In this post, we discuss the frequently repeated claim that William Shakespeare originated the knock knock joke. The claim is an example of metafolklore, in that it’s a traditional story, or creation myth, told about a kind of joke. The story is based on a passage from “Macbeth” in which a porter declaims a monologue which includes the phrase “knock knock. Who’s there?” After we look at this fun passage from the perspective of the knock knock joke, we present new evidence: an earlier (and funnier) joking use of “knock knock. Who’s there?” in a play by Shakespeare’s friend Ben Jonson. While it’s possible to conclude that Jonson originated the knock knock joke, we also point out that both Jonson and Shakespeare were drawing on a deep well of folk culture, which included all kinds of jokes, including set dialogue routines. It's eminently plausible that among those routines was the "knock knock, who's there" opening that eventually evolved into modern knock knock jokes.
This post looks at the history and meaning of the nursery rhyme "Humpty Dumpty." It considers several popular origin stories for the rhyme, including that it is about Richard III of England, or about a siege engine in the English Civil War. It points out that these stories constitute "metafolklore," or folklore about folklore, and traces their history. It also considers how the rhyme works as a riddle, whose solution is "an egg." It includes many unusual versions of "Humpty Dumpty," many fun stories, and many classic illustrations!
Hanukkah this year will be celebrated from December 18 to December 26. Jewish children all over the world will be playing a gambling game with a traditional spinning top known as a dreidel. Many of them will also be told stories about the origin and meaning of the dreidel, stories which claim that the dreidel once had a subversive purpose or that it was created to commemorate a great miracle. These stories are themselves interesting folklore. Since the dreidel is a traditional toy used to play a traditional game, such stories about the dreidel and game can be called metafolklore--that is, folklore about folklore. In this blog, we'll take a look at some of these stories about the origin of the dreidel and examine the toy's real history.
The popular essay often known as "You Are Quoting Shakespeare," suggests that many common phrases have their origin in Shakespeare's works. This post shows that most of those phases were proverbial folklore, known well before Shakespeare's time. It suggests that attributing them to Shakespeare is a form of what Stephen Jay Gould called a "Creation Myth," and that the credit for many of the phrases should go to ordinary speakers of English. It argues that part of Shakespeare's greatness lay in his ability to use such phrases to create natural dialogue.
A little while back, the internet was abuzz with the inspirational story of Mary Anning, a pioneering 19th-century paleontologist from Lyme Regis in England. Some of my favorite blogs and magazines got in on the act: Atlas Obscura, QI (Quite Interesting), Dangerous Women, Cracked, and Forbes, to name just a few, published versions of the …
This post looks at the origin of "Ring Around the Rosie" and its history. It asks whether there is any reason to believe the story that the rhyme is about the plague. And it introduces the idea of metafolklore, folklore about folklore.
