Joke Structure: Seemingly Nonsense Word has Specific Meaning (Example from Laverne and Shirley)

Cafe Society
1

Among my favorite sit-com jokes . . .

after Shirley returns from a date:

LAVERNE: So, did you . . . voh di oh doh doh?
SHIRLEY: gasp I do NOT “voh di oh doh doh”!
LAVERNE: Oh, you voh di oh doh doh.
SHIRLEY: I do NOT voh di oh doh doh
LAVERNE: You voh di oh.
SHIRLEY: ONCE!

When “voh di oh doh doh” is first used, it is delivered like a nonspecific nonsense word. It is used as a euphemism for sexual activity: knowing Laverne and Shirley, one would assume that Laverne is not talking about sexual intercourse . . . but sexual activity along the lines of maybe a steamy make-out session in the back of a car.

Still, when we first get the term, it sounds like a broadly applied euphemism that could cover varies activities of a “foolin’ around” nature.

Shirley protests that she does not voh di oh doh doh. Still there is no implication that this has anything more specific than a broad and generic meaning.

Laverne’s response “You voh di oh”, can still be seen as generic nonsense. Just a playful suggestion that Shirley has upon occasion allowed small amounts of foolin’ around.

The great punchline is when Shirley so defensively protests “ONCE!”

At this point it is established that “voh di oh” is a very specific sexual act. Shirley did it “ONCE!”. If “voh di oh” is a specific act, then is follows that “voh di oh doh doh” is also a very specific act.

The humor is in the mystery.
These nonsense words have very specific meaning for the characters but we are left out of the loop.
Often nonsense words have a specific meaning for the characters, and often this is humorous.

HOWEVER, the structure of this Laverne and Shirley joke builds on the audience’s assumption that the word is nonspecific nonsense. The punchline is the REVEAL that the words have mysterious specific meaning to the characters . . . and the audience is left to imagine.

Other examples?

Or perhaps, anyone just want to share appreciation for this classic style of sitcom joke structure?

2

In Seinfeld, the nonsense word takes the form of “yadda yadda yadda…” , which is then discussed in a meta way:

George: Listen to this. Marcy comes up and she tells me her ex-boyfriend was over late last night, and “yada yada yada, I’m really tired today.” You don’t think she yada yada’d sex.

Elaine: (Raising hand) I’ve yada yada’d sex.

George: Really?

Elaine: Yeah. I met this lawyer, we went out to dinner, I had the lobster bisk, we went back to my place, yada yada yada, I never heard from him again.

Jerry: But you yada yada’d over the best part.

Elaine: No, I mentioned the bisk.

3

[nitpick]Bisque[/nitpick]

4

Knights who say “Ni”

Wayne speaking Chinese and Japanese in the Wayne’s World films

Several episodes of Sex in the City when children are present at the lunch meeting

5

d’oh -> damn
homina homina homina homina homina -> damn dat bitch is fine. i’m gonna get all up in that.
cukooo. cukoooo -> you’re crazy
::mattress squeak:: -> horizontal mambo

6

Not sure if it applies, but didn’t the old TV show L.A. Law have a bit about “The Venus Butterfly” or some such mysterious bedroom maneuver that was never explained?

7

It’s not always a sexual connotation though, it could be anything that leaves Ralph befuzzled and speechless; a voluptuous could be one of them.

8

Yes. Ice was somehow involved. At least the two lawyers who tired it at the end ordered ice from room service when they decided to do it again.

9

As Allen Sherman pointed out in The Rape of the APE, people immediately assume a sexual meaning in any nonsense phrase. To prove this, just ask anyone “How’s your thing?”

10

A-wop bop-a loo-bop, a-wop bam-boom!

And it’s not only nonsense words. There was an exchange in MASH (TV version) between Frank and Hotlips that went roughly:

Frank: Why don’t we go to your tent and have a . . . conversation.
Hotlips: We had a . . . conversation earlier today.
Frank: That was just a little chat.

11

A recent example from The Big Bang Theory: Howard and his new girlfriend Bernadette are on a double-date with Leonard and Penny. Somehow the conversation turns to whether they have “done it” yet. Bernadette says “We’ve been to Third Base,” to which Howard replies, “We disagree on what the bases are.”

We the audience are left to wonder what their respective definitions are, and what they’ve done, which makes it funnier than if we knew.

12

That was one of those strange cases where fiction (sort of) became reality.

After that episode aired, apparently a bunch of people wrote in wanting to know how to do the technique, and were disappointed to find out that it was purely fictional. But since then, at least two techniques have been invented and have taken on that name. As well, a sex toy was marketed under that name.

13

o/ My ding-a-ling. My ding-a-ling. Won't you play with my ding-a-ling. o/

14

A running gag in *Blazing Saddles * refers to Sheriff Bart as a “ni-” with the second half of the word obscured by a sound effect or some other interruption. However, in one scene, Gov. Le Petomaine exclaims to Hedley Lamar, “Can’t you see that man is a ni-?” without bothering to finish it.

15

I like this one. I think this is the closest in matching the structure of the Laverne and Shirley joke.

Other examples here are good variations.

16

Regarding BBT: Didn’t Howard later say he got to seventh base?

Regarding “LA Law”: At the time, the Venus Butterfly was undefined by the shows writers. However, there have been sex toys developed with that name in response and on the Discovery Health “Berman & Berman” (a few years ago), a specific technique was described with that name.