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The James T. Callow Folklore Archive
Your search for B660 returned 470 results.
"Mother, how old is our maid," asked Toto.
"Why do you want to know," his mother replied.
"I just do, that's all," he said in an anxious voice.
"Twenty-two years old," his mother answered.
"What a liar," Toto exclaimed. "Yesterday I heard her tell daddy
she was eight months."
Submitter comment:
In Greece there are commonly found jokes of a boy named Toto who
is a smartmouthed wiseguy.
Where learned: GREECE
James Callow Keyword(s): PREGNANCY
| Subject headings: | PROSE NARRATIVE -- Jest Anecdote |
Date learned: 00001947CA
One day Toto was at the park with his mother.
"I want to pee," Toto exclaimed in front of many people.
"Toto," his embarrassed mother said. "Don't say you have to pee,
Toto. Say you have to...whistle and I'll know what you mean."
The next day Toto went to a movie with his dad.
"Daddy," Toto said. "I want to whistle."
"Not here," his father replied.
"But father," Toto said again. "I really want to whistle."
"O.K. Toto," his angered father replied. "If you have to whistle,
then whistle quietly in my ear."
Where learned: GREECE
Keyword(s): urination, jokes
| Subject headings: | Favorites PROSE NARRATIVE -- Jest Anecdote |
Date learned: 00001947CA
At lunch time in school, Toto had to go to the bathroom but was
afraid to leave his lunch unattended so on a piece of paper he wrote:
"I SPIT ON." He placed this paper on his lunch and left for the
bathroom. Upon returning he looked on the note and under his writing
he read: "I SPIT ON TOO."
Where learned: GREECE
Keyword(s): jokes, saliva
| Subject headings: | PROSE NARRATIVE -- Jest Anecdote |
Date learned: 00001946CA
There were so many roaches in the house that they took over
the basement and you had to pay a toll to wash your clothes.
Submitter comment:
My mother told me that times were hard coming up; therefore
they just made fun of the problems they had. She really didn't
have any stories to tell that may have been passed down to her
mother because both her parents worked and didn't have time to
tell them. So the kids would make up jokes to help them laugh
about the conditions they lived in.
Where learned: DETROIT
James Callow Keyword(s): housing conditions
| Subject headings: | Favorites PROSE NARRATIVE -- Jest Anecdote PROSE NARRATIVE -- Lie Tall tale BELIEF -- Insect |
Date learned: 00001960S
The shoes she wore were so worn out that if she stepped on a
dime she could tell if it was heads or tails.
Where learned: DETROIT
James Callow Keyword(s): tactile sense
| Subject headings: | Favorites PROSE NARRATIVE -- Jest Anecdote ART CRAFT ARCHITECTURE -- Dress HandsFeet BELIEF -- Body part Senses |
Date learned: 00001960S
Joke
One time a man went before the judge for sentencing and the
judge gave the man ten years for the {crime?} that he had committed
and the man started laughing and told the judge, "Oh! Your Honor,
I can do that standing on my head," so the judge said "Oh! Well,
here is ten more years to get you back on your feet again."
Where learned: GEORGIA ; Alberton
| Subject headings: | PROSE NARRATIVE -- Jest Anecdote |
Date learned: 00-00-1959
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Talking about the town of West Paris, Maine. West Paris Maine
has the city limits sign on both sides of the same sign. That's
a pretty small town. One day they had some Texas politicians
come into town. Now everything in Texas is big, huge, and the
townspeople are really proud of their town. Now the Texas
politicians pretty much puts everyone from West Paris Maine down.
These Maine people were quite upset. So the Maine people tried
to impress the Texas Politicians, so they took them to the West
Paris Maine town hall. Now the town hall is the biggest room in
the entire county. The Texas politician said "We have outhouses
in Texas that are bigger than this place." That really
infuriated the townspeople and one of the Maine people said, "I
guess you need them."
James Callow comment: Mark got his Maine jokes by visiting Maine.
Where learned: MAINE
| Subject headings: | Favorites PROSE NARRATIVE -- Jest Anecdote |
Date learned: 00-00-1982
There once was a elephant, a monkey and an ant. One day the
ant was out looking for food, and the elephant stepped on him.
The monkey was standing there and he started to talk about the
elephant so bad, the elephant started crying. The monkey asked
him how do you know if he didn't have a family, and was out
looking for food for them. The elephant replied, "I didn't know.
I was only trying to trip him.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
| Subject headings: | PROSE NARRATIVE -- Jest Anecdote |
Date learned: 01-15-1992
A man was on an overpass above a Detroit freeway and was
dropping a concrete block onto the moving cars below. The concrete
block was attached with a rope that he used to haul the block back
up onto the overpass to use on another unsuspecting motorist. One
victim managed to stop his car, yanked the rope with all his
force, and pulled the arm off of the overpass villain. The
overpass villain then took the motorist to court. (At this point
the storyteller waits for the listener to ask what the motorist
was charged with.) The storyteller then responds that the charge
was "armed robbery."
Submitter comment:
This joke was circulating around the Detroit area in 1992
following several real incidents of objects being dropped from a
freeway overpass onto unsuspecting motorists below.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
James Callow Keyword(s): PUN
| Subject headings: | PROSE NARRATIVE -- Jest Anecdote PROSE NARRATIVE -- Formula tale |
A popular saying in Ireland is that St. Patrick drove all the
snakes out of Ireland but he forgot Lanster House. Lanster House
is the Irish Parliament.
Where learned: IRELAND
James Callow Keyword(s): SATIRE
| Subject headings: | PROSE NARRATIVE -- Jest Anecdote PROVERB -- Proverbial Metaphor |
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He Opened His Mouth
There were three men who did a lot of drinking that caused
them to hallucinate. Over the years the men always stayed in an
alley.
At times a strange man would join in the men's conversations.
One day he told the men to, "Get on your knees and take your
burdens to the Lord, for this can help you to see something
better in life." The men never did what the strange man had told
them, until one day they had no money to buy the quenching drink
they had become so attached to. The first man thought to
himself, "Well maybe there is some truth in what the strange man
said." So he got down on his knees and began to pray for a new
beginning in life. Seconds after his prayer he was approached by
a old man who needed someone to clean his store for a small
amount of money. So he fled and was never seen anymore. The
second man thought, "If it worked for my buddy it has got to work
for me." So he got down on his knees and prayed for riches and
as he opened his eyes there layed a three digit number and 50
cents. He rushed to the numbers man and hit
the big one. He was never heard from. The third man just knew
he had it made, because all he wanted was something to quench his
thirst. He thought his pray would be answered quicker if he
stood up, looked to the sky, closed his eyes and folded his
hands. So he did this with much belief. His head held high and
his mouth wide open. He said, "Oh Lord if there was any time I
needed a taste of some of that old fire booster it is now." So
with that prayer came over his head a flock of birds that decided
that this was the perfect time to allow relief to their digestive
system and the man was blessed with a thirst quencher he had
never had before. And there was nothing else told of the man
again.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
| Subject headings: | PROSE NARRATIVE -- Jest Anecdote |
There was a man who set off to give away some beautiful
horses and roosters to the man of the household. He put the
horses in the bottom of his truck and the roosters on the top.
He drove up to one house, saw some children and began to ask who
was the man of the house. A man came out and said in a harsh
voice, "What the hell do you want to know who the man of the
house is. Can't you see I'm wearing the overalls? So now you
know I'm the man of this house." The man with the horse and
roosters told him, "You don't have to get all upset, I just want
to know who the man of the house is because I have something to
give him totally free."
He had the man of the house look at what he had brought and told
him he could have any of the horses in the truck if he was the
man of the house. The man looked and looked but all of the
horses were too beautiful to pick from so he turned around and
called his wife to come help pick. The man carrying the gifts
ask, "Why do you need to call for your wife if you are the man of
the house and since you can't pick for yourself, you just take
one of those roosters from up top."
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT
James Callow Keyword(s): PETTICOAT GOVERNMENT
| Subject headings: | PROSE NARRATIVE -- Jest Anecdote PROSE NARRATIVE -- Married couple |
This was a story told to the informant by his father when he
was a young child. This boy prayed to the Lord for three
dollars. He told the Lord that it was for three reasons. The
first was for himself, the second dollar was for the poor and the
third dollar was for the church. So he got the three dollars. He
went to the Lord in prayer again and told the Lord he was
grateful for the money and told the Lord what he did with the
money. He put one of the dollars in his left pants pocket for
himself, the second one for the church was put in his right pants
pocket and he told the Lord that he had to know how poor he was,
so he put the third dollar in his back pocket. He later went to
the store for some liquor and when he went to pay all three
dollars were gone, but he did find three holes in his pockets.
Where learned: HOME ; MICHIGAN ; SOUTHFIELD
| Subject headings: | PROSE NARRATIVE -- Jest Anecdote |
Date learned: 02-07-1992
There were three men on a boat, two white and one black.
While fishing in the ocean a storm came up and almost tipped the
boat over. One of the white men spoke to the other, "We need to
pray." The other white man said, "I don't know how to pray, but
we can get John, the black man, to pray for us." John began to
pray to the Lord, "Oh Lord, you know when I was in Mississippi
waiting for my sister to come in on the bus I wanted some water
and the sign said, Only whites. I went to the train station and
wanted some water and the sign said, Only whites. So if this boat
tips over and someone has to die, let it be Only whites."
Where learned: HOME ; MICHIGAN ; SOUTHFIELD
James Callow Keyword(s): Racial segregation
| Subject headings: | Favorites PROSE NARRATIVE -- Jest Anecdote |
Date learned: 02-07-1992
Father's Day
Confussion is Father's Day in Harlem, because people don't
know who their father is.
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; SOUTHFIELD
James Callow Keyword(s): Confusion?
| Subject headings: | PROSE NARRATIVE -- Jest Anecdote CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- June CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- Birth CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- Summer |
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