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In Norwegian, we have a standard template of children's jokes called "Svensken, dansken og nordmannen" ("The Swede, the Dane and the Norwegian"). The template is as follows:

  1. A setup of the situation including three people
  2. The three people have a go at something, one at a time
  3. The outcome for the first two follow a similar pattern
  4. The outcome for the last one subverts this pattern in some way

As an example, consider the following horrible translation of a classic:

A Swede, a Dane and a Norwegian stand outside a barn with a pig inside. The Swede goes in, but the pig farts and the Swede can't handle the smell, so he runs out. The Dane goes in, but the pig farts and the Dane can't handle the smell, so he runs out. Then the Norwegian goes in, and he farts so bad that the pig can't handle the smell, and the pig runs out.

Is this a type of joke that is told by children in the English-speaking part of the world? And if so, who are the people usually involved?

I realize that this might be geographically and culturally specific, and I am mostly interested in answers that are relevant for American English and the USA. But information from other parts of the world would also be interesting.

the-baby-is-you
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Arthur
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    The English practically invented this joke format! Here are any number of written instances of an Englishman a Scotsman and an Irishman [walked into a pub...] - almost all of which will be jokes poking fun at the Irishman in the punchline. Or an Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman... to poke fun at the Scotsman. The last one mentioned (rarely the Englishman) is nearly always the "target". – FumbleFingers May 25 '23 at 12:58
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    The "rule of three" is well-known in storytelling and jokes in English! – stangdon May 25 '23 at 13:03
  • The question is likely to encourage offensive stereotypes. I don't know if questions about jokes would fit in Literature SE but it has a fairly wide remit. – Stuart F May 25 '23 at 13:06
  • @stangdon: Well, even if it's about "the rule of three", rather than "good-natured cultural rivalry" it's still not particularly a "Use of English" thing. I'm sure all languages favour lists of three items, and it's not peculiar to humorous contexts anyway. – FumbleFingers May 25 '23 at 13:16
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    @FumbleFingers Part of learning a language is learning standard joke formats. Questions about the traditional format of "Knock-knock" jokes or even "Yo mama" jokes would be on topic here. Whether they're offensive or not only affects whether parts of the question need to be redacted. – gotube May 25 '23 at 16:27
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    @gotube: There are 4 potential nationalities in the British version (English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh), and I've no doubt even though OP didn't mention Finns, Scandinavians will perm any 3 from their 4 (Finn, Swede, Norwegian, Dane) for theirs (because of "the rule of 3" you'd almost never hear a joke involving all 4). But that's down to our national circumstances. There's no equivalent in American English, because Americans don't have an obvious *single* set of 4 (or even 3) clearly identified, easily stereotyped subgroups. It's a matter of culture / geography / history, not language. – FumbleFingers May 25 '23 at 17:36
  • @FumbleFingers Maybe this blurs the line between language and culture, and you fall on one side of it and I on the other. I think the easy answer is, "Yes, English has that same format of jokes, but America does not have a standard template of three groups of people to characterize. – gotube May 25 '23 at 20:15
  • @gotube: On more sober reflection I concede I often tend to draw overly restrictive boundaries around "Use of English". I was further distracted by the fact of the OP raising the Nordic / Scandinavian equivalent of the standard British "joke trope". Which I doubt involves meaningfully distinct nationalities in many parts of the world, Anglophone or not. Anyway, I've rethunk, and I'm retracting my (marginally?!) inappropriate VTC. – FumbleFingers May 25 '23 at 21:22
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    In Italy, we typically use “An Italian, a French and a German/Swiss/English…” – Massimo Ortolano May 25 '23 at 21:44
  • I think that most countries / nationalities have another as their favourite target for their jokes. For a long time the English had the Irish for example, But fortunately this has now fallen out of fashion. I believe that in some parts of Europe the Poles are the fall guys, and so on. – Peter Jennings May 26 '23 at 00:19
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    The Canadian equivalent, now considered poor taste, is "A Canadian, an American and a Newfie". – gotube May 26 '23 at 02:46
  • US: An east coaster, a west coaster, and a mid-westerner (± southerner). N.America: An American, a Canadian and a Mexican ... reddit has examples of both – mcalex May 26 '23 at 02:59
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    In Sweden, it would be "En dansk, en tysk, och Bellman": "a Dane, a German, and Bellman", Bellman being a famous Swedish 18th century poet. – FerventHippo May 26 '23 at 11:56
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    In reply to FumbleFingers "The last one mentioned (rarely the Englishman) is nearly always the "target"." If you lived in Scotland you might find the Englishman is USUALLY the target :P – Dughall May 26 '23 at 14:15
  • I know the funniest Swedish joke. Did you hear the one about the Swedish guy? He loved his wife so much he almost told her. – Fattie May 26 '23 at 14:26
  • @FumbleFingers, we certainly do tell similar "A , a , and a walk into a bar..." jokes (or we did when I was young, I haven't heard one in decades). We just have such a wide selection of ethnic groups to disparage that we use it with dozens of different permutations of , , and . (we can also do "A pastor, a rabbi, and a priest...") – The Photon May 26 '23 at 15:09
  • I also know the funniest joke about the fact that both Scots and Indians are supposedly super thrifty tightwads with money ... "What do you get if one penny comes between a Scotsman and an Indian guy? You get COPPER WIRE ..." – Fattie May 26 '23 at 16:37
  • An American werewolf in London - Remember the Alamo - The first thing that came to mind when I read this question! – Greenonline May 26 '23 at 17:26
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    Closely related (and also of Scandinavian origin, but I believe more common with Scandinavian Americans than actual Scandinavians) are the "Ole and Lena" jokes, often involving Sven as a 3rd character. – Darrel Hoffman May 26 '23 at 17:30
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    A similar format is a two element comparison: What's the difference between a mechanical engineer and a civil engineer? A mechanical engineer designs bombs and a civil engineer designs targets. – Dennis Williamson May 26 '23 at 20:26
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    @DarrelHoffman Ole and Lena are not just more common with Americans than with Scandinavians – if you asked a hundred Scandinavians, I doubt you’d find a single one who’d ever even heard of them. – Janus Bahs Jacquet May 27 '23 at 16:23

3 Answers3

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Yes there are many such jokes in UK English and I'm sure our American cousins share the setup. Many of them start "Three men go into a bar ..." In the UK it might also start "a Scotsman, a Welshman and an Englishman ..." followed by some similar story how each responds to a particular situation.
It can also be used to poke fun at particular professions, for example

A physicist, a mathematician and an engineer were were each given a theodolite and told to measure the height of Senate House (for many years the tallest building in London, belonging to the University). The Mathematician, knowing [their] trigonometry, sets up the theodolite, triangulates the building and calculates the height. The Physicist, not being quite so good at maths, swings the theodolite as a pendulum from the top and calculates the height from the time period. The engineer goes down to the Public Records Office and looks up the height, pawns the theodolite and buys drinks for all of them with the proceeds.

I could quote many more, but they are a common form of humour. You just have to be careful because some of the older ones contained stereotypes which make them unacceptable today. For example "A priest, a rabbi and an imman ..."

Greg Martin
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Peter Jennings
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    I have always loved the joke about the priest, the rabbi, and the pastor that went lake fishing in a small boat, and ran out of bait...anyway the punchline was "didn't you show him where the rocks were?" – Cascabel_StandWithUkraine_ May 25 '23 at 15:35
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    The Scotsman, Welshman and Englishman sounds like exactly the same kind of trio. The 3 men that walk into a bar, the 3 STEM people and the three religious leaders all seem to be a bit more restrictive (but of course more apt when they do fit), and thus not really an exact match. It seems from the comments above that American English doesn't have an exact analogue. So I'll consider this question resolved. – Arthur May 25 '23 at 20:44
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    My favourite is the three statisticians that go duck-hunting for the first time. The first misses the duck by ten metres to the left. The second misses the duck by ten metres to the right. The third shouts "*I got him!*" – Richard May 25 '23 at 21:43
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    In American English, at least in my local culture, I think it's most common to tell this joke format with professions rather than nationalities, because we just don't have anything directly comparable. (I suspect there are places where people tell this joke format using stereotypes about the way we divide "races" here, e.g. Black/Hispanic/Asian/White. But I don't think I've ever heard such a thing and you'd definitely never tell one in polite company.) – Glenn Willen May 25 '23 at 21:52
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    Using three religious leaders is popular, and I don't think it's beyond the bounds of politeness as long as the stereotypes used in the joke aren't otherwise horribly offensive. Personally my favorites are "a physicist, a mathematician, and an engineer", which is a popular trio when nerds or academics are telling them. – Glenn Willen May 25 '23 at 21:54
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    A priest, a rabbi and an imam walk into a bar. The bartender asks: "Is this some kind of a joke?" – Mark May 25 '23 at 22:51
  • A lot of variations on this, but I always thing first of, “A priest, a minister and a rabbi.” Also heard some good ones about physicists, engineers and mathematicians. – Davislor May 26 '23 at 01:59
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    Completely agree with everything written above - apart from in the UK it's mostly "An Englishman, Irishman & Scotsman...etc". As mentioned, the joke that follows is likely to reinforce commonly held racial stereotypes of these nationalities and as such are likely to provoke offense in some listeners - no matter how funny they may be. – RadioRaheem May 26 '23 at 05:40
  • @GlennWillen An American, a Canadian and a Mexican...? – d-b May 26 '23 at 06:46
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    @d-b Canada and Mexico are almost 2500 km apart. Only an American would even think of putting them in the same joke, and frankly the joke wouldn't work unless the American was the punchline. – the-baby-is-you May 26 '23 at 11:16
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    A priest, a rabbit, and an imam walk into a bar. The barman says "I think that's a typo". – OrangeDog May 26 '23 at 12:29
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    An English language learner walks into a bar. Ouch. – JiK May 26 '23 at 12:33
  • Have the Paddy Englishman, Paddy Scotsman, and Paddy Irishman jokes from my childhood completely disappeared? – TRiG May 26 '23 at 13:00
  • That's a really good one @OrangeDog :) – Fattie May 26 '23 at 16:39
  • @Arthur - very nicely put – Fattie May 26 '23 at 20:27
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQjM5qsVryw – Fattie May 26 '23 at 20:27
  • @the-baby-is-you I responded to someone describing American English. Duh! – d-b May 28 '23 at 17:40
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The "three people" format is alive and well here in the US. In my experience, the three are typically defined as/by:

  • religious figures ("a priest, a rabbi, and an imam walk into a bar")
  • professions ("a physicist, a mathematician, and an engineer")
  • racial/ethnic stereotypes ("a white guy, a Black guy, and a Mexican") - note that AmE very strongly implies that the Mexican is also a guy here
  • hair color ("a blonde, a brunette, and a redhead") - note that referring to someone by their hair color alone ("a blonde") universally refers to a woman (vs. using "a blond man")
  • state of residence ("a Minnesotan, an Iowan, and a Wisconsinite")

It's not unheard of for the setup to use countries of origin, with Poland (IME) usually being the butt of the joke, but those are (again, IME) much less common than the other setups.

It is worth noting that these jokes do seem to be falling out of favor, especially the ones that rely heavily on stereotypes (the example in Peter Jennings' answer about a physicist, mathematician, and engineer measuring the height of a building would be fine in any circle I can think of). They can come off quite well, but they're more than a bit risky. It's probably safer to avoid such jokes, but flipping the script and having the presumed butt succeed because of their stereotype (possibly by intentionally playing it up) is often a good option.

Peter Jennings' answer's joke, in case it gets deleted/lost:

A physicist, a mathematician and an engineer were were each given a theodolite and told to measure the height of Senate House (for many years the tallest building in London, belonging to the University). The Mathematician, knowing his trigonometry, sets up the theodolite, triangulates the building and calculates the height. The Physicist, not being quite so good at maths, swings the theodolite as a pendulum from the top and calculates the height from the time period. The engineer goes down to the Public Records Office and looks up the height, pawns the theodolite and buys drinks for all of them with the proceeds.

It's also not terribly uncommon to mix groups: Peter Jennings' joke could be re-done as "a physicist, a mathematician, and a blonde", with the blonde (who are stereotyped as being some combination of ditzy, air-heads, and dumb; Legally Blonde plays with this pretty well IMO) having the clever idea to go look up the height.

Source: I was born and have lived wholly in the US, mostly in Minnesota.

Jasper
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minnmass
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    This is basically what I was looking for. I have realized that I was a bit unclear in my question, but I meant in particular a recurring trio where their defining characteristics don't really play into the joke (the mathematician, physicist and engineer measuring the height of a building, their defining traits are actually relevant to the task and how they approach it), and it didn't have to be about where they came from. – Arthur May 26 '23 at 14:11
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    Even in our Norwegian jokes, Swedes are traditionally the "stupid" ones (and in Sweden, it's us Norwegians who carry that burden), but not in these particular trio jokes, so they don't really play into classic joke stereotypes that way. Or at least they don't have to. To me, it just seems like a recurring trio with assigned roles, but without playing too much into external stereotypes. – Arthur May 26 '23 at 14:16
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    There are also jokes where it's just "the first guy, the second guy, the third guy." But there, often "the third guy" is the clever one. – Tim Grant May 26 '23 at 14:38
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    The version of that joke that I heard, it was Richard Feynmann who came up with all the solutions for measuring the height of the building, from dropping the measurement instrument (a barometer, in this version) off the roof and measuring how long it takes to fall, to trading the instrument to the building superintendent for the information. (The idea being he was asked the question as some kind of school test and preferred to subvert expectations rather than give the expected answer). – The Photon May 26 '23 at 15:15
  • @ThePhoton: the variant I'm most familiar with has him taking an inordinate amount of time in answering; when time's nearly up, the proctor nudges him to answer and he replies that he's trying to decide which of a half-dozen options is the best: using the barometer as a measuring device, using its shadow vs. the building's, as the weight on a pendulum, comparing the air pressure at top and bottom (as expected, with a barometer), or trading the barometer to the custodian in exchange for the height. Less "subverting expectations" and more being frustrated by a "forced" preferred solution. – minnmass May 26 '23 at 15:24
  • "a blonde, a brunette, and a redhead" invariably refers to women, with the blonde being as dumb as a nail. Incidentally, mathematicians and economists often begin by making an absurd assumption to simplify the problem they have been dealt, a classic being the following. A physicist, chemist and economist were stranded on a desert island with a can of food but with no implement to open it. The physicist and chemist each devised an ingenious mechanism for getting the can open; the economist's solution began with, "Assume we have a can opener"! – Cary Swoveland May 26 '23 at 16:33
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    @CarySwoveland A similar joke (spherical cow) shows physicists are not averse to simplificatons – Jimmy May 26 '23 at 18:24
  • "Polish" jokes are a particularly American thing. In the UK, Australia, and New Zealand (maybe other English speaking countries as well), they're "Irish" jokes. – CJ Dennis May 28 '23 at 22:42
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In the UK,

  • It's typically Englishman, Scotsman, Irishman

  • To a lesser extent, Welshman may be one of the three

  • In the UK, it's common that any of the three involved may be the "last man" point of the joke, there isn't sort of a standard "last man" as you imply is the case in the Scandinavian trio.

In the USA,

  • There's really no such trio of nationalities and no such "trio of nationalities joke format".

As others have explained, tyhere are any number of other "trio" formats (eg, three religious figures).

Fattie
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    Your final (4th) bullet points is wrong. We do have trio of nationalities jokes in the US. We just tell them about dozens of different nationalities: An Englishman, a German and an Italian; An American, a Canadian, and a Mexican; An American, a Chinese, and a Japanese; ... The possibilities are endless. – The Photon May 26 '23 at 15:19
  • @ThePhoton that's a great point. In the US, "any world countries" are used depending on the nature of the joke. My mind was on the idea that OP's example is really about "three specific" countries (fitting in nicely with Scandinavia). – Fattie May 26 '23 at 16:35
  • As GlennW says above .. "In American English, at least in my local culture, I think it's most common to tell this joke format with professions rather than nationalities, because we just don't have anything directly comparable." – Fattie May 26 '23 at 16:40
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    I haven't heard one based on nationality in years because we're very sensitive to that now, but when I was a kid they were very common. – The Photon May 26 '23 at 16:44
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    My favourite (note Canadian spelling...): A Russian , an American, and a Canadian are arguing about Communications systems they invented. The Russian points out that if you dig 100 ft below ground in Russia, you'll find Copper, which indicates that they had copper wire telephony a hundred years ago. The american says that if you dig down 200 ft in the States, you'll find Silica, which means they had fibre optic cables 200 years ago. The Canadian boasts that if you dig down 300 ft in Canada, you'll find nothing, which means we invented Wireless Networking !!! – erict May 27 '23 at 20:59
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    Trio of nationalities is well known. Less known, but funnier uses four. "In heaven you have a German car, a French cook, an Italian lover, and an English butler. In hell you have a French car, a German lover, an Italian butler, and an English cook." Stereotypes of course, but shows each in as much positive as negative light... – Jerry Coffin May 28 '23 at 03:47