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Date Collected

Winter 12-2017

Place item was collected

Hyde Park, Utah

Informant

Zach Hamp

Point of Discovery/Informant Bio

Zach Hamp is a 22-year-old student at Utah State University from Hyde Park, Utah. We went to Sky View High School together and attended the same congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He enjoys movies, certain video games, and having fun with friends.

Context

Zach and I were talking in my living room in Hyde Park when I recorded this conversation. My parents were in the other room so there was quite a bit of background conversation, but Zach knows my family, so he was comfortable. We have been friends for at least nine years and so during the whole talk we were laughing and reminiscing about funny high school stories. This joke is pretty common. Zach said that he really likes this joke because of an experience in a class that he shared with our friend Paul and a kid named Rylee. Zach and Paul liked to tease Rylee because he was a kid that got super annoyed when he was disrupted, but would be easily distracted. So Zach and Paul would tell him stupid jokes to confuse and distract him, normally to success.

Text

What did the farmer say when he lost his tractor?

- [Zach mimicking Rylee] I don’t know, what?

Where’s my tractor?

Texture

When Zach told this joke, we both laughed more at the situation than at the actual joke. This joke is more intended as a sort of “anti-joke” – a joke that is usually funnier to the teller than the listener because the teller gets to see the confused reaction of the listener trying to understand the ridiculousness of the somewhat anticlimactic punch line. It’s more used as a prank to annoy people or a throw-away joke to make other jokes sound funnier or to get a pity-laugh.

Course

Intro to Folklore - ENGL 2210

Instructor

Lynne McNeil

Semester and year

Fall 2017

Theme

G4: Jokes

EAD Number

3.4.7.12

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