Instrument-specific jokes

Subject: RE: Instrument-specific jokes
From: Merritt
Date: 05 Apr 17 - 02:36 PM

Altho I'm not really answering your question, Roger. "What makes some instruments rather than others the butt of jokes?" I just don't know.

Subject: RE: Instrument-specific jokes
From: Merritt
Date: 05 Apr 17 - 02:33 PM

Our oldest daughter played the highland pipes for about a decade, marched in a regional pipe and drum band until she went off to college. The pipes seem to attract a lot of the usual instrument jokes + those that apply to loud instruments. My impression, after hanging out at soooo many parades and festivals, is that that people aren't indifferent regarding the pipes. They're like, um, cilantro, and folks either love em or hate em.

Subject: RE: Instrument-specific jokes
From: GUEST,LynnH
Date: 05 Apr 17 - 01:27 PM

Well, playing/trying to play the english constant screamer ought to be a good way of staving off Alzheimer's / Dementia..........

Subject: RE: Instrument-specific jokes
From: Jack Campin
Date: 05 Apr 17 - 12:00 PM

Somewhere in the writings of the 17th century Ottoman traveller Evliya Çelebi, he reports that the tanbur (a banjo-like instrument, which he played himself and which I've just started learning) was the favourite instrument in Sodom and Gomorrah.

The Pictish Lethendy stone in Perthshire has a famous picture featuring a harpist and a triple pipe player. It has been suggested that this was an early version of the "welcome to heaven, here's your harp... welcome to hell, here's your accordion" joke.

Subject: RE: Instrument-specific jokes
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Apr 17 - 11:49 AM

I thought the jokers were the people who owned the banjos and squeezeboxes!

Subject: Instrument-specific jokes
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 05 Apr 17 - 11:23 AM

At the risk of opening a can of worms...Poor old banjos and squeezeboxes come in for some stick from jokers, so far washboard players seem exempt, although proper drummers think we're thimble-minded. What makes some instruments rather than others the butt of jokes? Viola players get picked on in classical circles.
RtS