UBC graffiti (1969)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Fri, 14 Oct 2005 18:20:49 -0400, Wilson Gray wrote:

>On 10/14/05, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at rci.rutgers.edu> wrote:
>>
>> Book titles are also very big among the john set.
>> Revenge of the Lion by Claude Balls.
>> Treasure in the Toilet by I. P. Nicols.
>> Disaster at the Cliff by Eileen Dover.
>> Crabs, You Say by Ivan Offelitch.
>> Russian Revolution by Ubin Jakinoff.
>> Moscow to Leningrad in Three Minutes by U. Bitchur Kokoff.
>
>"From Under The Stands," by Seymour Harriass.
>"Line in The Sand," by Won Hung Lo.
>"Yellow River," by I. P. Dailey
>
>Hm. These somehow don't seem as side-splittingly funny as they did
>when I first heard them in elementary school.

Nonetheless, you and your schoolmates were taking part in a folkloristic
tradition going back at least to the 17th century. See:

Charles Clay Doyle, "Title-Author Jokes, Now and Long Ago"
Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 86 (Jan. 1973), pp. 52-54
http://www.jstor.org/view/00218715/ap020344/02a00060/

This follows up on the work of Dundes and George, who also catalogued
Confucianisms, wanton daughter puns, etc.:

Alan Dundes and Robert A. Georges, "Some Minor Genres of Obscene Folklore"
Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 75 (Jul. 1962), pp. 221-226
http://www.jstor.org/view/00218715/ap020294/02a00060/


--Ben Zimmer