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Children's Humor
| Article
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16771 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
9 / 1989 |
2,988 Words |
| Author
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Sheila K. Webster-Jain
Folklorist Sheila K. Webster-Jain teaches in the Department of
English Language and Literature at the University of Maryland,
College Park. |
"Knock knock."
"Who's there?"
"Banana."
"Banana who?"
"Knock knock."
"Who's there?"
"Orange."
"Orange who?"
"Orange-ya glad I didn't say 'banana?'"
To a six-year-old, that is a very funny joke. To an adult, it may be mildly amusing the first time through, slightly less so the second time, and just plain boring on the enthusiastic youngster's sixteenth rerun. Clearly, age affects our perception and appreciation of humor, of language, of patterned performance--indeed, of all kinds of cultural expression, including folklore.
The folklore of any group has much to tell us about people's beliefs, attitudes, and values. Children's folklore is particularly interesting, for it is in their traditions that children express themselves with little or no adult intervention. And even in a highly literate technological society, the community of children is relatively unaffected by writing and thus relies on oral communication to pass on information. They may read and write in school, but to communicate with one another they almost invariably talk.
Because children create and pass on traditions of their own without direct influence from adults, folklorists regard them as a discrete folk group, that is, a group with a culture of its own. Naturally they share with adults many elements of the sociocultural milieu in which they live, but children are also distinct from adult groups in their physiological, cognitive, and social development. Their traditional culture--their folklore--learned from other children rather than from adults, fulfills needs specific to the group. Since their needs change as children grow older, their folklore changes as well.
Folklorists' studies of children's folklore address such issues an enculturation language acquisition, and cognitive development from a unique
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