any deep understanding of computer science. This joke can be shared with anyone with the most rudimentary understanding of data structures in computer science, although experienced computer scientists would still find the joke funny.

  • Cultural Context
    • The joke depends only on knowledge of the “array,” one of the most basic computer science data structures that any student of computer science would encounter in her first introductory course. The joke plays on the pun between the word “arrays” and the phrase “a raise,” indicating that a programmer who does not “get” arrays—that is, she does not understand the function of the array or how to use them correctly—will not find a career in computer science. On the other hand, any worker who does not receive an expected pay increase might be expected to quit after some time. This joke relies on a pun basic enough that experienced and inexperienced programmers alike will be able to appreciate and share, which explains why it is one of the most popular computer science jokes we have encountered. See Use Pointers for a variation on this joke that requires a little more programming knowledge to fully understand.

Item:

Q: Why did the programmer quit his job?

A: Because he didn’t get arrays!

Transcript:

  • Stephanie: Could you state your name and background please?
  • Jiachen: Yes. My name is Jiachen Jiang, I am a ’20 and I am a Computer Science major at Dartmouth College.
  • Stephanie: Can you tell me your joke please?
  • Jiachen: Yes. So the joke starts off with why did the programmer quit his job? The answer is, because he didn’t get arrays!
  • Stephanie: Ahaha! Alright, and where did you hear this joke?
  • Jiachen: I found this joke when I was scrolling through the internet, as I often do here at this College.
  • Stephanie: Alright. And uh, lastly, why is this joke funny?
  • Jiachen: This is joke is funny to me because arrays are a type of very popular data structure within Computer Science, spelled a-r-r-a-y-s. But arrays also sounds like “a raise”, as in an increase in monetary amount earned in a job. So when the programmer didn’t get a raise, that meant that he did not understand a basic computer science… a basic computer science theory. However, that also means he didn’t get enough money in order to live a comfortable lifestyle.

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

 

Collector’s Name: Stephanie Guo

Tags/Keywords:

  • Joke. Arrays. Programming. Puns.

Keystone Baptism Meme

Title: Keystone Baptism Meme

General Information about item:

  • Material and Verbal: Joke
  • English
  • USA

Informant Data:

  • Daniela Armas was born on July 1st, 1998.  She is a religion major in the Dartmouth class of 2020.  She is 19 years and she is from Miami Florida.  Daniela is of Cuban descent, and her background is strongly influenced by Latino Culture.  She is Catholic, and her family is strongly religious.  Daniela writes for the Jack-O-Lantern and enjoys the outdoors during the summer.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context:
    • The data was collected during a one on one interview in the hop while over lunch.  Daniela explained that in the Catholic faith children are baptized at a very young age.  This sort of initiation rite represents the child being inducted into the faith.  Daniela explained that she made the meme on her computer and how she formulated the meme using a popular meme format specific to Dartmouth (the whomst beginning).  Daniela then communicated that this meme was meant to be timely to the arriving of the freshman to Dartmouth college, and to make them feel welcome while entertaining the upper classmen.
  • Cultural Context:
    • At Dartmouth College many of the students drink almost exclusively a beer called Keystone Light.  This beer is known to be cheap and tasteless, and commonly not consumed by other parts of the nation.  When new students arrive at Dartmouth many are introduced to the beer by upperclassmen, and in doing so they become “baptized” into the Dartmouth Community.

Item:

whomst ready to baptize the ’21s tomorrow? 😩

Informant’s Comments:

  • Daniela was quick to note that everything associated in the process is completely voluntary and she herself had no part in it, she was merely communicating a cultural tradition at Dartmouth.

Collector’s Comments:

  • I personally greatly appreciate the depth in this meme, as it is essentially a piece of folklore comparing itself to a piece of customary religious folklore.  I also appreciate the imagery associated with the meme, as the freshman are the “babies” of the school, while the upperclassmen are already established.  Finally, the meme captures the caring spirit of the upperclassmen towards the freshman.  Just as the parent cares for the child in the meme, so too does the upperclassmen of Dartmouth guide and help the new classes.

Collector’s Name: Noah Sofio

Tags/Keywords: Dartmouth. Jokes. Verbal Lore.

 

Freshman Dorm Meme

Title: Freshman Dorm Meme

General Information about item:

  • English
  • Material and Verbal: Joke
  • United States

Informant data:

  • Shawn Gayner is a Biology major in the Dartmouth 2020 class. She is 25 and originally from Meridian, Idaho. She is USMC veteran after serving for 5 years. She originally started making memes relating to the military while serving, and now solely makes Dartmouth memes.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context:
    • This meme and its information were collected during a one on one interview on the first floor of Berry Library at Dartmouth College. Shawn described how she made the meme on her computer and how it has spread through the Dartmouth community largely due to the Dartmouth Meme page on Facebook. This meme was intended for the Dartmouth community.
  • Cultural Context:
    • The context of this particular meme reflects the fact that the informant and many people in the Dartmouth community don’t always agree with the administration on how money is spent. It does this by showing a large extravagant party held by the Board of Trustees, while also discussing the lack of dormitory options for freshman and issues of financial aid.

Item: 

Informant’s Comments:

  • The informant discussed how she made this meme with the intention of bringing attention to these issues. She commented on how she feels powerless in changing the way that the administration spends money, but that by creating the meme, she could at least bring it to the attention of more people. She was not criticizing the school for no reason, she was doing it to try and make the school even better.

Collector’s Comments:

  • This meme is less funny than some of the other memes we collected, but it is very relevant. It brings issues to light, but does so in a playful way that is easily spread through campus. Shawn was a perfect informant, she was able to very easily explain her idea for the meme as well as explain why it is important.

Collector’s Name: Michael Thurston

Keywords: Dartmouth. Financial Aid. Freshman.

Essay Meme

Title: Essay Meme

General Information about Item:

  • Verbal and Material: Joke
  • English
  • USA

Informant Data:

  • Emma Alter is a student in the class of 2020 at Dartmouth College. She is majoring in English modified with Philosophy with a minor in Spanish. Emma is originally from Chicago, and she began making memes last year. However, she has been viewing and sharing memes on Tumblr since she was in fifth grade

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context:
    • This meme and its information were collected during a one on one interview in a study room in Baker Berry Library at Dartmouth College. Emma described how she made the meme on her computer as well as how this meme has since been spread around Dartmouth’s student population by way of the meme page, text messages, and email. This meme was posted on the Dartmouth meme page and primarily circulated through Dartmouth students; however, it is not Dartmouth specific and students at other colleges would certainly be able to relate and understand the humor of the meme.
  • Cultural Context:
    • The cultural context of this meme reflects Dartmouth students’ tendency to procrastinate. Oftentimes, students will put off working on an assignment for as long as possible because they don’t have the desire to complete it. Moreover, this meme also incorporates images and text from a popular Netflix TV show called “Stranger Things.” Thus, people who have seen the show might find the meme even more enjoyable than those who have not. The lines in the show that are displayed in the meme are people calling out “Will?” because they are looking for a boy named Will. This meme has cleverly changed the use of the name Will, indicating that Dartmouth students can’t find their will to work.

Item:

Informant’s Comments:

  • Emma said that this meme is particularly meaningful to her because oftentimes, no matter how hard she tries, she can’t work up the will to start on an assignment. She also notes that this tendency to procrastinate is common amongst Dartmouth students and that most people who go to Dartmouth can understand and relate to the meme on some level.

Collector’s Comments: 

  • I think this is a spot-on meme. I really enjoy how it incorporates lines from a popular TV, but takes them out of context and gives them a whole new meaning that Dartmouth students understand and can relate too. Moreover, I enjoy the cleverness behind this meme.

Collector’s Name: Bryce Killian

Tags/Keywords: Dartmouth. Meme. Hanlon. Hard Alcohol.

Where is Dartmouth Meme

Title: Where is Dartmouth Meme

General Information about Item:

  • Verbal and Material: Joke
  • English
  • USA

Informant Data:

  • Emma Alter is a student in the class of 2020 at Dartmouth College. She is majoring in English modified with Philosophy with a minor in Spanish. Emma is originally from Chicago, and she began making memes last year. However, she has been viewing and sharing memes on Tumblr since she was in fifth grade.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context:
    • This meme and its information were collected during a one on one interview in a stairwell in Baker Berry Library. Emma shared with me how this meme has been very popular and has spread not only throughout Dartmouth students but also onto other college campuses that are familiar with Dartmouth’s isolated location. This meme has been one of the most popular memes ever on the Dartmouth meme page.
  • Cultural Context:
    • The cultural context of this meme reflects the isolated location of Dartmouth College. Moreover, many people know that Dartmouth is very isolated, but they still do not really know where Dartmouth is. The meme also incorporates Paris Hilton, who is a well-known figure in pop culture. Paris is known for not being very smart, and this meme makes light of how she might describe the location of Dartmouth by taking a quote from one of her TV shows and tying it into Dartmouth’s location. This meme is especially humorous, because Dartmouth really is located between a few mountains with trees everywhere.

Item:

Informant’s Comments:

  • Emma said that she saw a meme on the internet that had a similar format with the same quote from Paris Hilton, and she felt as if she could really relate to that quote by going to Dartmouth. So, as often happens with memes, she took the meme and altered the joke to fit into the social context of Dartmouth and ended up with a very successful and popular meme. Emma also noted that while she is making fun of Dartmouth’s isolated location, she does enjoy it.

Collector’s Comments: 

  • Emma was very excited to talk about this meme because it has been so popular amongst the student body. In my opinion, this is a great meme because it is very funny and shows how different internet memes can be changed as they are passed from group to group, which is exactly what happened with this meme.

Collector’s Name: Bryce Killian

Tags/Keywords: Dartmouth. Meme. Isolated. Trees. Mountains

Rush Alternative Social Spaces Meme

Title: Rush Alternative Social Spaces Meme

General Information about Item:

  • Verbal and Material: Joke
  • English
  • USA

Informant Data:

  • Jeffrey Qiao is a student in the class of 2020 at Dartmouth College. He is originally from Irvine, California but attended boarding school in the North East during his high school years. Jeffrey is a math major, and he began making memes during his freshman year in college.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context:
    • This meme was collected during a one on one interview in Baker Berry Library at Dartmouth College. Jeffrey described how he made the meme using photoshop as well as well as how this meme has been spread throughout the Dartmouth student body by way of the meme page, text messages, and email. Because this meme is very specific to Dartmouth, it is primarily enjoyed and spread by people within the Dartmouth community.
  • Cultural Context:
    • The cultural context of this meme reflects on the Moving Dartmouth Forward initiative that was implemented by President Hanlon in 2015. Part of the initiative was to build alternative social spaces for students, and many feel that this was just a veiled attempt to lessen involvement in Greek life on Dartmouth’s campus. The alternative social spaces idea has been largely unsuccessful up to this point, and Dartmouth’s social life remains centered around fraternities and sororities. So, this meme pokes fun at the alternative social spaces by suggesting that students can “rush” them, similarly to how a student might rush either a fraternity or sorority.

Item:

Informant’s Comments:

  • Jeffrey noted that he made this during rush week for Greek life houses, which is what gave him the idea. He also said that he figured since most students already view alternative social spaces as somewhat of a joke, he might as well make another joke out of it. The meme is meant to show students disregard for alternative social spaces.

Collector’s Comments: 

  • I am a big proponent of this meme, as I find it rather edgy and hilarious. Moreover, every student on Dartmouth’s campus, whether they are affiliated with Greek life or not, can relate to this meme.

Collector’s Name: Bryce Killian

Tags/Keywords: Dartmouth. Meme. Hanlon. Hard Alcohol. Alternative Social Spaces.