Rationale of the Dirty Joke by G. Legman

Author:G. Legman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2008-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

There is more than an allusion hidden here to the primitive idea of superfetation: that, in the birth of twins etc., more than one man can be the father of the several children. Modern forms concentrate on the verbal jest. A son who is trying to get up the nerve to pop the question to his girl, asks his father: “Dad, what did you say to Mother when you proposed?” “All I said was, ‘The hell you say!’ We were married the next day.” (Minn. 1946.) Very quick ‘quickie’ version in Sex to Sexty (1966) 8:41. ‘Teenage proposal: “You’re WHAT?”’

If the permissive relationship with the actual son is unequivocal in these cases, that with the daughter is almost equally unequivocal in all cases. The father is presumed to identify gratefully and incestuously in the sexual relationship of the younger man with his daughter. This is hardly the way things really are, but it is evidently the way jokes wish they were. At a deeper level, this sharing of the woman by the brother-husbands involves a homosexual tone that becomes very prominent when one is aware of it—as in the central section of the chapter on Adultery: “The Relationship with the Other Man,” 9.II.6—but which should not be allowed to outweigh the consideration of Hamlet-like incestuous identification, rather than homosexual, with the other man. The folk-phrase, already noted, “I wouldn’t fuck her with your prick,” should perhaps be revised to read, “I would.” In at least one joke, the same situation of the ‘cold marble floor’ is encountered in both a permissive-father and a homosexual setting, transmogrified in the latter to the ‘hot desert sand.’ A Southern colonel finds his daughter in intercourse with the Yankee guest in the wine-cellar. “Daughter, wheah’ is yo’ South’n hospitality? Arch yo’ back honey-chile, and get that gentleman’s balls off that cold mahble floor!” (2:206, a version with the pair caught in the bushes. Text form, Calif. 1943. The ‘hot desert sand’ version will be found in 9.II.6, “Conniving at Adultery.”) The closest approach to father-daughter incest without the use of guests, boyfriends, and other stalking-horses, does not manage to get past the verbal level: A man playing golf with his wife and daughter misses an easy putt and says, “Oh, fuck!” The wife expostulates, “You ought not to talk that way in front of the child!” “Child?” He looks at the girl appraisingly. She is eighteen, pretty, and well-formed. “It seems to me you must have heard that word before,” he says to her, gruffly. “Certainly, father, but never in anger.” (2:380.) Definitely a come-on, and leaving the mother and her moral shock just as definitely out.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.