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ABSTRACT
This article explores the emergence and swift decline of the Kerryman joke, a late modern fool region joke told by the Irish about their fellow countrymen from the south-westernmost county of Kerry. It both contextualizes the joke cycle within a rapidly modernizing, late-twentieth century Ireland, and examines tensions between the emic interpretations of joke tellers and the etic interpretations of scholars of stupidity jokes more generally. KEYWORDS: Ireland, Jokes, Ethnic humor, Stupidity jokes, Kerryman
In the spring of 2001, I came to Professor Dundes' office as an undergraduate student to discuss the folklore fieldwork I wanted to undertake while studying abroad in Ireland the following year. After waiting my tum in the usual long line of students eager to bask in his vast wisdom, I pitched my topic to him, an evaluation of contemporary Irish fairylore and belief. "No, don't do that," he immediately groaned. "You should work on the Kerryman joke. It's much more interesting, and something I've been meaning to look into for years." Following his advice, instead of interviewing Irish youth about their fairy belief the following year, I found myself engaged in joke telling sessions about the stupid Kerryman. While in intervening years my research focus has shifted farther afield to UNESCO intangible cultural heritage in India, I am pleased to revisit this topic in homage to my mentor, Alan Dundes, who inspired this project and my subsequent doctoral studies in folklore.
The Kerryman joke, told predominantly by the Irish about their fellow countrymen from the county of Kerry, represents a relatively late emergence of a fool region joke, a type of joke that is largely considered the precursor of modem ethnic jokes about stupidity (Davies 1998). The joke emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s amidst rapid modernization, a mass population influx from the rural Irish countryside to the urban center of Dublin, and an unprecedented winning streak by Co. Kerry in the Gaelic Athletic Association's (GAA) All-Ireland Senior Football Championship. While on the surface Kerryman jokes appear to represent a typical stupidity joke about a geographically and economically marginal group, joke tellers themselves reveal a wider understanding of the Kerryman as "cute hoor," a wily figure who strategically plays "thick" (dumb) to get what he wants....