Children’s Jokes

Title: Children’s Jokes (Christina Wulff)

General Information about the Item: 

  • Verbal Lore, Joke
  • Language: German
  • Country of Origin: Germany
  • Informant: Remy Wulff
  • Date Collected: 11-1-18

Informant Data: 

  • Remy Wulff is a 12-year-old elementary school student in Germany. Remy was born in Germany and has lived there his entire life. Although he can speak some English, his primary language is German, which he speaks in school and at home.

Contextual Data: 

  • Cultural Context: In some parts of Germany, such as where the informant lives, most school age children do not use cell phones or have social media.  Therefore, they must obtain lore, such as jokes from other sources.
  • Social Context: Unlike many of his American peers, Remy does not have a cell phone or use social media.  He does watch TV, including some American shows translated in German, such as  “The Big Bang Theory.”  He also enjoys watching cartoons and reading books.  He learned the jokes he told in this video file from cartoons and from his friends at school.

Associated File: 

Transcript/Translation: The English translation of the three jokes that Remy tells is as follows:

  • What is white and goes up the mountain?  An avalanche that is homesick!
  • What is the most dangerous bite for a poisonous snake?  When it bites itself on the tongue!
  • What is orange and goes down the mountain?  A “hiking tangerine”

Informant’s Comments: 

  • The informant loves to learn new jokes, but is very shy to tell them.  (So, for the video, pulled his hat over his eyes!)

Collector’s Comments: 

  • I thought that the jokes were similar to ones that you would hear American school children tell and enjoy. The informant explained to me that in the last joke, the work “hiking tangerine” or “vanderine” is a word play/made-up word of hiking with the ending of tangerine.

Collector’s Name: Christina Wulff

Tags/Keywords

  • Verbal Lore
  • Joke
  • Children’s Jokes in German

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