Lightbulb joke
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A lightbulb joke is a joke that asks how many people of a certain group are needed to change, replace, or screw in a light bulb. Generally, the punch line answer highlights a stereotype of the target group. There are numerous versions of the lightbulb joke satirizing a wide range of cultures, beliefs and occupations.[1][2]
Although lightbulb jokes tend to be derogatory in tone, the people targeted by them may take pride in the stereotypes expressed and are often themselves the jokes' originators.[3] Lightbulb jokes applied to subgroups can be used to ease tensions between them.[4]
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[edit] Variations
The joke is often used to suggest that some groups follow processes that are Byzantine or unnecessarily elaborate:
- Q. How many Bourbakists does it take to replace a lightbulb?
- A. Changing a lightbulb is a special case of a more general theorem concerning the maintenance and repair of an electrical system. To establish upper and lower bounds for the number of personnel required, we must determine whether the sufficient conditions of Lemma 2.1 (Availability of personnel) and those of Corollary 2.3.55 (Motivation of personnel) apply. If and only if these conditions are met, we derive the result by an application of the theorems in Section 3.1123. The resulting upper bound is, of course, a result in an abstract measure space, in the weak-* topology.[5]
Many versions are puns on the words "change" or "screw":
- Q. How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?
- A. None—the lightbulb has to want to change.[6][7]
- Q. How many Lilliputians does it take to screw in a light bulb?
- A. Two—just put them in the lightbulb and let them do it.[8]
- Q. What's the difference between a pregnant woman and a lightbulb?
- A. You can unscrew the lightbulb.[9]
Lightbulb jokes may be responses to current events. For example, the lightbulb may not be changed at all due to ongoing power outages.[10] The Village Voice held a $200 lightbulb joke contest around the time of the Iran hostage crisis. The winning joke was:
- Q. How many Iranians does it take to change a light bulb?
- A. You send us the prize money and we'll tell you the answer.[11]
If the duration of the lightbulb change is made significant, the answer is usually one:
- Q. How many doctoral students does it take to change a light bulb?
- A. Only one, but it takes five years.[12]
The joke's ubiquity allows for non sequitur:
- Q. How many surrealists does it take to change a light bulb?
- A. Fish.[13]
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ Elaine Viets (1991-09-04). "Light Bulb Jokes: Screwed-Up Humor". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SL&p_theme=sl&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB04D52E02E46F3&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D. Retrieved on 2007-12-14. "Some light bulb jokes make fun of ethnic groups, gays and women. Others shed light on certain professions..."
- ^ "How Many Students Does It Take...". New York Times. 2004-11-07. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/07/education/edlife/117JOK.html?n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Subjects/C/Comedy%20and%20Humor&pagewanted=print&position=. Retrieved on 2007-12-14. "Colleges have become the theme of at least one chestnut: the lightbulb joke."
- ^ Kerman, 456–7.
- ^ Richard M. Grimes (1996). "Shedding Light on Public Health". Journal of Public Health Policy 17 (1): 99–101. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3342661. Retrieved on 2009-04-23.
- ^ Paul Renteln and Alan Dundes (2005). "Foolproof: A Sampling of Mathematical Folk Humor". Notices of the American Mathematical Society 52 (1): 27. http://www.ams.org/journals/notices/200501/fea-dundes.pdf. Retrieved on 2009-04-23.
- ^ Morris W. Beverage Jr. (September/October 2003). "Slow Change in a Fast Culture". Educause Review: 10. http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0355.pdf.
- ^ Martin Carnoy, Richard F. Elmore, Leslie Santee Siskin (2003). The New Accountability. Routledge. pp. 195. http://books.google.ca/books?id=zgbtQNhdiE4C.
- ^ Dundes, 264.
- ^ Dundes, 264.
- ^ Michael Miller (2001-02-16). "And the winner is ... California.". Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-10263515_ITM. Retrieved on 2007-12-14. "There are also a dozen light-bulb jokes zooming around the Internet, but what good are lightbulb jokes if you don't have power?"
- ^ Dundes, 264.
- ^ Ann M. Johns (2002). Genre in the classroom. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. pp. 107. http://books.google.ca/books?id=yLx1vJUDBkYC. Retrieved on 2009-04-23.
- ^ Ted Cohen (1999). Jokes. University of Chicago Press. pp. 6. http://books.google.ca/books?id=eIPSME0a35QC. Retrieved on 2009-04-23.
[edit] References
- Alan Dundes (1981). "Many Hands Make Light Work or Caught in the Act of Screwing in Light Bulbs". Western Folklore 40 (3): 261. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1499697.
- Judith B. Kerman (1980). "The Light-Bulb Jokes: Americans Look at Social Action Processes". The Journal of American Folklore 93 (370). http://www.jstor.org/stable/539876. Retrieved on 2009-04-23.
