Perception of Humor Among Oaxacans

Anna Hilton

 

The elephant in the refrigerator joke marked the beginning of my project, we had been sitting around our host family's table for dinner in Santa Ana when one of the two daughters told us the joke. What ensued was an amazing night of humor induced cultural exchange, laughter, and almost choking on the food we were eating.

 

How do you put an elephant in the refrigerator?

- open the door, put him in, close the door.

How do you put a giraffe in the refrigerator?

- open the door, take out the elephant, stick in the giraffe, close the door.

The lion put on a party for all the animals at the zoo, but one didn't show up. Who didn't show up?

- the giraffe, she was in the refrigerator.

 

 

Table of Contents

 

1. Intro

2. Study Progression

3. Background

4. Logistics, Methods, and Initial Findings

5. Incongruence Theory

6. Individualism vs. Collectivism

7. Oaxacans

8. Conclusions

9. Select Chistes

 

 

Intro: Where do they put elephants?

     Humor has a universal existence, but the perception of humor varies from place to place and has many manifestations. Here in Oaxaca I wanted to know how the great diversity of people here perceive humor. The challenge was to identify the difference between individualism and collectivism, the view on humor each person has that I interviewed vs. the broader look at trends and cultural mechanisms. I loved this subject of study because it had something everyone had a perspective on and that perspective can reflect both the individual and the broader cultural level on the values and expectations of the individual and the community. The largest problem was this complexity! Each person had a different sense of humor but I hoped to interview enough people and read enough publications to be able to see what makes people here unique from the rest of the world and unique between each other.

 

Study Progression:

 

Always observing! Clowns in Zocolo, TV programs recommended by interviewees, newspapers, friends 

 

Interviews!

• solid list of questions that were ever developing
• people to interview!
• People at Oaxacan lending library
• Leisurely people at the Zocalo
• Friends here
• Host family
• Casa de la Ciudad 
• More women!! 
• Read newspaper joke sectiom and watch a few popular TV shows
• A notebook to write down notes during interview and reflect after them 

 

 

Background: Brands of refrigerators

     Contributions to this topic include Victoria Bricke in her study of an indigenous group in Chiapas; she concluded that humor is primarily a mechanism for self-control and as a tension-reducing device to avoid physical conflict by means of hypothetical conflict. As far as my observations have gone so far, this conclusion holds water in the city two but on a broader scale. It seems to be a way to reinforce social roles, another reason I was concerned and wanted to learn about the perception of jokes about women and how women joke.

 

     Munro S. Edmonson’s (1956) characterized humor as a cultural treadition, “an assemblage of observed regularities in behavioral sequences leading to laughter.” I would elaborate on Edmonson’s characterization and Bricke’s functional approach to see if and/or how humor reinforces or breaks apart traditional social roles. In this way the project addresses culture, community, and change at its root because I propose that humor is representative of the combination of culture, community, and change. It is a means of expression of feelings that in other contexts would not be appropriate or socially acceptable to say. This especially is true of language use, jokes appear to offer an outlet for more vulgar words than in outside of a joking context, although this certainly is not a uniquely Oaxacan aspect!

 

     In “Humor in Advertising” by Alden, Hoyer, and Lee they suggest that people develop cognitive norms in order for them to be violated, so the suggestion is that jokes are created mainly through incongruencies with cultural expectations. They think that humor in this way is global but the differences between cultures is with the power relationships and the difference between individualism and collectivism when displaying humor on a TV add. This research shows that what is perceived as funny does change from place to place and person to person because of relationship norms it addresses, I want to know the norms here in Oaxaca.

 

 

Logistics, Methods and Initial findings: Guesses on how to fit such a big animal in such a small space

 

     The approach I used is one of collect and develop information and questions simultaneously. This dynamic approach allowed me to ask for more information and follow tangents to find out what the perception of humor is, not just what I may have preconceived before starting the project. The initial approach began through casual conversation to find out what gets people to talk. Early developments would be the change to questioning about “What do Mexicans or Oaxacans find funny” instead of directly “What do you find funny?” because many people found it initially hard to answer or would hesitate from talking about themselves (and it's a challenge to be put on the spot!). It was also important to acknowledge that I was not an inactive observer of their responses, however small, my presence makes a pressure on how to respond including concious or inconcious choice to try and meet my expectations and the inconsequence of telling the truth. Asking people about generalities rather than personal views got people thinking and talking more honestly.

 

     My goal was to interview a range of people (at least 10) about what they believed was comical to Oaxacans and Mexicans. I have been using questions such as what jokes are particularly Mexican? What are some of your favorite comedy T.V. shows? and recently added how is humor towards women here? This last question has been in development because of my follow-ups after interviews. Most TV shows and media sources tend to have women play a specific role in group comedy presentations and interactions that I often from my culturally biased perception to be a derogatory one. I wanted to hear how Mexicans would react to my observation on this since I knew my values are of foreign.

 

The generalized list of questions can be found as one of my google docs at: 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QwdYiw3xmD7nAE4tPvJQdk1uYri0wPONuJ5cvzbVQlM/edit?hl=en&authkey=CLvxsPYJ

 

     Although I had originally hoped to extend this project to my village stay, how the village stay passed in Zimatlan with visiting three small pueblitos and not remaining in one, there was not the chance nor the appropriate time to interview. For the experience of the village stay it was all about letting it be and I am glad we did, in our own centeotl interviewing way. This means my interviewees were mainly from the city and about two thirds of them were close to my age. It would still be interesting to know how much has media and outside influence changed this perception of humor in this pueblo? or how is humor perceived differently there? These questions are so huge in and of themselves I would never have time! I will be sticking to city people and goers.

 

From interviews, joke collecting, and person to person interactions, I then integrated observing public displays of humor to see if there were any common trends and themes between what individuals mentioned as humorous and what is publicly displayed as humor. I watched TV shows suggested to me, such as Guerra de Chistes, Polo Polo, Chapel de Ocho, and vecinos, and observed clowns in the Zocolo. One of my interviewees, an estimated 30 years old, also observed and reinforced my observation (without prompting) that "in the day the clowns in the Zocolo are for kids, but as it gets later they get dirtier."

 

Although I found it easier to notice the potential negatives of their humor, it just shows my foreign-ness and who am I to judge? The most common jokes, including those to do with woman, are concerning relationships between men and women. A source of never ending humor, battle of wits, and making fun of the other sex provides an incite into the openness and importance of these relationships here.

 

 

 

Incongruence theory: How the elephant fits

 

     Incongruence is simply stated as a direct reflection of a person’s beliefs in what are normal scripts to be together and others that are not normal and how the opposite script (sex/no-sex example) creates humor. What did I just say? I am suggesting (elaborating on Alden et. al’s theory) is that humor, especially verbal, functions by playing on a person’s beliefs about what is to be expected in a specific situation and what is not. It culturally derived in this way, that beliefs about social norms are culturally developed. Is a joke funny everywhere? It depends what cultural norms it expresses. If the cultural norms that the joke plays with are shared by the multiple (infinite!) cultures in question, then the joke would be funny everywhere given it’s delivery is also taken into consideration. It’s always possible to get more hypothetical and ask more about delivery (what context would a joke be appropriate in? when is humor used? Who is allowed to joke with who?) Although I’d love to answer all these questions, I’ll be sticking to the basics of the theory of incongruence to analyze joking and humor just as a base to understand how I understood humor in jokes to do my analysis of the perception of humor in Oaxaca.

     The incongruence of the script will play on a duality, such as actual and nonactual or normal/expected and abnormal/unexpected or possible vs impossible. In Raskin’s analysis, he presents a joke to exemplify normal/unexpected:

 

A doctor tells a man, “Your wife must have absolute rest. Here is a sleeping tablet.” “When do I give it to her?”, the man asks. “You don’t,” explains the doctor, “you take it yourself.”

 

     The normal action, keep in mind ‘normal’ is culturally bound, is that the doctor is prescribing medication, but the humor is created when the script changes from normal to unexpected when the medication is not prescribed to his afflicted wife but to the man. Although not direct or obvious, there are inherent values that make this short story a joke, the values that make the change in the script obvious and the punch line make sense comically.

     The next joke is one of the many I collected over the course of this study and I apply the same method of analysis.

 

Estaba una enorme fila de gente que aguardaba para llegar con San Pedro, ya que él les diría si se iban al Cielo o al Infierno, en eso pasa una señora y él le dice: "Señora, confiese el mayor error que cometió durante su vida". "La verdad, San Pedro, es que yo cuando me casé ya no era virgen, pero mi esposo nunca lo supo".

 

"Está bien, hija, todos cometemos errores, adelante puedes pasar al Cielo".

 

La señora se va al Cielo; después de un rato, llega hasta San Pedro una mujer vieja, pero que aún era virgen y antes de que San Pedro pudiera decirle algo, ella lo interrumpe y le dice muy orgullosa: "Señorita vieja".

 

"Al Infierno por pendeja."

 

     The incongruence of the script comes when the virgin is sent to hell because she interrupted St. Peter. It’s expected that St. Peter would allow a virgin into heaven but instead he banishes her to hell and lets the more sinful woman into heaven. For the Oaxacan, Memo, that told me this joke he found it hilarious. He joked (oh the word to use! Jokes say a lot without words) that as long as your nice and well meaning, who cares if you’re a virgin. “Yo mandaría la vieja a infierno también… no fue amable!” Although Mexico is a by majority Catholic country, Memo suggests (without directly saying so) that values are not necessarily entirely catholic based. This is not to say that he is not catholic, just that the joke may be influenced by a little bit of true sentiment about what society values more  - in Memo’s case, kindness and respect wins over virginity. That bring’s us to the next topic, if jokes and humor reflect back on the culture from which they’re produced, how do you account for the drastic variability in individual sense of humor? Woah. Big question.

 

 

 

Individualism vs. Collectivism: Elephants can't always fit in refrigerators 

 

     Everyone has a different sense of humor, some more common than others, but that’s the complexity and beauty of humor! Figuring out the type of situation or joke that is funniest to the most people is the challenge faced by many comedians and newly by me. I used the following method of breaking it down:

 

     So what did people express is funny in Oaxaca? In the next section I look at the jokes they told me, the trends they notice, and a look at the most mentioned humor oriented television shows.

 

Oaxacans: Open the door, put in the elephant, close the door.

 

     I casually interviewed different people with the script constantly in development and most often, like most things in Mexico, not going to plan. I only had the goal of trying to narrow down what kind of humor I could ask about. I discovered that most people mention Mexico’s more colored humor often called “Chistes colorados”, and according to one middle aged Mexican man in the Oaxacan lending library (translated by me) “laughing is laughing wherever you go” but Mexican humor when amongst friends “can get real vulgar with parts of the body, insults, and other foolish humor.” He also clarified for me “Chistes de Gallegos” or “dumb jokes” in which the namesake is a place in Spain with, for whatever reason, has an exaggerated reputation for having very unintelligent people. As well as this man clearly stated his perception about 'Mexican' jokes, over half the interviewees started their interviews when asked for any joke, with a comment concerning how many are too dirty (though few of them actually told me the 'very dirty' jokes - the social context wasn't right, to tell a stranger, foreigner, or woman didn't fit their ideal context for telling these jokes).

     But where is there room for women and the refrigerator? This topic often brought to my mind individuals vs. the collective because as I began to ask, mentioning my foreign bias, about opinions about how women are portrayed in humorous contexts in the media (in the shows many of my interviewers had mentioned as great mexican humor) I would get responses such as "oh yes, it's terrible how they lower the dignity of women in these shows, but that's not what I find funny about it." On an individual level, and with a very small sample group, people did not find the subjugation and often sexual jokes (my observations, very biased!) about women to be funny but said that Mexicans in general can find it funny. Before I analyzed too much into this, I thought of some of the things you can easily and openly find on U.S. TV shows and I believe I would respond with a similar "it's not me, it's other people" sort of response. The example I'll use is Guerra de Chistes - many of the jokes are about women as the mental power in relationships, but there are jokes about getting beaten by husbands. I suggest that a lot of popular humor and television reflects the “machista” attitude because it is a cultural script and norm familiar to most there, even if it's not what everyone looks for in the future.

 

 

Conclusions: It's a zoo out there

 

     My findings can only be considered like any theory in anthropology, a partial explanation for the phenomenon of humor and culture. Everyone in Oaxaca has a different sense of humor but the trends and the popular programs suggest underlying cultural importance and efficacy of family relationships, lover relationships, machismo, and slap-stick humor. Since there is also an infinite diversity and dynamism in sense of humor, I can only go as far to say that these ‘underlying’ beliefs that allow the change in script (incongruence theory) to be funny are also underlying beliefs within the broader Oaxacan culture.

 

 

Select chistes!!

 

Si vienes a Oaxaca y no lees el Imparcial y no tomas agua Dona Casilda nunca tuviste en Oaxaca

 

¿Que hace una vaca con los ojos cerrado?

-       da leche concetrada

 

¿Quien le da leche a Darr Baider?

-       Chuvaca

 

¿Qué le sucede a un dulce que bebe mucho alcohol?

-       Gomita (a type of mexican candy)

 

¿Por qué lloran los flores?

-       porque el sol les pegan

 

esta un enanito en un bar y pide un refresco y tiempo después lo vuelve a pedir – me da un refresco – y se espera otra vez y después – me da un refresco – y como esfava enojada se da la vuelta a la barra y esta otro enanto que esta diciendo – con hielo o sin hielo

 

¿Qué le dijo un marciano a otro marciano?

-       brie!!!

(while making the face below:)

 

Llega un hombre, joven, buen mozo, varonil, atlético , en un lujoso auto deportivo a una tienda.

Se le acerca una mujer madura y le dice:

- ¿Acaso te llamas google?

- No.¿Por qué?

- Por que tienes todo lo que busco. 

 

 

Un soldado fue enojado donde el capitán y le pregunta:

 

"Con todo respeto, señor capitán, ¿es cierto que usted anda diciendo que nos besamos en el almacén?"

 

"No... yo no he dicho nada, recluta."

 

"¡Entonces sepa que nos vieron, mi capitán del alma!" 

 

 

 

Un joven y su futuro suegro están de copas. En un momento de la ronda, el muchacho le dice:

 

"Sabes que llevo con tu hija siete años de noviazgo y creo que ya es momento de pedirte el coño de ella".

 

Extrañado, el futuro suegro se le queda mirando y le aclara

 

¡Cómo que el coño, será la mano, normalmente se suele pedir la mano!"

 

"¡Que va, que va! ¡El coño, el coño, que estoy hasta los cojones de que me haga pajas!

 

 

 

 

Una mujer entra en la farmacia y le pregunta al farmacéutico:

 

"¿Aquí venden preservativos extra-grandes?"

 

"Sí, claro, ¿quiere una caja?"

 

"¡No, no quiero ninguno, pero si no le importa voy a esperar por aquí a ver si alguien compra!"

 

 

Sources

 

 

 

and, of course, all my Interviewees!!

 

 

Reflection

 

The challenge of my project was focus. I always found new ideas and new ways to go on tangents, everything from what perspective should I take on the concept of humor to what themes should I follow that are brought up by interviewers. For example, one of my interviewees suggested a theory about climate and culture and humor that I liked: in the north, where it’s colder people spend less time outside, have a more closed culture, and reflect the temperature it is around them. The same in the south, like Oaxaca, where it is hot and since it is hot people live more outside, are more open about expressing themselves, and as it gets hotter they get dirtier with their jokes. This is a rough theory that needs cleaning up… it would have been great to look more into on a more analytical level, except, only Lalo (the interviewee) mentioned it so I had to chose to let be put aside. Every interviewee brought their own theories to the table, but mainly the ones that were trends were the ones I focused on while applying the theories about humor that I encountered in the academic articles. That brought out analyses like the incongruence theory on some of dirty jokes reflecting the style and openness of relationships here.

 

My original question was simple “What is the perception of humor in Oaxaca?” However, the answer is infinitely more complicated. As I mentioned individualism vs. collectivism made forming hypotheses and not tangents difficult until I had interviewed more people. The people I interviewed all had something to say, but the topics that popped were double meanings, relationships, and my observation of women in humorous roles. Humor reinforces social norms and means of identity, and in Oaxaca in particular it shows the importance to them of how family and lover relationships are and could be. The incongruence theory suggests that the humor comes in when the unexpected occurs in a culturally normal scenario. What people laugh at and find funny reinforces what is normal and what is not especially when the humor is in a shared surrounding.

 

Through this study I personally grew through my observing and analyzing, but still do not feel satisfied with my findings. I attribute this to all my delays in postings. I am satisfied with my interviews individually but wish I could do and write so much more! The flow is choppy as it should have about 100 more pages of data and examples but as I was warned to begin with, my topic is complex web of a multitude of factors. With a range of jokes collected from slap-stick to making fun of how men and women relate, it all came down to more questions. I am impressed by the clowns in the zocolo for tapping into this social faucet, it’s a skill to please so many senses of humor!