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Anonymous Posted 20 years ago
Linguistics Studies
Pluperfect? (scrod)
0 I've heard this joke told in various ways. 02 br
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00 A businessman arriving in Boston for a convention found that his first evening was free, and he decided to go find a good seafood restaurant that served scrod, a Massachusetts specialty. Getting into a taxi, he asked the cab driver, "Do you know where I can get scrod around here?" "Sure," said the cabdriver. "I know a few places... but I can tell you it's not often I hear someone use the third-person pluperfect indicative anymore!" 02 br
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00 I've also heard this joke using; pluperfect subjunctive, past pluperfect, and passive pluperfect subjunctive. I was hoping to get some input on which would be the correct way to tell this joke. 02 br
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00 Thanks for any help. 05 0 010id 1
02 br
00 A businessman arriving in Boston for a convention found that his first evening was free, and he decided to go find a good seafood restaurant that served scrod, a Massachusetts specialty. Getting into a taxi, he asked the cab driver, "Do you know where I can get scrod around here?" "Sure," said the cabdriver. "I know a few places... but I can tell you it's not often I hear someone use the third-person pluperfect indicative anymore!" 02 br
02 br
00 I've also heard this joke using; pluperfect subjunctive, past pluperfect, and passive pluperfect subjunctive. I was hoping to get some input on which would be the correct way to tell this joke. 02 br
02 br
00 Thanks for any help. 05 0 010id 1
Top answer
02 br 01 i 00 It's not often I hear the past participle 02 i 00 would be completely lacking in humor because the past participle is used all the time. The same would be true if you used 01 i 00 passive 02 i 00 in the joke. That is why the joke has to mention some purely fictitious or fantasy tense that sounds complicated (whether such a tense actually exists or not).
- 02 br 01 i 00 It's not often I hear the past participle 02 i 00 would be completely lacking in humor because the past participle is used all the time.
- The same would be true if you used 01 i 00 passive 02 i 00 in the joke.
- That is why the joke has to mention some purely fictitious or fantasy tense that sounds complicated (whether such a tense actually exists or not).
- Therefore, from the point of view of the "tense" to use in the punch line, there is no correct way to tell the joke.
- Make up your own "tense" as you choose, preferably something which just "sounds funny".
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18 Answers
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0 Within the world of the joke, 01 i 00 scrod 02 i 00 is a past participle in a passive construction, pure and simple. 02 br
01 i 00 It's not often I hear the past participle 02 i 00 would be completely lacking in humor because the past participle is used all the time. The same would be true if you used 01 i 00 passive 02 i 00 in the jo
01 i 00 It's not often I hear the past participle 02 i 00 would be completely lacking in humor because the past participle is used all the time. The same would be true if you used 01 i 00 passive 02 i 00 in the jo
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In the version of this joke I know, the cabdriver says, "Buddy, I been asked that a thousand times, but never before in the..." In that form, I think you can use "passive past participle," while maintaining both the humor of the joke, and grammatical correctness.
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The grammar isn't the point. the joke is. The only answer is: "... pluperfect subjunctive." The cabbie's accent, though politically incorrect, should be black, accent on the "sub" syllable.
I knows what you wants, but that's the fust time I ever hud it in da pluperfect subjunctive!
Yes, it's a racist joke.
I knows what you wants, but that's the fust time I ever hud it in da pluperfect subjunctive!
Yes, it's a racist joke.
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AnonymousYes, it's a racist joke.
All I can say is that I disagree. The race of the drive00
Check Wikipedia for the definition of pluperfect. It is Latin for "more than perfect". In the case of the joke, "I have never heard it in the past pluperfect tense", is entirely correct.
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Agreed - the joke is not intended to be racist but the reason it's set in boston is that there are so many college educated types who are driving cabs.....and who would know their tenses.
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Right. Nothing racist about it. The best version I heard - and the first - over twenty years ago, went like this:
A Bostonian gets into a cab in New York, and says to the driver 'Take me someplace I can get scrod'. And the driver says 'Buddy, I been asked that many times and in many languages, but never in the pluperfect subjunctive!'
A Bostonian gets into a cab in New York, and says to the driver 'Take me someplace I can get scrod'. And the driver says 'Buddy, I been asked that many times and in many languages, but never in the pluperfect subjunctive!'
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I have only heard this joke as "An American gets into a cab in London. Wanting an authentic British fish-and-chips meal, he asks where he can get scrod. The cabbie responds 'I know a few places, but I gotta tell ya... that is the first time I heard a Yank use the past pluperfect subjunctive!'". It plays into the sterotype that the British know their grammar better than Americans, and gets the fish
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(Gee, does it have to be UK English, since you use The Royal Colours?)
I'd only add that the subjunctive compounds the humor of the pluperfect, sounding even more obscure, especially if you've only ever heard either term in a high school class widely considered difficult or irrelevant such as Latin or Spanish (in which I'm showing my age!). In USA Catholic grammar school I l
I'd only add that the subjunctive compounds the humor of the pluperfect, sounding even more obscure, especially if you've only ever heard either term in a high school class widely considered difficult or irrelevant such as Latin or Spanish (in which I'm showing my age!). In USA Catholic grammar school I l
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