No soap radio: Difference between revisions
→External links: removed http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/WTL/46/ as it no longer or ever went to the intended site. |
|||
| Line 32: | Line 32: | ||
* ''Two elephants are sitting in the bathtub. One elephant says to the other, "Please pass the soap". The elephant replies to the other elephant, "What do I look like, a radio?"'' |
* ''Two elephants are sitting in the bathtub. One elephant says to the other, "Please pass the soap". The elephant replies to the other elephant, "What do I look like, a radio?"'' |
||
The long variety of the joke is normally made up on the spot, but may be reused after that. There have at times been a few classic archetypes. One version |
The long variety of the joke is normally made up on the spot, but may be reused after that. There have at times been a few classic archetypes. One version is as follows: |
||
* ''Two ducks walk into a bar but find that they have no money to buy drinks. They decide to go beg on the street. The first person they see is a white man. They ask him for money and he says, "Sorry, I left my wallet at home". The second person they see is a black man. The third person they see is a Czechoslovakian pianist. They ask him for money, and he turns to them, and says, "No coke... Radio?"'' |
* ''Two ducks walk into a bar but find that they have no money to buy drinks. They decide to go beg on the street. The first person they see is a white man. They ask him for money and he says, "Sorry, I left my wallet at home". The second person they see is a black man. The third person they see is a Czechoslovakian pianist. They ask him for money, and he turns to them, and says, "No coke... Radio?"'' |
||
Revision as of 01:16, 12 August 2009
 |
No soap radio is a traditional punch line for a prank joke. The body of the joke is not related to the punch line itself, but is made out to be humorous by participants in the prank. The first known reference to this form of anti-humor was in the late 1940s.[1]
The punch line is known for its use as a basic sociological and psychological experiment, specifically relating to mob mentality and the pressure to conform. The basic setup is similar to the Asch conformity experiments, in which people's proclivity to agree with a group despite their own judgments is tested.
Execution
The prank involves at least two co-conspirators and a victim. The joke teller will catch the attention of the victim and announce his intention of telling a joke, perhaps stating that it would be particularly to the victim's taste.
The punchline of the joke will have been told to the co-conspirators beforehand, traditionally the phrase, "No soap, radio". After the joke teller says the punchline, the co-conspirators will immediately laugh uproariously, treating the joke as if it were, in fact, funny.
In effect, the joke is not to be found in the content itself ("No soap, radio"), but rather in how the victim reacts to the [unfunny] punchline of the "joke" as delivered by and reacted to by the conspirators.
The purpose of the prank is to make the one victim of the joke's telling respond with one of two results:
- False understanding is acting as if the joke is humorous when in fact the victim does not understand the joke at all.
- Negative understanding is expressing confusion about what the joke means and feeling left out. The victim may switch to false understanding after receiving facetious derision from the conspirators. Normally after some time of negative understanding, the prank is revealed in full to the victim.
Origin
The origin of the punchline remains mysterious, but it was circulating in the suburbs of NYC as early as 1956–57.[2]
Psychology
No soap radio is an example of anti-humor. Of the outcomes listed, false understanding is the most desirable. The scenario resulting from false understanding is a demonstration of groupthink and peer pressure, the need to conform to one's peers. Despite the fact that the entire joke has no hidden meaning, nothing to "get," and no real punchline at all, the key is the conspirators laughing at it anyway.
This can be likened to laugh tracks, which are intended to make television viewers more inclined to laugh during television shows.
Examples
Since the short variety of joke is usually thought of beforehand, there are a few commonly used ones. For some reason, they often involve animals in bathtubs.
- Two polar bears are sitting in a bathtub. The first one says, "Pass the soap". The second one says, "No soap, radio!"
- A foreign man is flying in an airplane. He points out of the window at the unfamiliar countryside below and exclaims, "No soap... radio?"
- A penguin and a polar bear are sitting on an iceberg. The penguin yells, "Radio!" They both jump in the water.
- Two elephants are sitting in the bathtub. One elephant says to the other, "Please pass the soap". The elephant replies to the other elephant, "What do I look like, a radio?"
The long variety of the joke is normally made up on the spot, but may be reused after that. There have at times been a few classic archetypes. One version is as follows:
- Two ducks walk into a bar but find that they have no money to buy drinks. They decide to go beg on the street. The first person they see is a white man. They ask him for money and he says, "Sorry, I left my wallet at home". The second person they see is a black man. The third person they see is a Czechoslovakian pianist. They ask him for money, and he turns to them, and says, "No coke... Radio?"
Use in popular culture
Over the years the joke has become widely known and entered popular culture in other forms, including a shower radio labeled "No Soap, Radio!" on an episode of The Simpsons, a popular podcast named after the joke, and a band with the name appearing at the Crazy Horse on The Sopranos. It has been used as the name for rock bands, as well as a short-lived TV sketch comedy show (à la Monty Python's Flying Circus) starring Steve Guttenberg that aired on ABC in the spring of 1982. [1].
No Soap Radio was also the name of a successful radio commercial production company in New York City formed in 1970. Because of its activity as a music company creating tracks for TV as well as radio, it changed its name in the early 1980s to No Soap Productions and is still active as of 2008.
See also
Notes
References
- "No soap. Radio". Chris Hays at Stanford. Retrieved December 19 2005.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|dateformat=ignored (help) - "No soap radio: Theories of Origin". Chris Hays at Stanford. Retrieved November 22 2007.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|dateformat=ignored (help)