Molbos helped a shepherd to chase away a stork from the grain field while preventing shepherd's big feet from trampling the field
A town of fools is the base of a number of joke cycles found in various cultures. Jokes of these cycles poke fun at the stupidity of the inhabitants of real or fictional populated places (villages, towns, regions, etc.). In English folklore the best known butt of jokes of this type are the Wise Men of Gotham. A number of works of satire are set in a town of fools.
The Motif-Index of Folk-Literature includes the motif J1703: "Town (country) of fools".[1]
Archetypal fools by place of residence
- Wise Men of Gotham hail form the village of Gotham, Nottinghamshire
- German Schildbürger residents of fictitious – not the actual town of Schilda. Storeies about them originated from a 1597 book Das Lalebuch about the residents of a fictional town of Laleburg[2]
- Greek residents of Abdera. The Philogelos, a Greek-language joke book compiled in the 4th century AD, has a chapter dedicated to jokes about dumb Abderans.[3]
- Finnish residents of the fictional town of Hymylä
- Polish Jewish Wise Men of Chelm[4]
- Molbos (residents of Mols) famed for Molbo stories
Towns of fools in satire
- Mendele Mocher Sforim set some of his stories in a fictional town of Glupsk ("Foolstown", from Russian, 'глупец' for "fool"). Its prototype may be found in a fictional town Ksalon (a Biblical name which also has a connotation of "foolishness") from his Hebrew novel Limdu Hetev [lower-alpha 1].[5]
- Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin set a series of is satirical feuilletons in a fictional town of Glupov ("Foolstown", from Russian, 'глупец' for "fool"),[5] culminated in his novel The History of a Town.
See also
- Blason populaire, an umbrella genre of jokes which make use stereotypes of a particular group
- "An Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman"
Notes
- ↑ Limdu Hetev, or Learn to Do Well, full title: Hebrew: למדו היטב: הוא ספור אהבים. "Limdu Hetev" is a biblical allusion: למדו היטב דרשׁו משׁפט אשׁרו חמוץ שׁפטו יתום ריבו אלמנה "Learn to do good. Devote yourselves to justice; aid the wronged; Uphold the rights of the orphan; defend the cause of the widow." – Isaiah 1:17
References
- ↑ Stith Thompson, Motif-index of folk-literature : a classification of narrative elements in folktales, ballads, myths, fables, medieval romances, exempla, fabliaux, jest-books, and local legends. J. THE WISE AND THE FOOLISH
- ↑ Werner Wunderlich, "Schildbürgerstreiche. Bericht zur Lalebuch- und Schildbürgerforschung", In: Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte, vol. 56, 1982, pp. 641–685.
- 1 2 The Jests of Hierocles and Philagrius. Translated by Bubb, Charles Clinch. Cleveland: The Rowfant Club. 1920. pp. 50–55.
- ↑ Edward Portnoy, Wise Men of Chelm, The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe
- 1 2 Mikhail Krutikov BERDICHEV IN RUSSIAN-JEWISH LITERACY IMAGINATION:From Israel Aksenfeld to Friedrich Gorenshteyn
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