The Folklore Impulse (Awndrea Caves)

After I finished reading “The World’s First Kumbaya Moment:  New Evidence About An Old Song” by Stephen Winick, I turned the TV on and Family Guy came on.  It happened to be the episode in which Peter, Joe, and Quagmire decide to trace the origins of a dirty joke.  The journey takes them through Virginia, where they meet up with their old pal, Cleveland, who joins their search for the origins of not just one dirty joke, but all dirty jokes.  I have seen the episode before, but never realized that the gang’s adventure is really an exploration of folklore.  They journey, ala Indiana Jones¸ to a secret island where The Secret Order of Dirty Joke Writers resides.  According to The Dean of The Secret Order of Dirty Joke Writers, many of the world’s most intelligent men have been contributing members, such as Ben Franklin, Charles Dickens, and “Shakespeare, of course.”  I was thinking that this episode was tapping into some “folklore impulse” in our culture, until I read the accompanying article by David Grazian.  Perhaps, instead, this episode is tapping into the search for origins and authenticity that Grazian discusses in the context of blues music.   We are always searching for authenticity and the entertainment we create for ourselves is about that search for the wonderful and glorious ‘real’ authentic thing from the past, ala Indian Jones.