No More Learning

It is interesting that the "Babysitter" legends stress harm to the children,
rather than the sitter herself; the message is that responsibility for others is
what matters. In this way, girls learn that taking good care of young chil-
dren is one of their primary duties (boys' stories seldom deliver this mes-
sage). In some variants, the intruder says to the girl over the phone, "I've
got one of your kids and I'm going to get the other. " EveR though they are
not really her kids, the babysitter is learning to accept the role of mother-
zo208 TALES AND LEGENDS
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-24 15:03 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/usu. 39060010034923 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#cc-by-nc-nd-3. 0
? ? in-training that society is offering to her.
Another kind of legend popular among girls in this age group is the
account of a horrible accident or near-accident that happens in the company
of a young man. "The Boyfriend's Death" is one shocking legend cycle (D6gh
1968a; Tucker 1976, 367-70). It tells of a boy and girl, or perhaps a man
and wife, who drive down a deserted road and run out of gas. The boy or
man goes off to get gas, and the girl or woman stays in the car. In ten-year-
old Betsy's version, collected in southern Indiana, the horror begins while
the woman is waiting: ". . . she heard a-something like "HREECH! " and
a drip and something, a THUMP. She looked out the window and started
screaming, 'cause her husband was hanging by the tree, and that "CLICK"
sound was his throat being cut, the "Drip-drop" was the blood falling on
the ground, and the THUMP was him banging against the car. " In Betsy's
story we see a clear demarcation of sex roles: The man ventures out to get
gas, and the woman sits passively and safely in the car. While the woman
herself escapes from harm, she has the terrible shock of discovering her hus-
band hanging from a tree, dead and bleeding profusely. The emotional con-
tent of this legend varies somewhat according to the main characters; if they
are a boy and girl, the fear of being alone with a boy in a deserted place
may be predominant. But in this case, where a husband and wife are the
characters, the strongest feeling seems to be survivor guilt: The woman has
stayed safe and let her husband do the dirty work, and now she has to live
with the shock of his horrible death. In either case, there is an emphasis on
human relationships and responsibilities-not very far in this respect from
the focus of "The Babysitter. "
It would not be fair to discuss Betsy's story without giving her credit
for her wonderful sound effects, the "HREECH" and "Drip-drop" and the
"THUMP. " All of these effects add a great deal to the dramatic impact of
the story; it is much easier to visualize the scene with the sounds included.
Betsy was very proud of her ability to tell good scary stories, and she seemed
to work out elaborations in her sound effects as she went from tale to tale.
A serious and hard-working girl, Betsy enjoyed a position of leadership
among her friends and got special recognition from them for her storytelling
abilities.
Telling frightening legends sometimes provides a kind of therapy for
children who are very ill. In her article "At a Children's Hospital: A Folk-
lore Survey," Roberta Krell (1980) explores how storytelling helps children
to come to terms with their illnesses. One story Krell includes concerns a
child who, forced to clean an attic floor as punishment, dies of loneliness
or asthma (page 229). Krell points out that "a child who faces his own death
209
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-24 15:03 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/usu. 39060010034923 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#cc-by-nc-nd-3. 0
? ? every day because of illness may find it easier to handle that fact by telling
stories of other children who have died" (page 231). This area of research
offers considerable scope for understanding and helping older children who
suffer from serious illness.
The last legend that I want to discuss is "The Hook," a perennially
popular story told often by girls in upper elementary and junior high or
middle school. "The Hook" has been well scrutinized by folklorists (D6gh
1968b) and has been collected from all over the United States. Its plot is
simple and fairly consistent: a girl goes out parking with a boy to the local
Lovers' Lane, and a bulletin comes to them from the car radio: A danger-
ous man with a hook-hand has escaped from the insane asylum. Although
the boy wants to stay in Lovers' Lane, his girlfriend insists that he drive her
home. When he gets out to open the car door on her side, he sees a dread-
ful indication of what could have happened if they had stayed in Lovers'
Lane: a hook hanging from the door handle.
Alan Dundes has analyzed "The Hook" with emphasis upon its psy-
chosexual content, principally from the girl's point of view (1971). He states
that girls who go out parking with their boyfriends are afraid that the boys
will be "all hands"; they have to resist being overwhelmed by sexual ad-
vances, and calling a halt to the adventure is the easiest way to alleviate their
anxieties. The hook itself is a phallic symbol, a reminder of what the park-
ing excursion was really all about (page 30). While Dundes's points are well
taken, there are other observations that can be made. The girl in this leg-
end is timorous and safety-minded, like the girl or woman in "The
Boyfriend's Death"; she does not want to take the chance of doing some-
thing that might be life-threatening. The boy, on the other hand, is full of
confidence and sexual assertiveness. He leaves only at the girl's urging, of-
ten with resentful grumblings. We see the male figure as a self-assured and
somewhat reckless but ultimately protective person, while the female figure
is more anxious, careful, and protective of both herself and her boyfriend.
The female sense of responsibility has a good effect here, but we certainly
get the impression that taking risks and being reckless is more of a male pre-
rogative. "The Fatal Initiation" comes to mind again as a paradigm of young
men's adventurous risk-taking.
Legends, as well as the funny-scary tales, reworked folk tales, and
fantasies of earlier childhood, offer a fascinating set of opportunities to the
folklorist. Much work remains to be done in collecting, classifying, and ana-
lyzing these stories; it will be very interesting to see how social changes, es-
pecially alterations in sex roles, affect children's stories of the future.
210 TALES AND LEGENDS
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-24 15:03 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/usu. 39060010034923 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#cc-by-nc-nd-3. 0
? ? NOTES TO CHAPTER NINE
1. Collected by Patricia J. Dailey in Binghamton, New York, on 1 May 1982.
2. Collected by Ann Dowling in Rochester, New York, 31 March 1978.
3. For a more thorough discussion of young children's need to protect them-
selves from serious fright, see Tucker 1981a.
4. Collected by Gail Cohen in Johnson City, New York, on 21 April 1979. Un-
less otherwise indicated, all other sample stories in this chapter come from my disser-
tation. I want to thank my student collectors, who have done such a fine job in their
work with child informants.
211
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-24 15:03 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/usu. 39060010034923 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#cc-by-nc-nd-3. 0
? ?
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-24 15:03 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/usu. 39060010034923 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#cc-by-nc-nd-3. 0
? ? IO TEASES AND PRANKS
Marilyn Jorgensen
INTRODUCTION
Writing about pranks and teases is an especially attractive task, possibly
because the study of these two particular forms of expressive activity bring
the researcher in such close contact with the child's delight in playful inter-
action and immense enthusiasm for living life to its fullest.
In the case of pranks (which I prefer to think of as tricks with little
degree of harm or mischief intended), the perpetrators have fun at the ex-
pense of the hurt or embarrassed victims, and the perpetrators of the pranks
are likely to have positive recollections of the deceptive behaviors in which
they have engaged. The victims of such pranks, however, might reasonably
be expected to try to forget as soon as possible because the victims of taunts
may be hurt and embarrassed.
The motivations for children's tricking and teasing victimizations can
be either benevolent (as in verbal abuse, or in tricks that may also involve
actions and objects) or of a harmful nature (as in verbal taunting, or in
pranks in which mischief is intended). But regardless of intentions or per-
ceptions involved in pranks, tricks, taunts, or teases, it is evident that these
traditional, prepackaged, and ready-made formulas for playful verbal and
kinesic interactions have been integral aspects of children's folklore for gen-
erations of children, a means of more fully experiencing and defining the
people in their lives and the world in which they live.
In this paper I will discuss taunts, teases, pranks, and tricks as forms
of victimization. Verbal teasing, as well as the more serious taunting of in-
dividuals, are behaviors that children are likely to experience at almost any
time and in any place. These activities occur most often at school in the class-
room, at the lunch table, or on the playground-and during play with friends
or siblings at home. Taunting (especially if socially unacceptable words or
taboos are involved) is usually not done in the presence of adult authori-
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-24 15:03 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/usu. 39060010034923 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#cc-by-nc-nd-3. 0
? ? ties, but otherwise it is a fairly everyday type of occurrence. On the other
hand, tricks and pranks are distinguished from taunts and teases by the fact
that although they can and do occur in everyday situations, they also occur
on special, set-aside days when such forms of deception and victimization
are socially sanctioned and probably even expected.
In the sparse body of literature that does exist on children's trickery,
teasing, and related behaviors, there is no consensus with regard to termi-
nology, and terms like "teasing" and "tricking" are often used interchange-
ably. In addition, attempts such as that by Richard S. Tallman (1974, 269-
70) to differentiate between the goals of the practical joker (to fool the op-
ponent) and those of the trickster (to get something for nothing) seem too
limited in scope to be applicable to the many kinds of deceptive victimiza-
tions that exist in children's lore. Table 1 is designed as a beginning for the
identification of the kinds of behaviors and goals present in the four catego-
ries I will be discussing:
TABLE 1. Definitional Factors
Victimization Deception Benevolent Malicious
Taunt x
Tease x x
Prankxx x
Trick x x x
PRANKS AND TRICKS
The pranks and tricks favored by children are examples of what Erving
Goffman (1974) in his work on Frame Analysis has termed fabrications:
"The intentional effort of one or more individuals to manage activity so that
a party of one or more others will be induced to have a false belief about
what is going on" (page 83). The deceptive quality of the interactional be-
havior defined by Goffman as a fabrication is probably what makes pranks
and tricks so much fun-especially the thrill and excitement involved in an
adventure in which the success or failure of its outcome is at least partially
determined by one's own ability to perform. In addition, fabrications like
pranks and tricks are forms of children's lore that often are not entirely aban-
doned by youngsters as they progress through adolescence into adulthood
(Welsch 1974). Other forms of children's lore, such as nursery rhymes, jump-
rope rhymes, and rhymed taunts, are regularly discarded at crucial ages when
they come to be considered appropriate only for younger children. Pranks
21i4 TEASES AND PRANKS
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-24 15:03 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/usu. 39060010034923 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#cc-by-nc-nd-3. 0
? ? and tricks continue to be popular through adolescence and even into adult-
hood. Thus, the kinds of pranks and tricks attempted and carried out may
change as one's age group changes, but not the enjoyment of engaging in
playful deceptions of different, possibly more sophisticated, kinds.
A review of the literature on the subject of pranks and tricks reveals
that very little attention has been devoted to the subject by folklorists, and
even less when only children's trickery is discussed separately from adult
behavior. In 1974, however, Southern Folklore Quarterly devoted an entire
issue to practical jokes in which Richard S. Tallman contributed an article
on the classification of practical jokes in terms of the actors and the actions
(in terms of nature, intent, and result) involved in the event, as well as the
dynamics of the related storytelling activities that sometimes occur afterward
as reminiscences. This same issue on practical jokes also contains a valuable
article by I. Sheldon Posen (1974a) on the traditional summer camp pranks
and practical jokes that children commonly engage in. In his analysis, Posen
focused on recurring themes found in the joking behavior he observed.
The following works also discuss schoolchildren's pranks and tricks:
The functions of tricking behavior for the schoolchild in the United States
are briefly explored by Mary and Herbert Knapp in One Potato, Two Po-
tato (1976, 91-100). The most popular pranks of British schoolchildren are
discussed in the last chapter of lona and Peter Opie's Lore and Language of
Schoolchildren (1959). Finnish schoolchildren's participation in the "deflat-
ing tradition" (or tricks at the expense of the unwitting) is discussed by Leea
Virtanen in chapter four of "Children's Lore" (1978, 51-58). Pranks (such
as raiding orchards and lighting fires) and named tricks (such as "Tick Tack,"
"Dummy Parcel," and "Ooh, My Toe") engaged in by children in school
and on the journey to and from school in different historical periods in New
Zealand are presented in Brian Sutton-Smith's comprehensive work A His-
tory of Children's Play: The New Zealand Playground, 1840-50 (1981la, 90-
91). The aspects of dissemination and regional variation of terminology in
the preadolescent boys' prank the "wedge" are briefly discussed by Gary
Alan Fine in the Center for Southern Folklore Magazine in its special issue
on children's folklore (1980d, 9).
Very little analytical work on the forms and functions of children's
pranks and tricks has been done, but Leea Virtanen (1978) has made ob-
servations with regard to various factors common to the "deflating tradi-
tion," such as the utilization of linguistic ambiguity in the construction of
verbal tricks and the social-interactional dynamics involved in "getting the
victim to fall into a trap of his own making" (page 53), in which the result
of the verbal deception is making a fool of oneself. Virtanen gives several
215
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-24 15:03 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/usu. 39060010034923 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#cc-by-nc-nd-3. 0
? ? examples of such verbal deception, such as "Spot and Spit were fighting, who
won? If the other says 'Spit,' you spit on him" (page 53). The observations
made by Virtanen with regard to the use of verbal ambiguity and getting
the victim to fall into a trap of which he himself has participated in the mak-
ing, are common to many forms of children's lore, such as catch routines,
knock-knock jokes, riddles, and phone tricks.
Phone tricks, for example, all seem to share a common denomina-
tor: They are all fabrications that rely on ambiguity. This ambiguity exists
at several levels (Jorgensen 1984, 104-16). Perhaps the most apparent use
of ambiguity is with reference to speech play, or the ambiguity of words
(puns, homonyms, and so forth) that allows for the possibility of everyday
speech to be manipulated for fun and humor. A second level of ambiguity
is a kind of social-interactional ambiguity whereby the identity of the caller
may not be known to the victim. The use of the phone almost guarantees
that the identities of the individuals remain unknown. This ambiguity of
identity makes it quite easy for youngsters to engage in phone tricks and to
do the exasperating things that they would be highly unlikely to do in other,
less safe circumstances. The use of the telephone affords them an anonym-
ity that allows for a certain license to participate in this kind of trickery, rela-
tively free from the fear of the retribution or embarrassment that might oc-
cur in face-to-face settings (Jorgensen 1984). The last kind of ambiguity exists
at the level of social structure and is related to the position of the teenager
in the hierarchy of the social order. The adolescent in our society is in an
ambiguous period in his life, being neither child nor adult.
These phone tricks may be viewed as occurring at an ambiguous time
in the life of the caller, taking place in an ambiguous social-interactional set-
ting (because of the use of the phone), and sometimes utilizing the ambigu-
ous quality of words in order to play with everyday speech, to demonstrate
communicative competence, and to gain a sense of personal power (espe-
cially within the peer group). Phone tricks are just one example of the pranks
common to children's folklore.
Some of these behaviors are reserved for "special occasions. " In the
United States the two main times of the year historically set aside for the
playing of pranks and tricks are Halloween and April Fools' Day. The same
two days are set aside in the British Isles, with the addition of Mischief Night
on November 4 (the eve of Guy Fawkes Day), which is considered by lona
and Peter Opie (1959) to be a postponed celebration of Halloween. Mis-
chievous or impolite and disrespectful behavior by children on special days
of the year may be viewed as a reversal of everyday norms of polite behav-
ior and it is allowed to some extent or perhaps even anticipated. As long as
z16 TEASES AND PRANKS
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-24 15:03 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/usu. 39060010034923 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#cc-by-nc-nd-3. 0
? ? the tricksters and pranksters don't go too far-as long as their actions do
not injure anyone or cause great damage to property or life-the mischief
is usually excused. On some other day of the year it might not be. On Hal-
loween, as well as on Mischief Night in England, the behavioral reversals
tend to involve children and teenagers as initiators of unsociable acts aimed
either at peers, adults, or other authority figures, but on April Fools' Day
adults tend to join the children as the initiators of pranks and tricks. Many
of the traditional April Fools' tricks, such as the "fool's errand," involve face-
to-face interaction between the trickster and the victim, but most of the
Halloween pranks (which are often directed against personal property) oc-
cur under the cover of darkness: The pranksters are usually unseen and un-
known.
The unknown identity of the Halloween prankster is, of course, a
safeguard against retribution by the irate victim. The prankster's unsociable
and harmful behavior, however, is also reminiscent of the traditional behavior
associated with ancestors, ghosts, or other spirit powers, who are given free
rein to return to earth and cause trouble or play tricks on the living once a
year. Such practices are known in many widely separated cultures through-
out the world-from the Druidic celebration of Samhuin on the eve of 1
November to the Day of the Dead in Mexico, and even the Milamala har-
vest celebration reported by Malinowski in the Trobriand Islands (1954).
Some very creative and innovative pranks perpetrated by teenagers in New
York in the early 1970s are reported in an article published by Catherine
Harris Ainsworth entitled "Hallowe'en," which appeared in September of
1973 in the New York Folklore Quarterly. The following excerpts are from
essays on the topic of the celebration of Halloween, perceived and experi-
enced by 18- and 19-year-olds, and they illustrate some important points
about the social interactions and reversals of everyday polite behavior that
are associated with October 31 in our culture. Most of the teenagers who
chose to include reports of pranks they had played in their essays were boys,
although one young lady did mention briefly that she enjoyed tipping over
mailboxes and causing trouble by scaring people. Interestingly, one of the
best accounts (in terms of the most detailed recording of socially unaccept-
able behavior) was signed "anonymous," which is of course symbolic of the
social-interactional significance of this special night with regard to the prank-
ish behavior perpetrated by "unseen spirits of the night":
To start the night rolling we would soap a few windows and rap on
them when the people would be watching television. Next we found
a tree limb that grew over the road. A couple of us would climb up
z17
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-24 15:03 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/usu. 39060010034923 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#cc-by-nc-nd-3. 0
? ? and tie a dummy on a rope. As soon as a car was almost under the
tree, they swung the dummy right down in front of it. They would
either stop and get out and start cussing or just slow down and keep
going. (pages 180-81)
I remember Hallowe'en because that's the night the fire company was
called out to quench a blaze that measured a few inches in width but
stretched over two miles down the center of our local main road. It
was also the night the police received several complaints from irate
motorists who'd been shocked out of their pants when someone
dropped a very life-like looking dummy in front of their car. But as
the years passed, we became more mature, which is another way of
saying our plans became more devious, more daring, and more imagi-
native. Ours was the first town with a psychedelic cop car. It was also
the first with a stop and go light that turned green in all four direc-
tions at the same time. (pages 183-84)
Halloween is a night of mischief for all, not only for young children,
but also for the older teenagers. On the way to my friend's house I
paid a visit to a few of my neighbors. After receiving dirty looks from
them all year I thought it was an appropriate time to harass them.
So I broke a few of their pumpkins. I picked up my friends and we
headed out toward Main Street . . . We stood outside of Carrol's
Hamburger Place, freezing, for about an hour. We were trying to think
of something special to do. Then one kid came up with a great idea.
We decided to buy some eggs and plaster the cars of the other guys
that were hanging around Carrol's. Within a half hour every car at
Carrol's was dripping with egg yolk. The cold weather made the eggs
freeze almost instantly. We decided it was time to get home before
we either got ran over or shot. (page 186)
These essays show that much effort and ingenuity were involved in
the planning and executing of these Halloween pranks, many of which ulti-
mately involved adult authority figures. The two-mile long fire is a good
example of such creativity and ingenuity. Although this prank was attention
getting it remained relatively harmless.
There is also evidence to support the claim that "once a prankster,
always a prankster. " Although the types of pranks tend to change with age,
pranks remain part of the adult's repertoire. The young man quoted above,
says, "But as the years passed, we became more mature, which is another
zI8 TEASES AND PRANKS
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-24 15:03 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/usu. 39060010034923 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#cc-by-nc-nd-3. 0
? ? way of saying our plans became more devious, more daring, and more imagi-
native. " It might also be noted that the young man who broke his neighbor's
pumpkins explained that he was taking the opportunity to do so on this night
of socially licensed misbehavior to retaliate for the dirty looks he had been
receiving from them all year long. One could say that this is the way pent-
up or repressed hostile emotions are expressed. The most common examples
of traditional Halloween pranks in the United States-such as removing gates
or barn doors, putting rockers in trees, putting wagons on roofs, turning over
outhouses, soaping windows-all involve either the partial destruction of
property or its removal from its proper place. These pranks tend to be indi-
rect assaults on persons through their property, rather than confrontation.
Conversely, on April Fools' Day, the object is not to damage someone else's
property but to cause embarrassment by casting the victim as socially in-
competent or foolish through various forms of trickery.
The practice of playing tricks on April Fools' Day is one that seems
to be particularly popular with school-aged children. The attraction of such
socially sanctioned trickery for young schoolchildren is evident in the words
of a twelve-year-old Scottish girl from Edinburgh who was interviewed by
lona and Peter Opie in connection with their research on "Huntigowk Day,"
the Scottish equivalent to April Fools' Day. The young girl told them:
"Huntigowk is a day I love. I like to put a basin of water at the side of my
sister's bed and hear her let out a yell when she puts her feet into it. I also
put an empty eggshell in an eggcup so that when she opens it she finds that
there is nothing inside it" (Opie and Opie 1959, 245). The playful delight
in teasing, trickery, and possibly even some undertones of sibling rivalry are
all noticeable in this child's testimony. Thus, April 1 might be characterized
as a socially sanctioned day on which behavior involving playful trickery can
be given free expression by those who find a special pleasure in such activ-
ity. It is important to add that the setting aside of this one day for such
licensed trickery allows for control of its duration (only a twenty-four-hour
period in the United States and only until noon in the British and Canadian
traditions) and of the traditional nature of the trickery and deceit (usually
only prescribed kinds of tricks are engaged in).
One way to look at April Fools' behavior is to see it as an inversion of
everyday politeness or face-saving behavior. This interpretation is based on
the assumption that in naturally occurring, everyday talk a certain serious-
ness is assumed to exist. Normally, speakers and listeners engaging in conver-
sation seek a common understanding of what is being discussed (Mehan and
Wood 1975, 124-25). In other words, attempts are normally made to com-
municate within a common frame of reference. During April Fools' trickery,
2I9
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-24 15:03 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/usu. 39060010034923 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#cc-by-nc-nd-3. 0
? ? however, these assumptions of polite seriousness and a common frame of ref-
erence are abrogated. A deception is attempted, based on a lack of serious in-
tent, and the potential victim is unaware that the usual seriousness does not
apply to the situation at hand. The importance of the victim's being unaware
is well illustrated by the fact that it is easiest to accomplish successful decep-
tions early on the day of April 1 before potential victims have had tricks played
on them by other tricksters and have thus been alerted to the fact that it is a
day on which tricks and jokes are likely to occur.
The purpose of these tricks is to make the victim look foolish. The
victim is made into the fool as a result of his or her own actions, as is also
the case in children's catch routines, riddling, and knock-knock jokes. Con-
versely, in teases and taunts victimization does not usually depend on the
victim's actions. In most taunts, the body, language, or other characteristics
of the person are attacked simply and directly, and no specific social situa-
tion is necessary. Although the element of fabrication is largely missing, the
embarrassment and discomfort of the victim are still the major element.
TEASES
As will be recalled from the table in the introduction, I prefer to discrimi-
nate between taunts and teases on the basis of the degree of harm in the vic-
timization. I consider teases to be relatively mild, possibly even benevolent
and playful forms of social interaction of children and sometimes adults.
Valuable studies based on interviews with schoolchildren regarding
both taunting and the less disturbing kinds of teasing have been carried out
by Scandinavian folklorists Leea Virtanen in Finland (1978) and Erik Kaas
Nielsen in Denmark (1976). Each of these children's folklorists, working
separately, has identified forms of teasing (both verbal and nonverbal) that
can be interpreted as a sign of affection.
Virtanen makes some important observations concerning the inter-
pretation of aggressive teasing behavior in chapter five, "The Teasing Tra-
dition," of "Children's Lore" (1978). She says, "Actions which to an out-
sider seem aggressive are the socially acceptable manner of showing posi-
tive feelings" (page 61), and that girls are capable of regarding "heavy
handed treatment" by boys as evidence of positive feelings. This last obser-
vation is illustrated by the following excerpt from an interview with a young
schoolgirl: "The biggest sign of love was when he hit me on the head with
the atlas. It hurt, but it was lovely" (page 61). It is not known, of course, if
the boys who engage in this type of teasing would interpret their behavior
as a sign of love toward the girls! Virtanen cites other examples of nonver-
bal teases used by Finnish girls to demonstrate love for a particular boy, such
220 TEASES AND PRANKS
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-24 15:03 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/usu. 39060010034923 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#cc-by-nc-nd-3. 0
? ? as lifting him by the hair and kicking him, or throwing things like snow-
balls, pebbles, or lumps of clay at him. Teases like these, which basically
involve chasing or attacking, have probably always been prevalent among
children. I recall kicking, slapping, and hair pulling as being favorite means
of gaining attention from the opposite sex when I was growing up in the
mid-1950s in southern California. Retaliation, such as washing the girl's face
"with a leather glove till she is as red as fire" (page 61) would follow if the
bid for attention was successful. (Ignoring such a claim to attention might
be considered to be an insult to the girl seeking such a response! ) Virtanen
believes that teases, which may also include verbal forms such as name calling
or the composing of witty jibes, are a means of establishing contact between
the sexes, and that each sex has its favorite procedures for doing so.
Virtanen's interpretation is supported by Nielsen's research (1976) into the
psychological motivations and sociological functions involved in teasing by
Danish schoolchildren (pages 53-54). In a personal communication (Septem-
ber 20, 1981) Nielsen expanded on the idea that the words, gestures, and
acts used in teasing are expressive forms of communication, codes that must
be decoded: "After all, teasing is a kind of code which you may/must inter-
pret according to your mood and relations to the teaser. " Nielsen's interviews
revealed that most pupils considered teasing to have both positive and nega-
tive aspects and that they understood that "in certain cases teasing is only
an attempt to create contact, especially in relation to the opposite sex" (1976,
53), findings very similar to those of Virtanen with regard to using teasing
as a means of reducing social distance between individuals. Four of the twelve
reasons noted by Nielsen for Danish schoolchildren's teasing are positive:
love (the parent's love for the child), friendship, and sympathy; love (emo-
tions for the other sex), flirtations, courting; playfulness, high spirits, need
for fun; isolation, solitude, teasing as a means of contact.
The excellent research done by these two Scandinavian children's folk-
lorists concerning the benevolent forms of teasing is supported by Richard W.
Howell in his work Language in Behavior (1976). Howell advances the idea
that playful teasing is an attempt to deny social distance and that it is there-
fore symbolic of a wished-for closeness between the people involved (page 4)
rather than a form of hostility or violence. This analysis of teasing as sym-
bolic of a potential closeness that does not quite exist seems applicable to the
boy-girl teasing reported by Virtanen and Nielsen. Play grouping according
to sex reflects the social distance between the sexes, especially in the school
context, and thus playful teasing (such as boys and girls chasing each other
or throwing snowballs or erasers at each other) could be viewed as an attempt
to seek contact in a relatively safe, nonserious manner.
zzI
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-24 15:03 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/usu. 39060010034923 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#cc-by-nc-nd-3. 0
? ? TAUNTS
If teases can be viewed as contact-seeking devices, then taunts can be dis-
tinguished as verbal strategies that attempt the opposite-to increase the
social distance between people. While teases are characterized here as be-
ing mainly positive, taunts are usually motivated by more malicious inten-
tions and negative emotions (such as hatred, envy, displeasure, revenge, the
wish to dominate, or a desire to compensate for one's own weaknesses).
Children's taunts can be examined as reversals of everyday, or nor-
mally expected, behavior, as can most other tricks, pranks, and teases. The
norms of politeness in society are based on the assumption that it is to the
interest of all to attempt to maintain each other's sense of "face" (that is,
self-concept, or feelings of self-worth). Brown and Levinson (1978) have
labeled acts that threaten this mutual support of face as FTAs, "face-threat-
ening acts" (page 65). They have identified several kinds of FTAs, the two
main ones being "off the record" (more ambiguous, or "safe") and "on the
record" (no ambiguity, less "safe") (page 74).
Children's use of traditional taunts and retorts at the elementary-
school level places these strategies of verbal aggression into the "bald on
record" subdivision (page 65) in which there is no attempt at redressive ac-
tion (or "softening the blow") on the part of the speaker. Applying Brown
and Levinson's research on politeness behavior to the subject of children's
taunting strategies, it follows that this kind of verbal aggression is "the most
direct, clear, unambiguous and concise way possible" (page 74) to carry out
an FTA and thus attempt to bring about a loss of face or sense of personal
esteem to the victim.
The directness gained by using taunts as "bald on record" FTAs is
somewhat offset by the fact that such strategies are less safe than the "off
record" ones, which are more open to question or interpretation because of
their ambiguity. The use of "bald on record" FTAs is quite likely to upset
the victim and cause him or her to seek revenge when exposed to this di-
rect, clear, and unmistakably intentional form of verbal abuse. This element
of risk tends to support the idea that those who are not worried about the
risks are confident that their own power (verbal or physical) is superior to
that of their victims.
The reaction of the victim of such verbal abuse is important. Most
verbal assaults are said face-to-face to the intended victim, probably with
the purpose of observing his or her reaction, which it is hoped will be one
of embarrassment or hurt feelings. It is usually intended that the words cho-
sen for the verbal attack will wound the child in his area of greatest sensi-
tivity and cause him to be visibly upset. Crying is often the proof that this
222 TEASES AND PRANKS
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-24 15:03 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/usu. 39060010034923 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#cc-by-nc-nd-3. 0
? ? goal has been achieved, as illustrated by the traditional chant "I made you
sigh, I made you sigh; And pretty soon I'll make you cry" (Millard 1945,
31). It is always possible, however, that through verbal agility (such as the
use of a clever retort, for example) or some other means, the quick-witted
child may be able to retaliate and thus reverse the potentially painful situa-
tion, making the aggressor the victim instead. In Virtanen's previously cited
research on children's verbal aggression, it has been observed that the chil-
dren who are the most defenseless and seem not to be able to fight back are
the ones who are most often chosen as victims, irrespective of the "undesir-
able" personal traits or other social "shortcomings" that might make them
appear to be logical candidates for such abuse (Virtanen 1978, 60).
As with the other traditional pranks, tricks, and teases discussed, it
should also be emphasized with regard to taunts that the context of their
use is crucial to their meaning. It is possible that the most vicious taunt could
be used in such a way that no real harm is intended or experienced by the
individuals involved. As an example of one of the many possible uses of ver-
bal aggression, Brown and Levinson discuss the use of seemingly threaten-
ing "bald on record" insults and jokes as communicative strategies for as-
serting that a certain degree of intimacy exists between the people involved.
Thus there is minimal danger of "face" being threatened. Conventionalized
insults can thus solidify friendship (page 234). In addition, many adults I
have questioned in the last few years on the subject of traditional taunts and
retorts claim that some of their favorite rhymes as children were valued for
their humor rather than their malice. They recalled using taunts such as
"Fatty and Skinny were laying in bed; Fatty rolled over and Skinny was
dead" in a joking manner, more for the fun of chanting it than for hurting
another child's feelings. It should be remembered that children use taunts
for a variety of purposes, and that fact should be kept in mind in the at-
tempt to understand the use of taunts and retorts.
Those who wish to pursue this genre of children's folklore will find
samples of children's taunts and retorts in various collections of children's
lore. Examples of such collections in the English-language tradition include
the work of P. H. Evans, Knapp and Knapp, Withers, Northall, Yoffie, and
Winslow. In addition, The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren (1959) by
Iona and Peter Opie is a comprehensive and well-documented collection of
various genres, including traditional taunts and retorts from the British Isles.
The significance of the material and its analysis, however, is not adequately
dealt with (Bernstein 1960).
Journal articles dealing exclusively with the subject of children's jeers
are fairly rare. In 1945 an article by Anna K. Stimson dealing with taunts
223
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-24 15:03 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/usu. 39060010034923 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#cc-by-nc-nd-3. 0
? ? used in New York City at the turn of the century appeared in the Journal of
American Folklore, and, also in 1945, a similar study of "chaffing formu-
las" by Eugenia Millard appeared in the New York Folklore Quarterly.
Millard's article contained a rudimentary attempt at classification on the
twofold basis of ethical standards and pseudo-prejudices, but her main in-
terest was in establishing the antiquity of the rhymes within the English tra-
dition. In a more recent work, Winslow (1969) constructed a classification
scheme based on derogatory epithets, one that he believed could be applied
to the traditional rhymed formulas used by children. His four categories in-
cluded play on a child's name and comments on physical peculiarities, mental
traits, and social relationships.
Martha Wolfenstein's analysis of the thematic content and functions
of joking behavior in Children's Humor (1954) is a study of the meaning of
children's attempts to use language to solve emotional problems. Although
mainly concerned with joking and riddling, her analysis of underlying mo-
tives and her discussion of the use of rhyme and proper names give impor-
tant clues to similar processes that might also apply to the jeers used during
the child's latency period (six to twelve years), which also make extensive
use of rhymed taunts.
In general, the literature contains many collections in which taunts
and retorts are studied. A few attempts at classification have been made, but
interest in the genre seems to have stopped short of an in-depth analysis of
the many possible meanings and functions of taunts, with the exception of
the research reported in 1975 by Keith T. Kernan and Claudia Mitchell-
Kernan. These scholars compared children's insults in the United States and
Samoa. They analyzed insult behavior with the intention of studying the
process of enculturation, because of the tendency for such speech acts to carry
statements of cultural values. Their research findings indicated that the per-
son insulted is depicted as deviating from culturally defined values. In both
cultures, the children's estimations of the extent to which cultural values are
implicit in the insults were close to those of the adults.