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A Review of the Distinctive Genres of Adolescent Folklore 

Sue Samuelson 
Edited and Introduced by Simon J. Bronner 

Sue Samuelson (1956-1991) served as vice president and secretary-
treasurer of the Children's Folklore Section of the American Folk-
lore Society and often let her colleagues know her opinion that the 
rubric of "children" should be modified. Her view came out of her 
scholarly work documenting legends and beliefs among teenagers, 
and their contexts in slumber parties and school gatherings. She felt 
that categorizing adolescent lore under childhood misrepresented the 
transitions culturally and physically that occurred to teenagers. 
Although she recognized the connection of folklore used by adoles-
cents to forms established in childhood, she noted that the emphasis 
on groupness and spirit in the American high school experience 
added an organizational difference to the American adolescent 
experience and distinguished it from categories of childhood, adult-
hood, or even college life. She agreed with Gary Alan Fine's usage 
of the analytical terms "preadolescent" and "adolescent" to represent 
cultural patterns associated with coming of age (see Fine, With the 
Boys: Little League Baseball and Preadolescent Culture [Chicago: 
University of Chicago Press, 1987]). She was indeed an appropriate 
figure to discuss adolescent folklore in a project surveying the field 
of children's folklore sponsored by the Children's Folklore Section. 
She prepared a draft on the subject in 1983 when she was teaching 
at Penn State Harrisburg but was stricken with cancer a few years 
later when the project began moving forward. She was not then in a 
position to prepare her work for publication. The results of the 
project will appear in 1995 as Children's Folklore: A Sourcebook 
published by Garland. It was a project she promoted and would have 
wanted to see in print, but sadly, she died in 1991. 

Sue's paper on adolescent folklore had a significant message to 
offer about the need for consideration of folklore genres that char-
acterize adolescence as a distinctive phase of life. It also contained a 
review of literature that had appeared in this fledgling field. In fact, 
she traced serious treatment of adolescent folklore to the shockingly 
late date of 1963, but pointed out that substantial progress had been 
made on consideration of the special functions that folklore held 
during the transition years of adolescence. She was especially drawn 

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Samuelson 

to psychological studies of folklore, because of the mentoring of Alan 
Dundes while she was an undergraduate at the University of California at 
Berkeley. She went on to study folklore and folklife at the University of 
California at Los Angeles (MA) and University of Pennsylvania (PhD), 
where she delved more deeply into the perspectives of performance, social 
context, and organization as guiding principles of study. Although many 
publications described legends without relating the significance of the age of 
tradition bearers, she insisted in articles such as "The White Witch: An 
Analysis of an Adolescent Legend" in Indiana Folklore (1979) and 
"European and American Adolescent Legends" in Arv (1981) on making 
specific reference to the "adolescent legend" and by extension "adolescent 
folklore." Her work was often cited when, during the late 19808 and early 
19908, more scholarly attention turned to the teenage years and its age-
related folklore. In publications and at meetings, folklorists Gary Alan Fine, 
Bill Ellis, Jay Mechling, Ronald Baker, and Linda Dégh, among others, were 
especially active in pointing out the context of adolescence in narrative 
performance. Thorny issues remained of associating adolescent folklore with 
childhood and synthesizing collected folklore from teenagers into a 
folkloristic perspective that took into account interdisciplinary contributions 
on aging from psychology, education, anthropology, history, and sociology. 

After discussions of such issues at the 1994 American Folklore Society 
meeting, members of the Children's Folklore Section recalled Sue's draft and 
suggested that it would provide a good background in Children's Folklore 
Review for efforts now being pursued in the field. I undertook the task of 
revising the prose, and added a conclusion drawn from her observations in 
"European and American Adolescent Legends" in Arv(1981) and "Notes on a 
Sociology of Folklore as a Science" (New York Folklore 9 [1983]: 13-20). I 
also had notes on hand from her papers donated to the Center for Pennsyl-
vania Culture Studies at Penn State Harrisburg. In some instances, especially 
her discussion of functionalism, I expanded on her statements for the sake of 
bringing her ideas across more thoroughly. As her friend and colleague in the 
American Studies Program at Penn State Harrisburg, I relied on my memory 
of conversations with her about ideas not found in print for my elaborations 
of the text, but as much as possible I let her words remain intact. I left her 
bibliography as she compiled it to represent the literature from which she 
drew her observations. 

As a supplement to her survey of works, I can mention many significant 
additions that have appeared during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Perhaps 
the greatest growth on the folkloristic bookshelf related to adolescents has 
been in the area of narrative and legend-telling. Sequels to Jan Harold 
Brunvand's Vanishing Hitchhiker have appeared, including The Choking 

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Distinctive Genres of Adolescent Folklore 

Doberman (1984), The Mexican Pet (1986), Curses! Broiled Again! (1989), 
and The Baby Train (1993). Gary Alan Fine, whose scholarship Sue greatly 
admired, has included essays on adolescent legend in his book 
Manufacturing Tales (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1992). 
Many of the articles on legend she cites from the journal Indiana Folklore 
have been reprinted in the book Indiana Folklore: A Reader, edited by Linda 
Dégh (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980). While Sue points to 
the special place of articles on adolescent legend in Indiana Folklore and 
Midwestern Folklore, I would add the periodicals Contemporary Legend, 
FOAFTale News, and Western Folklore since the late 1980s to her list. A 
special issue of Western Folklore devoted to "Contemporary Legends in 
Emergence," edited by Bill Ellis (January 1990), for example, includes his 
study of satanic cult rumors among high school students, "The Devil-
Worshippers at the Prom: Rumor-Panic as Therapeutic Magic" (27-49). In 
addition, several proceedings of conferences on "Perspectives on 
Contemporary Legend" have appeared with studies of legends collected from 
teenagers, without making reference, however, to the "adolescent legend." 
An exception in Western Folklore by S. Elizabeth Bird refers to "adolescent 
legend trips" in her article "Playing With Fear: Interpreting the Adolescent 
Legend Trip" (53 [1994]: 191-210). Other excellent discussions of the 
adolescent legend-trip can be found in "Adolescent Legend Trips as Teenage 
Cultural Response: A Study of Lore in Context" by Patricia M. Meley 
(Children's Folklore Review 14 [1991]: 5-24), and "Legend Tripping in 
Ohio: A Behavioral Survey" (Papers in Comparative Studies 2 [1982-1983]: 
61-73) and "Legend-Trips and Satanism: Adolescents' Ostensive Traditions 
as 'Cult' Activity" (in The Satanism Scare, ed. James T. Richardson, Joel 
Best, David G. Bromley [New York: Aldine De Gruyter, 1991]), both by Bill 
Ellis. Ellis also refers to "adolescent horror legends" and legend-trips in "'The 
Hook' Reconsidered: Problems in Classifying and Interpreting Adolescent 
Horror Legends" (Folklore 105 [1994]: 61-76). 

Other genres associated with adolescence such as "sick" jokes and 
drinking games have been covered in a number of publications, but it is fair 
to say that they have lagged behind the interest generated by "contemporary 
legend." Alan Dundes collected his essays on "sick jokes" in Cracking Jokes 
(Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 1987). It includes essays on "the dead baby 
joke," mentioned by Sue, and others circulated by adolescents such as jokes 
about quadriplegics and Jewish-American princesses. I discuss a regional 
joke cycle that began with adolescents in "Political Suicide: The Budd Dwyer 
Joke Cycle and the Humor of Disaster," Midwestern Folklore 14 (1988). 
Several interesting references have meanwhile appeared about drinking 
games, mostly in health journals. See Sylvia Grider, "Reversal of Compe- 

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Samuelson 

tence in College Drinking Games," Play and Culture 3 (1990); Paul Douglas, 
"Bizz-Buzz, Turtles, Quarters, and One Horse Club: The Role of Drinking 
Games among High School and College Students," Alcohol Health and 
Research World (Summer 1987); Willy Pedersen, "Drinking Games Adoles- 

. cents Play," British Journal of Addiction 85 (1990); Janet Crawford, "The 
Role and Function of Drinking Games in a University Community," Journal 
of American College Health 39 (1991). An analysis of games using the source 
of the Human Relations Area Files is "Adolescents at Play: A Cross-cultural 
Study of Adolescent Games" by Alice Schlegel and Herbert Barry III in The 
Content of Culture: Constants and Variants, ed. Ralph Bolton (New Haven: 
Human Relations Area Files, 1989). See also the cross-cultural examination 
of rituals for puberty and adolescence in Transitions: Four Rituals in Eight 
Cultures by Martha Nemes Fried and Morton H. Fried (New York: W. W. 
Norton, 1980). A suggestive study of slang used by gang members—
constituting adolescent subcultures-is Thomas Murray's "The Folk Argot of 
Midwestern Gangs," Midwestern Folklore 19 (1993). The "slumber party" 
and "spooky activities" (e.g., seances and levitations) often related to it are 
covered by Shaari Freed in "Spooky Activities and Group Loyalty," 
Children's Folklore Review 16 (Fall 1993); see also Elizabeth Tucker, 
"Levitation and Trance Sessions at Preadolescent Girls' Slumber Parties," in 
The Masks of Play, ed. Brian Sutton-Smith (New York: Leisure Press, 1984). 
Adolescent rites of passage as well as gender roles are studied in The Men 
from the Boys: Rites of Passage in Male America by Ray Raphael (Lincoln: 
University of Nebraska Press, 1988) and Rites of Passage in America: 
Traditions of the Life Cycle organized by the Balch Institute for Ethnic 
Studies (1992). Although more sociological than folkloristic, The Material 
Child: Coming of Age in Japan and America by Merry White (New York: 
Free Press, 1993) and Coming of Age in New Jersey by Michael Moffatt 
(New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1989) cover the teenage "coming 
of age." 

Although Sue neglected material culture in her study, some recent essays 
have examined teenage fashions as part of the process of tradition. For 
friendship bracelets and other adornments, for example, see my American 
Children's Folklore (Little Rock: August House, 1988), Catherine Klutz, 
"Friendship Bracelets," Children's Folklore Review 12.1(1989): 4-5, and 
Ariane Sains, "The Latest Teen Rage? Embroidery," Children's Folklore 
Review 13.1 (1990): 23-24 (for an Austrian study of teenage clothing 
preferences that invites comparison, see Michael Martischnig, "Schöner 
Vogel Jugend: Kleidung und Verkleidung Jugendlicher heute," in 
Gegenwartsvolkskunde und Jugendkultur [Vienna: Österreichischen Akad. 
der Wiss., 1987]. Although Sue's review mainly covered folklore from the 
United States, it is worth mentioning some comparative studies from other 

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Distinctive Genres of Adolescent Folklore 

countries that focus on adolescent culture. For folk song from adolescent 
females in Canada, one can consult "Theorizing Music's Affective Power" by 
Jennifer Giles and John Shepherd in Ethnomusicology in Canada, ed. Robert 
Witmer (Toronto: Institute for Canadian Music, 1990), and for religious 
beliefs in Finland, one can read "Religious Attitudes, Values and World 
View: A Study among Contemporary Young Finns" by Helena Helve in 
Ethnologica Uralica 3 (1992): 31-38. Several essays in the Austrian publica-
tion Gegenwartsvolkskunde und Jugendkultur, edited by Klaus Beitl and Eva 
Kausel, discuss research methods and historiography related to the study of 
adolescents. 

The organizational context of schools, camps, and churches and their 
influence on adolescent life is the focus of several studies in Inside Organi-
zations: Understanding the Human Dimension, edited by Michael Owen 
Jones, Michael Dane Moore, and Richard Christopher Snyder (Newbury 
Park, California: Sage, 1988). Among the titles relating to adolescents are 
"The Paradox of Functional Dysfunction in a Girl Scout Camp" by Patricia 
Atkinson Wells, "Dealing with Organizational Stress: Lessons from the 
Folklore of Mormon Missionaries" by William Wilson, and "Organizational 
Festivals and the Uses of Ambiguity: The Case of Picnic Day at Davis" by 
Jay Mechling and David Scofield Wilson. Students as part of an age and an 
organization receive consideration in Jay Mechling's "Mediating Structures 
and the Significance of University Folk" in Folk Groups and Folklore 
Genres: A Reader, ed. Elliott Oring (Logan: Utah State University Press, 
1989). My study of folklore collected from students appeared as Piled 
Higher and Deeper: The Folklore of Campus Life (Little Rock: August 
House, 1990); it extends the collection American Children's Folklore (Little 
Rock: August House, 1988), which covers the school years between the ages 
of 5 and 17. Considerations of gender relations that especially concerned Sue 
are "Some Differences in Male and Female Joke-Telling" by Carol Mitchell 
(in Women's Folklore, Women's Culture, ed. Rosan A. Jordan and Susan J. 
Kalcik [Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1985]) and "'This is 
a True Story': Roles of Women in Contemporary Legend," Midwestern 
Folklore 20 (1994). 

And for information on Sue Samuelson's life and career, see my essay, 
"Sue Samuelson (1956-1991)," Journal of American Folklore 104 (1991): 
341-44. 

Simon J. Bronner  
Penn State Harrisburg 
January 1995 

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Samuelson 

Adolescent Lore 

Popular descriptions of the transition from childhood to adolescence often 
include one of two paradoxical viewpoints. The first is the sentimentalized 
"overnight wonder" experience: one day the children are contented with 
dressing dolls or climbing trees and the next they are buying prom clothes, 
asking to borrow the family car and telling stories about crazy killers with 
hooks instead of hands. This image is more often the production of advertis-
ing campaigns (e.g., the Kodak montage of photographs of "misty yester-
years") than the actual experience of people in daily contact with children. 
The other viewpoint covers a slower but more realistic transition that features 
physical changes (especially puberty), improving social skills, and intellec-
tual development. Even the most rapid course through puberty still takes 
more than a day to complete the journey. 

No clear boundaries differentiate childhood from adolescence (or ado-
lescence from adulthood). This seamlessness helps explain the scarcity of 
folkloristic studies that treat adolescent culture apart from more clearly 
demarcated age categories of childhood or adulthood. That is not to say, 
however, that adolescence, sometimes referred to roughly as the "teen years," 
doesn't carry meaning as an age category. Typically, it is treated as a period 
of transition, and interpretations often seek to find the functions that folklore 
plays to mature children or move them into adulthood. Folklore collected 
from adolescents often overlaps with the cultural expression of the preceding 
and succeeding periods of life. Adolescents unconsciously retain (or con-
sciously mock) elements of the folklore which played such an important role 
in their childhood years. Jumprope rhymes, cootie catchers, and the like are 
filed away for later use when children become parents, aunts and uncles, or 
teachers. Occasionally, the items are jarred back into consciousness when 
one is babysitting or reads magazine articles that appear periodically as 
reminders of younger days. Still, many cycles of childhood games or customs 
disappear completely as youngsters move on to new interests. 

If demarcations of adolescence are vague, especially in modern industri-
alized society, then folklore helps identify distinguishing characteristics of 
the period between childhood and adulthood. In addition to testing the 
process of transition, adolescent folklore, much of it short-lived, creates 
social separateness. By "folklore," I mean forms of traditional expressive 
activities, attitudes and material objects passed on by word of mouth and 
through imitation which serve as a format for communicating fears, feelings, 
problems, and goals of individuals and the groups of which they are a part. A 
partial listing of genres that are especially evident during adolescence are: 
legends, slang, ceremonies, customs, pranks, games, parties, special clubs, 

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Distinctive Genres of Adolescent Folklore 

verbal dueling, automobile activities, foods, songs and cheers (and their 
parodies) and autograph and yearbook verses. 

Specific examples might include slang expressions about parts of the 
body or articles of clothing (such as "boulder holder" for bra) or jokes and 
stories about sexual experimentation. Such genres reflect teenagers' interest 
in their changing bodies. Another example from the realm of speech play is 
the adolescent's use of proverbs. From a Piagetian perspective, the adolescent 
has reached the stage of formal operational thinking. That is, his or her 
thought processes can consider the possible as well as the real. The folklorist 
is interested in the impact of these changes on expressive performance. The 
abstract applications of proverbs often cannot be understood by children but 
will make sense to adolescents whose cognitive capabilities are more devel-
oped. On the other hand, older children find the simplicity of riddling to be 
less humorous (although riddling persists in adult repertoires to some extent). 

Cultural awareness of adolescence appears to be a twentieth-century 
phenomenon. Descriptions of traditional adolescent activities can be found in 
the late nineteenth-century collection of children's games by William Wells 
Newell (1883), in Paul Brewster's studies of games and customs in the 1950s, 
and in Iona and Peter Opie's books on English children's games from the 
1950s and 1960s. These works tend to present teenage customs as an 
extension of children's behavior. Martha Dirks' "Teen-Age Folklore from 
Kansas," the first American treatise to consider adolescent folklore sepa-
rately, appeared in 1963. Dirks examined four main genres: humor, slang, 
customs/beliefs, and verse/song. She appeared to be unaware of the plethora 
of "scary stories" whose popularity with teenage storytellers extended back 
to the 1930s, if not before. The main repository for texts of these kinds of 
narratives is the journal Indiana Folklore, which ceased publication in the 
early 1980s. Taking its place as an outlet for studies of adolescent folklore is 
Midwestern Folklore (formerly Midwestern Journal of Language and Folk-
lore ). 

With the establishment in 1968 of Indiana Folklore, the study of 
adolescent folklore made great progress. In the journal's first years it was a 
rare volume that did not include at least one article on adolescents' legends. 
Readers became familiar with widely told stories such as "The Boyfriend's 
Death" (Dégh) or "The Hook" (Dégh) as well as more localized legends 
about haunted houses, bridges, and tunnels (see Sliney). While the bulk of 
this work concentrates on Indiana materials from the late 1960s and early 
1970s, the obvious enthusiasm for collecting and interpreting the narratives is 
reflected in the publication of similar articles in other journals and in Indiana 
Folklore's expansion to include material from outside of the Midwest (see 
Samuelson, "The White Witch"). Jan Harold Brunvand's Vanishing 
Hitchhiker: Ameri- 

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Samuelson 

can Urban Legends and Their Meanings (1981) and its sequels provide a 
review of legends popular with adolescents and college students (and with 
other age groups as well). 

Studies have been made of events related to adolescent legends such as 
visits to haunted sites or pranking activities that draw on a store of common 
knowledge about local ghosts or strange happenings (see Koss, and Hall). 
Such occasions often result in even more storytelling events or are recalled 
after they occur as a form of vicarious enjoyment. Other locales for legend-
telling, such as slumber parties (see Simons) and summer camps (see Leary, 
"The Boondocks Monster of Camp Wapehani," and Mechling, "The Magic 
of the Boy Scout Campfire"), have also received analytical treatment. 

After narrative studies the most common genres for scholarly folkloristic 
inquiry are rites of passage and verbal dueling. The former is a rather vaguely 
defined area. It includes ritual-like activities such as high school graduations 
and their associated events (e.g., proms) that signal the beginnings of 
transition into adulthood. College interview stories are another example (see 
Stephanoff), along with the all-important driver's license, "an especially apt 
embodiment of a rite of passage attuned to the spirit of a secular and 
mechanical society. . . [it is] a transition via testing and training, and finally 
incorporation into a new way of life with its concomitant opportunities and 
responsibilities" (Thompson 154). Studies also exist for intra-adolescent 
initiations such as induction into a club or high school sorority (see Schwartz 
and Merten) or athletic teams (see McCann). Associated with this genre are 
items such as pep rallies (see Burnett), practical jokes (e.g., toilet papering the 
houses of athletes to wish them good luck or honor them for a strong 
performance), cast parties following dramatic productions, and yearbook 
signings. 

Some anthropologists contend that in contemporary Western cultures 
little or nothing is done in the way of ritual or ceremony to create changes in 
social status, particularly in regard to initiation into adult roles (Gluckman 35-
38). Religious rituals such as confirmations or Bar/Bat Mitzvahs lack a broad 
base of support and the importance of high school and college graduations 
tends to be downplayed as well. These are "specialized ceremonies of 
initiation, which-indeed like weddings and funerals-mark changes of status, 
but they do not involve any ideas that the performing of prescribed actions by 
appropriately related persons will mystically affect the well being of the 
initiands" (Gluckman 137). One study by Jacquetta Hill Burnett, however, 
strongly portrays the significance of the elaborate ceremonial cycles that are 
performed in high schools across the United States. Burnett carefully 
acknowledges the difference of these rituals from the more magico- 
religious ones practiced in tribal societies. She is also aware of the impact of 

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Distinctive Genres of Adolescent Folklore 

variations in social structure to be found in communities and high schools that 
are to be expected in heterogeneous society. But Burnett is adamant in stating 
her belief that ceremonial activities associated with sports, dances, home-
coming, and so on as a part of the annual school cycle and a four year age-
grade cycle are significant ways of marking changes "in the character of 
interaction, in the configuration of relationships, and in the nature of activity" 
(4). Anyone who has participated in a high school graduation ceremony or a 
prom or functioned as an "interested bystander" (parents; younger, and 
envious, siblings) knows that these are very important occasions. If they do 
not actually change the "character of interaction," they certainly make a 
contribution by marking significant points in the socialization process. 
Because they do not explicitly cause a change in status, however, they might 
be better labeled rites of aging rather than of passage. 

Most of the articles on verbal insults deal with "the dozens," "a verbal 
duel played by Negro males, the object of which is to better one's opponent 
by deriding him with defamatory insults about his family. The content of the 
insults principally describes reputed sexual misdeeds of the opponent's 
mother" (Ayoub and Barnett 337). As early as the late 1930s the use of 
dozens by black youths received attention in psychological journals. It was 
Roger Abrahams' folkloristic studies, however, that made the genre a 
prominent area of cultural investigation. In the 1970s, studies of contests-in-
insults among whites complemented Abrahams' significant investigations. 
The meanings of verbal dueling depend on many variables, including the 
race, class, and personality of participants, but several interpretations have 
been raised. The earliest study suggested dozens as a means of coping with 
aggression (see Dollard); later studies suggested a search for masculine 
identity (see Abrahams), peer-group definition (see Ayoub and Barnett), and 
status enhancement via the debasement of basic societal values (see Bronner). 
Articles by Simon Bronner explore the cohesive functions of ritual insults for 
small male groups in urban areas, particularly for boys in a fringe stmtum of 
society. Psychological factors also enter into the analysis, such as the 
"aggressive character of competition, rejection of authority, and manifestation 
of sexual behavior" (see Bronner, "Who Says?" 54). 

Affiliated with the examination of verbal insults are studies of adolescent 
language, such as group designations (e.g., nerd, hood, doper, greaser), states 
of being (e.g., with it, cool) (see Schwartz and Merten, and Parker). Other 
forms of language behavior (e.g., jokes and riddles) have been touched upon, 
often with some penetrating comments on their functions. Thomas Peck's 
comparison of male and female dirty joke-telling notes that "both the male 
and female joke-tellers tend to place their own sex into a superior position in 
the creation of their jokes. . . [and] that many of the objects used as the source 

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Samuelson 

of humor are not used by the opposite sex." Furthermore, girls are affected (at 
least during the early 1970s) by social ideals that they should not appear to be 
too "crude." Thus their "creative genius of [dirty] joke inventing is. . . going 
to decrease" as they mature (103). Peck's comment is a little overstated, 
especially since considerable changes in the social interaction patterns of 
females has occurred since his study was made. As David Hufford notes in 
his editor's preface to the special issue of Keystone Folklore Quarterly on 
folklore at a Pennsylvania prep school (the issue in which Peck's article 
appeared), obscene materials often are collected from adolescent boys and 
girls, "the group which is most often singled out as needing shelter from such 
things. . . . Obscene material is of great interest to adolescents and forms a 
very significant part of their repertoires" (55). In addition to obscene jokes 
and language, stories set in lover's lanes (e.g., "The Boyfriend's Death") or 
about boys who put aphrodisiacs in their date's drinks (e.g., "Drugged and Se-
duced") abound with sexual references (see Greenberg). Beliefs about preg-
nancy and birth control (e.g., cola as a douche, using plastic wrap as a 
condom) forms another category with sexual references common among 
adolescents (see Fish). These forms of expressive behavior reveal adolescents' 
great interest in sexual matters, which should not be unexpected considering 
their physical and social development. Courtship is a highly anticipated and 
greatly discussed part of adolescence. Especially in legends such as "The 
Boyfriend's Death" or "Drugged and Seduced," the "power struggle which 
almost invariably accompanies dating" is expressed (Schwartz and Merten 
466). 

Pranking activity among adolescents often revolves around the use of the 
automobile, so car lore may be considered another genre of folklore among 
adolescents. The automobile is "the site of bull sessions, drinking bouts and 
necking parties. In all, the car provided a mobile parlor, clubhouse, dining 
room, and bedroom. It was at once the setting and symbol of much adolescent 
deviant and non deviant sociability and sexuality" (Licht 46). Car lore also 
includes stories of buying and maintaining cars, the slang expressions used in 
referring to them (or their parts), games like "Chinese Fire Drill" or 
"Chicken," and just plain "cruising." A psychoanalytically oriented article by 
Charles Yohe examines an adolescent "folkway" known as "pantsing" or 
"mooning" wherein a teenage passenger in a car drops his (it is usually a male 
activity) pants and presents his buttocks to (or through) a car window to 
passing motorists. Such activity can occur elsewhere (cf., a school dance in 
the movie Grease ), but it is most commonly practiced in automobiles. Yohe 
believes mooning is not the deviant act that some adult authorities claim; it 
functions as a reasonable release for exhibitionistic tendencies. 

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Distinctive Genres of Adolescent Folklore 

A commonly recognized but understudied genre of adolescent folklore is 
the kissing game, such as "Spin the Bottle" and "Post Office." Such games are 
mentioned in some children's folklore collections (see Newell, passim; 
Brewster 152-56; and Opie 1969: 169-170,263-267,270-272), but the most 
thorough study is "The Kissing Games of Adolescents in Ohio," an essay by 
Brian Sutton-Smith in which he describes 53 adolescent kissing games, their 
settings, origins, and functions. Sutton-Smith interprets the functions of the 
games by observing that they "have prospered and developed in the modern 
world because they are appropriate to the parlor settings in middle and upper-
middle class homes and because they satisfy the desire of adolescents for 
increasing heterosexual experience, but at the same time safeguard them 
against too open a commitment to, or too much intimacy with, the other sex" 
(216). Contemporary teenagers are much more open about their sexual 
activities in the 1980s than the adolescents that Sutton-Smith investigated in 
the 1950s. Although kissing games might be acceptable to some adolescents, 
particularly younger ones, they can seem a bit outdated. Drinking games, 
though, are quite popular, even among late adolescents (especially the college 
crowd). They have been the subject of a master's thesis (see Young), but 
relatively few publications. In addition, games involving the use of drugs may 
draw upon the drinking game tradition, but public references to this sensitive 
material is scarce (see Dorson). 

Two late articles of the 1970s explore adolescents' use of graffiti. 
Gelman concentrates on postal graffiti, such as SWAK (Sealed with a Kiss), 
an envelope sealer, but the author's promised interpretative comments on the 
presentation of self and revelation of group identity are minimal. A study of 
high school bathroom graffiti conducted by three sociologists (see Perelti, et 
al.) reveals five main areas of concern: sexual maturation, self-identification, 
idealism, iconoclasm. and rebelliousness. Sexual maturity was the number 
one topic for both sexes while girls appeared to be more concerned with the 
next two topics and boys were more involved in iconoclastic writings. Both 
sexes scored equally on items involving rebelliousness. 

Some of the genre-oriented articles focus more on the organizational 
setting than the item of folkloristic performance, particularly when they 
assess the high school as the primary social base of activity for teenagers. 
One of the most thorough surveys of adolescent legendry asserts that the 
school "is the main setting for establishing and maintaining personal 
relationships; it is also the center for many community activities" (Thigpen 
141). Various articles have discussed school spirit (see Miracle), conflicts 
between teachers and students (see Davis), and the general types of behavior 
at a high school such as classes, customs, and after-school activities (see 
Burnett). Outside of the school setting only a few of the possible contexts for 
activity have been 

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Samuelson 

analyzed: play behavior in the Boy Scouts (see Mechling "Sacred and Profane 
Play in the Boy Scouts of America"), mock ordeals at summer camps (see 
Ellis), and work sites, especially the fast-food restaurants that frequently 
employ large numbers of teenagers (Bronner, "Who Says?" 57-58). 

Except for analyses of contests-in-insults called "the dozens," the major-
ity of the studies of adolescent folklore have focused on white, middle-class, 
suburban and urban American teenagers (see Samuelson, "European and 
American Adolescent Legends," for a brief report on adolescent legends told 
by Europeans). Furthermore, the studies mainly have looked at normal, non-
delinquent teenagers, although some of the marginal groups—ethnics, drug 
users, delinquents—could be valuable sources of information to provide 
contrasting data to the middle-of-the-road groups studied thus far (see 
Hawes). Kenneth Thigpen, for example, discusses the existence of two 
groups within the adolescent population he studied in Brown County, Indiana. 
One group consists of traditional stereotyped teenagers. Members are 
politically, religiously, and socially conservative, rebellious against authority 
as it pertains to them personally but not against the system, and primarily use 
beer and liquor as symbols of maturity. The other group, called 
"counterculture," is politically apathetic but leans toward liberalism, is 
religiously apathetic but shows an interest in the occult, and uses wine and 
marijuana as a means of titillation (209). 

A few studies of adolescents expand on the context of social interaction 
that fosters folkloric production. James P. Leary's "White Guys' Stories of the 
Night Street" examines some of the linguistic behavior of a Bloomington, 
Indiana, group of late adolescents who hang out at night in a supermarket 
parking lot. Their greetings, taunts, proverbs, jokes, toasts, and parodies 
center on matters of immediate concern—getting drunk or stoned, driving and 
its associated technology, fights and contests, women, "crazy" behavior, 
and visiting "scary" places. Leary finds pattern to this behavior. One kind of 
interaction reports and comments on relations with in-group males; others 
respond to dealings with females, with outsiders and their material exten-
sions, and with the supernatural world. Such an interpretative scheme might 
provide considerable comparative information if applied to other kinds of 
teenagers, both marginal and "normal." This is a point made in Simon 
Bronner's "'Who Says?'''—a study of white ritual insults. Marginal groups do 
not just give contrasting data. They should be studied also because they 
magnify the concerns and tensions of the mainstream. 

If one were trying to gain a sense of mid-twentieth century American 
adolescence from folklorists' reports, no clear picture would emerge. Most of 
the articles contain good descriptions of folklore and often some analysis, but 
little has been done in the way of synthesizing the material for an overview 

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Distinctive Genres of Adolescent Folklore 

of adolescents' attitudes, behaviors, and social relationships, and the ways that 
folklore can reveal significant features of this stage of development or of 
adolescents as a cohesive social group. When one assesses the various 
analytical comments in the studies available, some trends emerge. One finds 
adolescent concerns with sexuality, a sense of adventure and discovery, a 
need to test alternative forms of reality, and to express independence. 

When examining sexual activity as a major theme in the folklore 
adolescents, it is important to remember who is telling the story or joke, using 
the slang expression, or playing the game. One generalization often put 
forward is that while folklore research overall has tended to use male 
informants, adolescent folklore research has favored the expressive behavior 
of females (Fine and Johnson 120). This situation partly owes to the boom in 
studies of contemporary legend, many gathered from high school and college 
women. Especially conspicuous in interpretations of this narrative material is 
the suggestion that among women coming of age sexual behavior induces 
caution at best and fear at worst Sexual connotations in women's narratives, 
however, are less clinical in detail than the few male narratives which have 
been examined. "Typically sexuality in the legends of adolescent girls is 
symbolic rather than overt," Fine and Johnson observe (120). Most feminine 
stories emphasize the negative consequences of sex; they are cautionary tales 
rather than forms of wish fulfillment (see Dundes "On the Psychology of 
Legend"). The reverse is more the case for male legend-tellers although they 
occasionally tell or listen to specifically female-oriented stories. 

In addition to recognizing the ethnicity and locale of the person telling 
stories, folklorists increasingly consider the narrative viewpoint in relation to 
gender. An example is Fine and Johnson's analysis of "The Promiscuous 
Cheerleader," a legend about a female cheerleader who offers herself sexually 
to an entire football team. From the boy's perspective, the narrative details of 
the cheerleader are appealing because they represent relief from the 
embarrassment of sexual maneuvering and possible rejection. But they also 
illustrate the male's potentially negative opinion of a female in a sexually 
aggressive role. The same kind of issue is mentioned by Jay Mechling in his 
discussion of a Boy Scout game, "Poison Pit,'" a tug-of-war-like activity 
played over a pit filled with mud and watermelon rinds and seeds. Mechling 
argues that "the game of poison pit is a ritual literalization of metaphor, with 
the pit symbolizing a vagina. Much linguistic evidence supports the interpre-
tation of the game, which was a ritual addressing the boys' anxiety about 
female sexuality, and consequently, their own" ("Male Gender Display at a 
Boy Scout Camp" 156). 

Although such psychological analysis is often defensible, folklorists 
must be careful that the connection of sexuality to adolescence, especially in 

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Samuelson 

the period around puberty, does not obscure other lessons. For instance, 
sexually oriented folklore can be also analyzed in terms of political issues. 
The cycle of "grosser than gross" jokes (involving tampons, toxic shock 
syndromes, and pantyhose, among other topics) reveals the impact of the 
women's movement on new items of folklore. The teenage boys who tell 
such jokes, according to Simon Bronner, "are becoming aware of women's 
political rise at the same time they are recognizing girls' rapid physical 
development. As such, the jokes signify certain male discomfort with, or 
female pride in, the advancing adult maturity and socialization by girls" 
(1985: 41). 

Another approach to the sexual themes in adolescent folklore empha-
sizes the potential outcome of sexual behavior-babies-and the social 
ramifications of teenage sex. Alan Dundes, for example, looks at the recent 
"dead baby" joke cycle and concludes, "the cycle provides a means for 
adolescents and young teenagers to try to relieve their anxiety about impend-
ing parenthood" ("The Dead Baby Joke Cycle" 157). Biologically, adoles-
cents can have children while they are still technically children themselves, 
not having completed the cultural or social transitions into adulthood. Even 
with sex education and increased availability of contraceptives and abortions 
adolescents still have babies, and sex drives, "but in theory society insists 
that they postpone such activities." The result is guilt and anxiety which are 
"clearly a factor in the generation and transmission of dead baby jokes" 
(157). There is more to the use of sexually oriented folklore by adolescents 
than a release of psychological tension; they also indicate a desire for 
increased socialization and entertainment among age-mates. As Bronner 
notes in regard to the adolescent penchant for "sick" jokes (including the 
dead baby joke cycle): 

Supposedly, the sick jokes are especially appealing because of 
that age's [adolescence's] rebellious spirit which matches the 
shocking, rebellious content of the jokes. In addition, however, I 
note that many adolescents often anticipate the conflicts and 
tensions of society, since they are in the process of socializing 
into it. Therefore they often prefigure such societal conflicts and 
tensions by symbolically confronting them in folklore. [1985: 41] 

An increasing awareness of one's sexuality directly relates to another 
facet of adolescent behavior, a need for discovery and adventure. This is 
allied with changes in cognitive development, to be sure, and parallels 
similar behavior in early childhood when one starts to explore the 
environment. But adolescents have a far greater area to investigate; they feel 
that the whole 

26 



 

Distinctive Genres of Adolescent Folklore 

world is at their disposal. Besides sexuality the diverse experiences of 
intellectual, artistic, occupational, and religious spheres are open for inves-
tigation. This directly ties in with teenagers' desires to test the reality of the 
new vistas opening up to them. Alternative forms of reality are explored, 
particularly the supernatural. While children and adults know ghost stories 
and the like, the adolescent's repertoire of scary stories (see Roemer) and 
visits to haunted sites is impressive. Such activities often occur in groups so 
there is a great deal of mutual reinforcement and safety in numbers to help 
allay fears that something untoward will happen. The actual beliefs in ghosts, 
spirits, or abnormal creatures with whom most of the legends and legend-
trips deal has yet to be adequately assessed. Some teenagers know that they 
are just playing along, having suspended their disbelief to enjoy the thrill of a 
good scare in much the same way that they take a roller coaster ride or see a 
horror movie. They know the real world still exists; now is the time to 
explore the possibilities of other types of situations. 

Reality testing and a familiarity with the "real reality" of socialized adult 
behavior coincides with a desire among teenagers to express their indepen-
dence. This, too, has precedents in earlier childhood, but adolescents want to 
make sure that authority figures know that teenagers feel they are nearing the 
time when they will be able to perform acceptably in adult roles. The 
stereotype of the "storm and stress" of adolescence fits in well here, but not 
every adolescent experiences the yearning for independence in this fashion. It 
is hard to say what a normal, or ideal, adolescence is. If anything should 
prevail from folkloristic (and other scholarly) observations of adolescents in a 
number of settings, it is that there is an incredible variety of experience. 
Many individuals have relatively calm teenage years (although they may 
compensate later in life with a delayed independence period following a 
major life crisis). Some persons are classic rebels, while others route their 
independence/adventurous/sexual striving into sports, clubs, and drama 
activities. They are not always eager to discuss their feelings either, and it is 
in such situations that an observation of their stories, jokes, customs, and 
games might help to reveal what is going on in their lives, how they are 
releasing and relating themselves through these forms of expressions. 
Bronner notes this situation in his article "A Re-examination of Dozens 
among White Adolescents." As mentioned earlier, the mother insults that 
form the core of most dozens activity are a debasement of basic societal 
values, but they function as a release mechanism for frustration over adult 
social patterns and expectations. The dozens also serve as expressions of 
creativity, competition, and camaraderie. 

Studies such as Bronner's on verbal dueling exemplify those approaches 
that go beyond content analysis to provide interpretations drawn from the 

27 



 

Samuelson 

context and performance of adolescent cultural expression. He documents the 
material and organizational environments in which duels occur, provides 
social backgrounds and physical descriptions of the participants, describes 
the positions of the participants and their movements during the event, 
records narrative exchanges and reflections of participants on what occurred, 
and interviews non-participants on their views of the events. To paraphrase 
Steve Bartlett in his article "Social Interaction Patterns of Adolescents in a 
Folklore Performance," the performance, rhetorically managed in relation to 
the social demands of the event, brings meaning to the words and gestures 
used. Repetitive patterns can be discerned within a narrative exchange as well 
as among several events. One needs to look at how, why, when, and where an 
item is presented and what the performers, the adolescents themselves, have 
to say about it. Not only the words of the story but the words about the story 
are vital components of the interpretative task of the folkloristic researcher. 
My experience in fieldwork has been that tradition bearers bring differing 
values and concerns to their interpretation of folklore, although patterns 
typically emerge among many teenagers with points that are emphasized. 
One has to be prepared, though, for informants who cannot or will not 
provide interpretative comments. In such cases material garnered from a 
thorough understanding of the social and cultural basis of adolescence, both 
in general and in a particular community, can still provide the stage from 
which one can "decode" the values, worldviews, and problems expressed in 
items of folklore. 

The instability, the transition, associated with adolescence in Western 
society provides fruitful ground for research. The themes that teenagers want 
to express such as sexuality, sex roles, guilt in violating social norms, anxiety 
at assuming responsibility, and exerting more control over their lives are 
evident in adolescent lore. The genres of adolescent lore—especially legends, 
jokes, beliefs, rituals (such as slumber parties )—operate to communicate 
these themes and often function to alleviate tension and worry. Besides 
scholarly studies of adolescence produced by psychologists, educators, 
sociologists, and anthropologists, folklorists have made significant contribu-
tions. More attention by folklorists to adolescence as a separate phase of life 
with distinctive forms of expression will enhance the understanding, popular 
and scholarly, of the ways through their lives that people find of assuaging 
their loneliness, their fundamental separateness, by making connections to 
other people, connections over which they can exert some degree of control 
through performance. 

28 



 

Distinctive Genres of Adolescent Folklore 

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