American Folk Metafiction

[benlehman]

It was a dark and stormy night.

Two tramps sat on a rail.

One tramp said to the other tramp, "Tell me a story, Bill."

So Bill began...

























It was a dark and stormy night.

Two tramps sat on a rail.

One tramp said to the other tramp, "Tell me a story, Bill."

So Bill began...

Comments

[chrislehrich.livejournal.com]

Do you know the Great Purple Flower joke? Basically it's the House that Jack Built as an elaborate shaggy dog story, all about this Great Purple Flower.

Part 1, this guy hears about it, and he keeps asking about it, and everyone he asks beats the crap out of him, until eventually he's walking around in a brown suit picking up aluminum cans by the roadside, still asking people (a good 3-5 minutes).

Part 2, the guy asks another guy who says, "My son, I too have searched, blah blah." He then describes this house across the street, that has a great purple door, with a great purple knocker, and through it is a great purple staircase, and..... until eventually there's the great purple flower, and when you see it you wil understand. (easily 5-10 minutes, depending on audience)

Part 3, the guy runs across the road and is killed by a taxi. The moral of the story: look both ways before crossing the street.

Not exactly metafiction directly, but it's implicit.

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

I have heard the same joke with a different object, although I can't recall off the top of my head what it was. The joke seems to be that it is an anti-joke. There is no punchline, and you were dumb to wait on it.

I think that "Two Tramps Sat on a Rail" is a very different and possibly much older (behold the Chinese version.) While there is something of a "hahahah, you had to wait for the story that wasn't there" aspect to it, it also have some considerably deeper levels.