Big laughs in little towns

In the course of writing about Diné experiences of time and relationships to place, poet Jake Skeets relates a joke his father told about a town in the Navajo Nation. When I saw the joke in "The Other House: Musings on the Diné Perspective of Time" in Emergence Magazine, I was reminded of a similar joke about a place in Texas which also has a name that can be challenging for out-of-towners.

First, Skeets's joke:

There is a joke my father told me as a child. Language and culture loss continue to worry many Diné elders on our reservation; there are several revitalization efforts ongoing to address these losses. As a result, high school students can take Navajo language classes to fulfill foreign language requirements, and most universities and colleges now recognize Navajo as a foreign language, despite its millennia-long existence in the Southwest and its Athabascan relatives to the north and south. The joke my father told captures the politics of language and culture loss and revitalization within a singular punch line. The joke takes place in Chinle, Arizona, a small town located near the heart of the Navajo Nation. Its place name in Diné is Chʼínílį́. The joke is as follows: Two men are arguing over a meal about the correct pronunciation of Chinle. One says they are in Chinle, using the English pronunciation. The other says they are in Chʼínílį́, using the Diné pronunciation. To settle the dispute, one stops a restaurant worker and asks her, “Are we in Chinle or Chʼínílį́?” The worker replies, “Sir, you are in Burger King.” The joke acknowledges the existence of a Burger King near the heart of the Navajo Nation.

This joke reminded me of one told by the late, great Larry Jones. I worked with him in the 1980s at the University of North Texas, where he was the art director of the publications office and I was a writer in the media relations office. He was one of the funniest people I have ever known. He was one of those people who were funny whether or not they intended to be. He grew up in the small Texas city of Mexia. Pronouncing the city's name can be challenging for some people. This was Larry's joke:

Two men are eating together in a small town, and they are arguing about how to pronounce its name. One insists it is "Muh-hay-yu." The other insists it is "Mex-ee-ya." Finally, they call over their waitress to settle the dispute. One of the men asks the waitress, "You're a local. How do YOU pronounce the name of this place?" She looks at them a moment, and then she says, slowly, "Day-ree Kween."

The jokes are similar enough to make me wonder if Skeets's joke is being misremembered. I think the Mexia version works better. The set-up is stronger if the disputed names of the town are not mentioned to the restaurant employee. If the waitress does not understand their argument, she thinks they do not know how to pronounce the name of an iconic small-town restaurant. The Mexia punchline depends upon the apparent misunderstanding between the waitress and the disputing friends -- and upon her possible impression that these two men are not very bright.

I also wonder if the punchline to Skeets's joke is being influenced by the popular "Sir, this is an Arby's" meme. You can find it discussed at the Know Your Meme website. In this meme category, someone delivers a monologue that is deeply personal or controversial, and that is followed by "Sir, this is an Arby's," which suggests the comments are inappropriate or, at best, no one asked and no one cares.

However, I am not going to tell someone they do not correctly recall their father's joke. Perhaps Skeets's version is appreciated because it suggests the Burger King staff member does not care about the correct pronunciation of the town's name. Or perhaps it suggests the Burger King staff member does not know the correct pronunciation and avoids the question.

Reading Skeet's joke and recalling my friend's Mexia joke made me wonder if there is a punchline version of "klang association." That is when we cannot recall the correct word for something and our brain grabs a word or phrase that sounds right. For example, referring to varicose veins as "very close veins." Varicose is an unusual word. Most people do not know what it means nor why certain types of veins are called that; so their brains grab a combination of familiar words that sound like it might make sense: perhaps having veins that are too close together would cause problems?

We have heard so many jokes and seen so many memes, how can our brains keep them all straight? There may be some mixing and matching going on in our mental inventory of punchlines.

Regardless, Chinle and Mexia are fine towns; you should visit them. Skeets is a talented writer and poet; you should look for his stuff. And Larry was a hoot; I wish you could have met him.

Skeets's prize-winning collection of poems, Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers, is available from Milkweed Editions. He has another essay about Diné memory in Emergence Magazine, "The Memory Field: Musings on the Diné Perspective on Time, Memory, and Land."