Jill Siegel
Narrative Jokes- Archive Collection
Text 1
Original Collector: Lorna McKenzie
Title: The Fads
Class: F220 American Folklore
Professor: Sandra K.D. Stahl
Semester and Year: Fall 1981
Code: 81/62
Once a young enterprising preacher moved into a new town; his name was Bill Fuzz. And seeing how he was a Methodist preacher, and there was no Methodist church in this town, he would have to build his own. So, he worked on it for a long time—you know—building everything, getting all the rooms straight. He was about done when all he needed was one more screw. Well, he went down to the hardware store, walked in and said, “I would like a screw please.” Little did he know that this is not a hardware store, but a front- for a whore house. So, the guy at the counter says, “Oh you want a screw, huh? Well ok go back there, back in room number three and we will get it for you.” Now the preacher, you know, Bill Fuzz, he didn’t know what was going on and he just went back there and waited. Suddenly, this girl comes in wearing very little clothes and goes, “Well I’m here for your screw” and he goes, “Well I don’t understand, all I wanted was a screw.” And she goes, “that’s what I’m here for.” Suddenly the cops raid the place and ran in there and said, “Everybody hands up, you’re all under arrest!” And pastor Fuzz goes, “But I’m pastor Fuzz!” And one of the cops goes, “I don’t care if you’re six inches in, you’re still under arrest!”
Context: This narrative joke was told in the setting of Indiana University in the dorm room of the collector of the joke. The students participating were asked to relinquish any jokes they had heard. Most of the students present in the conversation had relayed jokes of a graphic nature, and seemed immature in their story telling. The jokes were told in a drinking situation among friends. In accordance to the situation and the mentality in which the students were in when they were telling jokes to one another, the wording and graphic nature of the joke shows that they as a group were comfortable with one another. And, that they were not hesitant to say sort of words or phrases that might make others uncomfortable. They instead felt free to tell the story of the pastor and his screw.