Children’s Folklore Recent Titles in Greenwood Folklore Handbooks Myth: a handbook

Knock Knock!
Knock knock. Who’s there? Wayne. Wayne who? Wayne drops keep falling on my head.
Knock knock. Who’s there? Lettuce. Lettuce who? Lettuce in and you’ll find out.

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52 Children’s 
Folklore
Knock knock. Who’s there? Grandma. Grandma who? Grandma. Knock knock. Who’s 
there? Grandma. Grandma who? Grandma [repeat this 3 or 4 times]. Knock knock. 
Who’s there? Aunt. Aunt who? Aren’t you glad I got rid of all the grandmas?
Heather Russell collected these three knock-knock jokes from children on a multi-
cultural playground in Melbourne, Australia, in 1986 (78). A Turkish girl in 
grade six told the first joke, a Chinese boy in grade four told the second, and a 
girl of English-speaking background in grade five told the third.
Knock-knock jokes encourage elementary-school children to demonstrate 
their linguistic skills. Most knock-knock jokes make people laugh through perfect 
or imperfect puns. Not all children tell knock-knock jokes smoothly; while some 
jokes of this kind sound awkward, all of them facilitate a learning process. For 
more knock-knock jokes, see Knapp and Knapp (94) and Bronner (118–19).
Honda-Honda
There was this guy, and every time he farted it would come out “Honda-Honda.” He was 
getting pretty embarrassed, so he went to the doctor to find out what was wrong. The 
doctor couldn’t find anything wrong with him, so he sent him to a Japanese dentist. So 
the guy went to the dentist.
When he got there, the dentist goes (Japanese accent), “Mister, you got an abscess!” 
And the guy goes “What? What does an abscess have to do with me farting Honda-
Honda?” And the dentist says, “You dummy, don’t you know abscess makes the fart 
go Honda?”
Twelve-year-old Mary told this joke in Vestal, New York, in April 1978. With 
its reversal of consonants and alteration of syllables, Mary’s joke fits the patterns 
of the shaggy dog story and the spoonerism. The word “fart” pleases preadoles-
cents who are keenly aware of their maturing bodies and rules for polite social 
interaction.