Dead baby jokes

Dead baby jokes are a joke cycle reflecting black comedy. The joke is presented in riddle form, beginning with a what question and concluded with a grotesque punch line answer.[1]

Examples

What's the difference between a truckload of dead babies and a truckload of bowling balls?
With bowling balls you can't use pitchforks.[2] (In an alternative version, the punchline ends with: You can't unload bowling balls with a pitchfork)

What's more fun than nailing a baby to a post?
Ripping it off again.[3]

What's bright blue, pink, and sizzles?
A baby breastfeeding on an electrical outlet.[3]

How do you get 100 dead babies into a box?
With a blender![3] How do you get them out?
With a bag of chips

What's worse than 10 babies in 1 garbage can?
1 baby in 10 garbage cans.

How do you make a baby drink?
With a blender

What's red and taps?
A baby in an oven

What games can you play with a dead baby?
Rugby

What's the best reason to have a baby?
Its a cheap alternative to turkey at Christmas

What's red and bubbly and scratches on glass?
Baby in a microwave.

How many babies does it take to paint a house red?
It depends on how hard you throw them.

How do you make a dead baby float?

One scoop of ice cream and two scoops of dead baby.

History

According to the folklorist scholar Alan Dundes, the dead baby joke cycle likely began in the early 1960s.[1] Dundes theorizes that the origin of the dead baby joke lies in the rise of second-wave feminism in the U.S. during that decade and its rejection of the traditional societal role for women, which included support for legalized abortion and contraceptives. Consequently, "to fight the fear of pregnancy and ease the guilt of abortion, young people told dead-baby jokes. Babies once dehumanized, could be laughingly destroyed."[4][5] It has also been suggested that the jokes emerged in response to images of graphic violence, often involving infants, from the Vietnam War.[6]

In the twenty-first century, the popularity of the joke cycle has led to the creation of a number of websites dedicated to dead baby jokes.[3]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Alan Dundes (July 1979). "The Dead Baby Joke Cycle". Western Folklore 38 (3): 145–157. doi:10.2307/1499238. JSTOR 1499238.
  2. ↑ McWhorter, Diane (Spring 1977). "An Ugly Joke: "Dead Babies" // Dead Babies by Martin Amis". The North American Review (University of Northern Iowa) 262 (1).
  3. 1 2 3 4 Warner, Andrew (2008). P.S. Dead Baby Jokes Aren't Funny: The Grotesque in Sick Humor (M.A.). Truman State University.
  4. ↑ "Jokes are a serious, 'psychic' business". San Francisco Examiner. 1 September 1988.
  5. ↑ "That's Not Funny - That's Sick // Folklorist Alan Dundes looks at the serious side of sick jokes". St. Petersburg Times. 2 December 1987.
  6. ↑ Bronner, Simon J. (1988). American Children's Folklore. august house. p. 127. ISBN 9780874830682.
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