Practically Joking by Moira Marsh

Author:Moira Marsh [Marsh, Moira]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Social Science, Folklore & Mythology
ISBN: 9781457195365
Google: ehUDCgAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 23604090
Publisher: Utah State University Press
Published: 2015-06-22T03:07:35+00:00

Note

1. Other scholars reject the notion that laughter is a reflex (Billig 2005, 189–192; Mulkay 1988, 93–107; Smith 2008). Return to text.

8

“That Was Why We Were Such Good Mates”

* * *

Getting Even: The Dynamics of Reciprocity

Time and again, practical joke victims respond to their discomfiture with retaliation in kind, leading to sequences of reciprocal trickery that may take on a life of their own. The typical dynamic is illustrated by the following stories from a Newfoundland paper mill. Our source is Bob Saunders (pseudonym), a fifty-one-year old steam plant engineer, who was hit one night with a practical joke by other shift workers. The story began when he took a catnap during his shift, a minor and common transgression that workers both winked at and considered fair game for playful exploitation. While he slept, three fellow workers tied Bob’s legs firmly to the chair . . . then they turned on the alarms. Waking with a start, he tried to jump up and promptly fell over, landing painfully on his elbows.

Every small group has its own style of joking, usually learned through observation and practice rather than explicit instruction. Local guidelines boost certain humorous genres over others, lay down who is an appropriate target, and specify the limits of the play frame (DeNatale 1990; Holmes and Marra 2002; Leary 1984b). The local joke aesthetic also provides rules on how to display humor support, including the approved forms of retaliatory practical joking. Among Bob’s fellow shift workers in the mill, the conventional response of practical joke targets was to chase after the jokers and get even with them. One by one, Bob chased down his tormentors, soaking one with a hose and dousing another with what appeared to be hot water. That left just one:

And then only one more guy I had to get and he was watching me all night. That was my best buddy, James Fisher, . . . I had to get him. I said, “I don’t know how I’m going to get him.” So, then every move he watched me. So, when we went down to the washroom to get ready to go home, he was there dressed, you know, he was watching every move and there was no way I was going to get him.

So, this young casual guy came in and he was wearing his hard hat. So, when James wasn’t looking I motioned to him, “Okay, leave your hard hat here by the sink.” So, that’s what he did. He didn’t know what was going on, but he knew I wanted his hard hat for some reason.

So, I took out the lining and I filled the hard hat full of water, just walked over towards my locker with the hard hat. So, James looked at me and couldn’t see nothing out of, you know, nothing amiss, right? So, he went on putting on his shoes and I just put the hat on his head, water and all. So, he was with all his new clothes on.

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