Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2011 January 26

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January 26

Where is the joke here?

Q: What does a WASP Mom make for dinner? A: A crisp salad, a hearty soup, a lovely entree, followed by a delicious dessert. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.58.205.34 (talk) 17:49, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

Probably hidden somewhere in the main dish. Do you have a question about language? Hans Adler 17:54, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

The question is about language, BTW, more precisely about cultural background. I suppose both of you are non-native speakers of English (Hans shouldn't have bored to answer, since he was not helping): the joke mocks the pretentiously affected way of the WASP. Mr.K. (talk) 18:03, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

Was there a similar or related joke shortly before this joke? Often, the puzzling jokes only really make sense in the context of the other jokes told earlier or later. (The joke about a Spanish fireman's brother being called Hose B didn't make sense to me for years.) 86.164.58.119 (talk) 18:13, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

Q: How many Zen masters does it take to screw in a lightbulb? A: none. --Ludwigs2 18:16, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

The jokes above makes sense as they stand (if you know the cultural background). They are simply not that funny. Mr.K. (talk) 18:23, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

I don't know whether it's an established theme like the lightbulb jokes, but there is the variety "What does a Jewish American Princess make for dinner?" — "Reservations", apparently going back to 1981 when Henny Youngman commented on his wife's cooking: “The only thing she can make for dinner is a reservation!” [1]---Sluzzelin talk 19:00, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

Reminds me of the classic The Wizard of Id strip where the King and Rodney turn up at a swank restaurant and are greeted by a haughty maître d' with "Do you have reservations?". The King replies, "Well, obviously, but when you're as hungry as we are you throw caution to the winds". I've been waiting for more than 20 years to have a chance of using that line in real life. -- Jack of Oz [your turn] 19:12, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

What? Wizard of Id was funny once? Also, how many hipsters does it take a change a lightbulb? -It's an obscure number, you probably haven't heard of it. Adam Bishop (talk) 19:40, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

Yes, it was a classic back in the early days, when Brant Parker and Johnny Hart were personally involved (they died within a week of each other, curiously). Lots of comic strips deteriorate when their original creators die or retire. Charles M. Schulz had the right idea - Peanuts came to an abrupt end when illness forced him to retire, and it was never going to be continued by anyone else. It was just serendipitous that the very last strip he'd drawn before retiring was published the day after his death two months later. -- Jack of Oz [your turn] 20:17, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

I wonder if that Id joke came before or after an early-70s joke about American Indians: "We have no vote, but many reservations." It actually sounds like something Stan Freberg might have come up with, but he probably would have got it from someone else. Henny Youngman used to say, "There are no new jokes. 2,000 years ago, Julius Caesar summoned a slave and said, 'Call me a chariot.' The slave answered, 'OK. You're a chariot.'" ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 04:08, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

Hiiiipsteeeeer. 86.164.58.119 (talk) 00:00, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

If the context is that it fits into a theme of similar jokes, it's an example of anti-humor. The joke is that a joke was expected, but there wasn't one - probably with a hint of meta-level observation about WASP moms being humorless and disturbingly nice. 81.131.49.248 (talk) 21:01, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

The joke is funnier if told, than if written, as the listener may assume the reference is to a wasp. Still not particularly funny, though, IMO, especially among those for whom the term WASP is common.—msh210℠ 20:26, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

I don't get the Zen master light bulb one. Why does it take none to screw in a lightbulb? Zen monks are not jedi knights... --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 09:49, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

Well, another answer is three: One to change it, one to not change it, and one to change it and to not change it" ---Sluzzelin talk 09:57, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

Still don't get it. Is this American zen? --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 10:29, 28 January 2011 (UTC)

To answer the OP's question: I suspect the joke is the use of words like "crisp", "hearty", "lovely", "delicious" before every noun by WASP women. 93.95.251.162 (talk) 17:09, 27 January 2011 (UTC) Martin.

I think this is it, thanks for spelling it out. It made more sense to me when I thought of Martha Stewart and her adjective use. SemanticMantis (talk) 20:10, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

No, that's not it at all. This joke comes from the great heyday of ethnic jokes, when you could get away with jokes that had the word "Polack" in them. The point is that whether you're referring to "JAPs", "Negroes", or "Wops" (note the words used - nobody uses the terms Jewish-American Princess or Negro in jokes any more), you could always count on the punchline to indicate how bizarre, stupid, or backwards they were. (I guess the only term you can use these days is redneck). Anyway, after you'd pointed out how stupid the "other" ethnic group was supposed to be, you'd roll out one of these WASP jokes. They start out like they're going to level the playing field a bit, like no group will be left unscathed. The humour comes from the fact that they end up straight, emphasizing again how wrong the other groups were. The joke only worked when a WASP told it, who might even change the POV of the punchline into a first-person response "Well, last night my wife served me a fine cut of steak with some fresh-cut potatoes. (long pause) It was great." Matt Deres (talk) 20:06, 28 January 2011 (UTC)

I didn't think that the crisp/hearty/etc stuff was that important to the joke; the joke was just that the dinner didn't contain anything surprising that we'd consider funny. A simpler version of (IMO) the same joke:

Q. How many WASPs does it take to change a lightbulb?

A. One.

I.e. the WASP just changes the bulb the usual way. A Jewish joke goes:

Q. Why did God create the gentiles?

A. Somebody has to pay retail!

The WASP jokes are sort of non-Jewish versions of this.

71.141.88.54 (talk) 04:28, 1 February 2011 (UTC)

Gloki?

In this receipt, what is "Gloki"? From context it's a drink, but I can't find anything more about it. Google doesn't help, nor does Wiktionary. My modest size DE-EN dictionary doesn't have it (nor any German word beginning "glok"). I even checked that hotel's website, but they don't have a menu in English there. 87.112.107.231 (talk) 19:48, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

At first I thought it was a mangled version of Glögg, but now I actually think it's one of Emmi AG's kiddy ice-cream products (chocolate and vanilla) varying the Globi theme. See here. {I can call the Grosse Scheidegg once they open again in May, and ask them, if you like :-) ---Sluzzelin talk 19:59, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

That was the conclusion I came too as well. Looie496 (talk) 20:09, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, that makes a great deal of sense; I think Glögg was on the tip-of-my-brain too. It looks like Gloki is a little treasure chest - I wonder if the name is a play on words (like "lockey, you're lockable friend")? Unfortunately the French, German, and Italian words for both lock and chest aren't remotely like "lock", so that's probably false - and there's no-way of knowing what goes on in kids' ice-cream marketing meetings; these are the same folks who have kids eating from the braincase of a decapitated plastic penguin :) Thanks for your help. 87.112.107.231 (talk) 21:01, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

As a search for "Gloki" with "site:ch" reveals, it's a plastic locomotive filled with icecream. As supposedly the locomotive used by "Globi", the name seems to have a rather straightforward explanation. Hans Adler 21:53, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

Ah, that makes much more sense. In retrospect my penguin-with-a-treasure-chest theory was silly; a penguin with a locomotive - now that's most like it !) Thanks! 87.112.107.231 (talk) 22:25, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

Hey, he's a parrot! In Swiss German "Loki" is the commonly used word for locomotive. (Unlike Germans, most Swiss don't say "Lok"). There's even a railroad modeling magazine named Loki. Thanks for recognizing it as a locomotive, Hans. I hadn't made the connection and started to see it as a treasure chest too. ---Sluzzelin talk 22:31, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

... not! (sarcasm)

I'm curious about the origins of "not" as an interjection spelling out sarcasm the way it's described under wikt:not#Interjection. Does anyone know when or where it originated? Had the word "not" ever been used as an non-sarcastic interjection too? ---Sluzzelin talk 20:27, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

My OR indicates this usage is outdated / out of style in American vernacular English. Originated in 1980's, popularized and peaked in 1990's. See Not!. SemanticMantis (talk) 21:00, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

WP:WHAAOE strikes again! Thanks a lot, SemanticMantis. ---Sluzzelin talk 21:02, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

I agree with SemanticMantis' impression; I feel like nowadays it's considered rather silly (although it never was a particularly serious thing to begin with, I guess). For instance, an episode of the TV show Arrested Development includes a couple jokes that basically rely on how lame it is as a comeback. `rʨanaɢ (talk) 21:28, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

There is a long and painful sequence in the Borat movie about this, too. Adam Bishop (talk) 21:45, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

I'm 100% sure its origin and locus was an NN local cable access television program from Aurora, Illinois, United States of America, hosted by Wayne Campbell and Garth Algar. Not! --Shirt58 (talk) 11:04, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

Yes that's the answer, but it was already given in the article SemanticMantis linked to. --Viennese Waltz 11:15, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, everyone! ---Sluzzelin talk 20:07, 27 January 2011 (UTC)