Slovene miser fairy-tale joke
joke · Slovenian/Yugoslav ·
retold in 3 talks
A fairy offers a Slovene farmer any wish, but will give his neighbor twice as much. The farmer asks the fairy to take one of his eyes, so the neighbor loses both.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 3
“Take one of my eyes. Because then…it's better if I lose a little bit just that the neighbor loses more.”
“are you all here, my granddaughter, my son? Yeah, we are all here. Then he said but if you are all here, why is then light on there in the corridor?”
“if you are all here, why is then the light on there in the corridor?”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
contents · one story, 1 jobsuses
emancipatory obscenity
×2
Its cast and sources
populated by
Massimo Cacciari1Tadeusz Borowski1Tom Stoppard1Sergei Parajanov1Tavis Smiley1Rudyard Kipling1Thorstein Veblen1Ève Chiapello1
alongside works
Every retelling 3
A fairy offers a Slovene farmer any wish, but will give his neighbor twice as much. The farmer asks the fairy to take one of his eyes, so the neighbor loses both., illustrating ethnic clichés and self-irony,emancipatory obscenity,Slovene national character
An old Slovenian farmer on his deathbed confirms all family members are present, then asks why the light is still on in the corridor, illustrating the Slovenian national stereotype of miserliness., illustrating obscene exchange of solidarity,national jokes as communal bonding
A dying Slovenian farmer gathers his family, calls out each name, then suddenly shouts: 'But if you are all here, why is the light on in the corridor?' Illustrates the Slovenian national stereotype of thrift/miserliness., illustrating ethnic jokes as social bonding,obscenity / left-wing racism,Yugoslav solidarity through stereotypes