Tennessen


 Another common target of Creole jokes is the
institution of marriage, as in the story of the
unfaithful husband whose car breaks down in front of
his girlfriend's house as he is out taking his wife
and children for a Sunday afternoon ride. This
anecdote, it seems, is whispering that Western morality
is "not an arrangement calculated to satisfy a man's
sexuality" for indeed, says Freud, "there is no more
personal claim than that for sexual freedom and at no
point has civilization tried to exercise severer
suppression than in the sphere of sexuality" (Freud
1960: 110-11).

 Humor can also give a feeling of power and strength
in the midst of pain or ignorance--who among us, for
instance, has not felt inadequate and helpless in the
face of modern medical science ? The following story,
in which the hostile purposes, I might add, are directed
against women as well, needs no further comment:

 Set6 yon neg ki t6 gin tet
 fbmal. Epi mouche al lopital.
 Dokte-a di-1: "Sa ou ginyin?"
 Li reponn: "tet femal". Laminm
 dokte-a bay mouch6 yon ti rembd.
 Min li kanp6 toujou, li pa d6plas6.
 Dokte-a di-1: "mouin fini ave ou
 oui!" Mouche di: "Dok, monch6
 ou poko fini. Se pou ou banm
 yon piki pou tet femal la." Eh!
 Mouchd fachd, lap jour4. Epi
 dokte-a di: "Ddpi ou v14 pran
 piki, desann pantalon ou." Mouch4
 minm di: "Mouin pat di ou mouin
 gin deyA femal dok. Ou pa ka
 di-m desann pantalon ou. Si m-t6
 gin chapo, ou ta di-m ouet6 chapo
 ou pito. Mouin konnin s6 tet
 fbmal mouin ginyin, s6 pou ou
 banm piki nan tet."

 Once there was a man who went to
 the hospital because he had the
 head of a woman. When the doctor
 asked him what was the matter with