Dead baby jokes
{{Short description|Series of dark comedy jokes}}
{{Redirect|Dead baby|other uses|Dead baby (disambiguation)}}
Dead baby jokes are a joke cycle reflecting dark comedy. The joke is presented in riddle form, beginning with a what question and concluded with a grotesque punch line answer.{{cite journal|title=The Dead Baby Joke Cycle|author=Alan Dundes|journal=Western Folklore|volume=38|issue=3|date=July 1979|pages=145–157|doi=10.2307/1499238|jstor=1499238|pmid=11633558}}
History
According to the folklorist scholar Alan Dundes, the dead baby joke cycle likely began in the early 1960s. Dundes theorizes that the origin of the dead baby joke lies in the rise of second-wave feminism in the U.S. during that decade and its rejection of the traditional societal role for women, which included support for legalized abortion and contraceptives.{{citation |title=Jokes are a serious, 'psychic' business |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=336&dat=19880901&id=cRYpAAAAIBAJ&pg=7115,359359 |newspaper=San Francisco Examiner}}{{cite news |date=2 December 1987 |title=That's Not Funny - That's Sick // Folklorist Alan Dundes looks at the serious side of sick jokes |newspaper=St. Petersburg Times}} It has also been suggested that the jokes emerged in response to images of graphic violence, often involving infants, from the Vietnam War.{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/americanchildren00bron | url-access=registration | title=American Children's Folklore | publisher=august house | author=Bronner, Simon J. | year=1988 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/americanchildren00bron/page/127 127] | isbn=9780874830682}}
Examples
What's the difference between a truckload of dead babies and a truckload of bowling balls?
You can’t unload bowling balls with a pitchfork.{{cite journal |last=McWhorter |first=Diane |date=Spring 1977 |title=An Ugly Joke: "Dead Babies" // Dead Babies by Martin Amis |jstor=25117878 |journal=The North American Review |publisher=University of Northern Iowa |volume=262 |issue=1 }}
What's more fun than nailing a baby to a post?
Ripping it off again.{{Cite thesis |last=Warner |first=Andrew |title=P.S. Dead Baby Jokes Aren't Funny: The Grotesque in Sick Humor |type=M.A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XuB-sfGHj8EC |year=2008 |publisher=Truman State University }}
What's bright blue, pink, and sizzles?
A baby breastfeeding on an electrical outlet.
How do you get 100 dead babies into a box?
How do you get them out of the box?
How many babies does it take to paint a house?
Depends on how hard you throw them.
Why did the dead baby cross the road?