Discussion Forum (Archived)
Guest
I have been trying to get someone to write a book for immigrants to the US capturing all of the jokes that are so familiar that we have incorporated the punchlines into our language - leading to very puzzled looks from the non-native English speakers among us! It's a fun topic to introduce at a dinner party - everyone comes up with one or two and then as the wine flows, we remember more and more. Some of these are limited to one's own family or close circle, but many seem to have swept the country. Care to suggest a few? 
If you Google it, Emmett (I had to, to figure it out), you'll find it's the punchline of a joke.
I think the familiarity of a punchline is more likely to be regional or within a group (e.g., golfers). I'm more familiar with the ability of a catchphrase, or even a seemingly random quote, to start laughter in a group of those who are in on the reference. (And it's hopeless to try to explain. It's never as funny when you explain it.)
So your conversations don't ever turn up old punchlines, sans joke - simply assuming your audience understands the meaning from having heard the joke so many times? Things like, "Suppose we should have told him where the rocks are?" meaning that you should have shared the secret for getting something done [as did the priest and rabbi standing on the other side of the river watching the preacher sink after he tried to walk on the water beind them]or "MIK or FHB" telling your family that there is 'more in kitchen' or 'family hold back' [from an old Sam Levinson story]?
No, Wendy, I don't seem to remember a large number of conversations like that. (I do know the 'rocks' joke, but not your other references. Nor do I know Sam Levinson.)
I do remember in a German Language class trying to translate from the german into "twirling dervish" without knowing the english reference. Perhaps I have just lived a sheltered life in the Ozarks (although I am more traveled and educated than many in my family or community).
Emmett
Wow, Wendy, I have to confess I didn't know any of those jokes! Makes me think not only of trying to explain jokes to foreigners, but to people of other generations who grew up speaking the same language. I remember feeling jarred the first time I quipped, "Only her hairdresser knows for sure," only to be met with a quizzical look from a young 'un.
Commercials and jingles, popular songs and movies - all are sources for what I guess are 'modern idioms' of a sort, aren't they? I work in a highly international workplace, with colleagues from Turkey, India, Iran, Germany, China, Japan, Mexico - well, pretty much anywhere you can think of - all in regular communication. Listening to the American's try to talk without using idioms or similar constructs can be pretty funny. One of my favorites was a sweet young American speaking oh so carefully to a Russian visitor about her trip to Southern California. She caught herself having chatted on about LA, and went back to clarify: ELL. AY. Sweet smile. And on she went...
This seems apropos:
My wife was in labor with our first child.
Things were going pretty well when suddenly she began to shout, "Shouldn't, couldn't, wouldn't, didn't, can't!"
"Doctor, what's wrong with my wife?"
.
.
.
.
.
(Scroll down to read the punchline)
.
.
.
.
.
"Nothing. She's just having contractions."
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
1 Guest(s)