Tall Tales and Jokes

Folklorist Carl Lindahl calls Tall Tales "a joke masquerading as a true story (2004, lxii)." His definition points to the stylistic features of this extremely popular form of American storytelling. Tall tales are funny and exaggerated, but storytellers tell them like true personal narratives to test the gullibility of their audiences and tease anyone naïve enough to believe them. In fact, the digital collection "Voices from the Dustbowl" holds a recording of a 1940 "Liar's Contest" held in Visalia California to determine who could "spin the best yarn."

The AFC archival collections include hours of audio recordings of American tall tales, held in multiple collections spanning several regions of the country. Some Tall Tales include larger-than-life personalities and characters of the American frontier such as Paul Bunyan, Davey Crockett, and Pecos Bill. Others feature more local and personal stories, like fishing, hunting, and agricultural tales. Chuck Larkin told a tale at Jonesboro, Tennessee's 1983 National Storytelling Festival about a big bass fish he caught that was so smart, it learned how to breathe and walk on dry land before, tragically, the fish fell back into the pond and drowned to death (AFC 2001/008: 83FEHT05). Other stories focus on dramatic weather events, like the story of LA Ledford's horse, who fell asleep in a corn field. The day was so hot that all the corn started popping. When the horse woke up, he saw the popcorn and thought it was snow -- so he laid down and froze to death.

LA Ledford tells the story of his little gray horse in Visalia FSA Camp, August 14, 1941 (AFC 1985/001: AFS 05123b01). The story is available online as part of the digital collection Voices from the Dust Bowl: the Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940 to 1941.

Perry Allen tells Paul Bunyan stories, beginning around the 3:00 timestamp. Stories include the birth and infancy of Paul Bunyan; how Paul got to the Manistee river; how he got Babe the Blue Ox; and a story of a giant cow (AFC 1939/007: AFS 02266 A). The story is available online as part of the Alan Lomax Collection of Michigan and Wisconsin Recordings.

"Kerosene Charlie Eats 'Taters" (spoken) performed by Cull Stacey at Turpentine Camp, Cross City, Florida, on August 1, 1939 (AFC 1939/013: AFS 03524 B02). The story is available online as part of the digital collection Florida Folklife from the WPA Collections, 1937-1942.

AFC Digital Collections

Alan Lomax Collection of Michigan and Wisconsin Recordings
In 1938 the Library of Congress dispatched the pioneering folklorist and song collector Alan Lomax—already a seasoned field worker at age 23—to conduct a folk song survey of the Great Lakes region. When he returned nearly three months later, it was with a cache of 250 instantaneous discs and eight reels of film documenting the incredible range of ethnic diversity and expressive traditions primarily in Michigan. Tall tales are available under subject headings "storytelling" and "tales" or by searching key terms "Paul Bunyan" or "Davy Crockett."
Blue Ridge Parkway Folklife Project
The Blue Ridge Parkway Folklife Project was conducted by the American Folklife Center in cooperation with the National Park Service. Ten folklorists from the American Folklife Center conducted fieldwork in August and September 1978, and collected related materials from 1977 to 1981. Tall tale materials can be found under subject heading "Tales." Jokes can be found using the search term "jokes."
Florida Folklife from the WPA Collections, 1937 to 1942
Florida Folklife from the WPA Collections combines sound recordings and manuscript materials from four discrete archival collections made by Work Projects Administration (WPA) workers from the Joint Committee on Folk Arts, the Federal Writers' Project, and the Federal Music Project from 1937-42. Tall tale materials can be found under subject headings "Tales" and "Tall Tales" in English and Spanish language. Jokes can be found using the search term "jokes."
South-Central Georgia Folklife Project Collection
The South-Central Georgia Folklife Project collection resulted from an ethnographic field project conducted in the summer of 1977 by the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress and the Arts Experiment Station of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, Georgia. The eight-county area chosen for the study is in the center of the "Wiregrass" region of Georgia. Tall Tale materials can by found using the search term "tales." Jokes can be found using the search term "jokes."
Tending the Commons: Folklife and Landscape in Southern West Virginia
This collection presents 718 excerpts of sound recordings, 1,256 photographs, and 10 manuscripts from the American Folklife Center's Coal River Folklife Project Collection. The project documented traditional uses of the mountains in the Big Coal River Valley of southern West Virginia, and explored the cultural dimensions of ecological crisis from 1992 to 1999. Tall tale materials can be found under subject headings "Legends," "Storytelling," "Tales," and "Tall Tales."
Voices from the Dust Bowl: the Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940 to 1941
Voices from the Dust Bowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection is an online presentation of selections from a multi-format ethnographic field collection documenting the everyday life of residents of Farm Security Administration (FSA) migrant work camps in central California in 1940 and 1941. Tall Tale materials are available under the subject heading "Tales."

Selected Collections from the American Folklife Center

Alan Jabbour and Carl Fleischhauer recordings of Burl Hammons and Maggie Hammons Parker, 1972
Call Number: AFC 1972/014
Collection of field recordings of folk songs, fiddle tunes, folk tales, legends, riddles, hunting stories, belief stories (including witchcraft and other stories of the supernatural) spoken, sung, and played by Burl Hammons and Maggie Hammons Parker.
Alan Lomax Collection of Michigan and Wisconsin Recordings
Call Number: AFC 1939/007
Collection of field recordings with related color film documenting instrumental music, songs, stories, and interviews recorded primarily in Michigan and Wisconsin by Alan Lomax, August 1-November 1, 1938 for the Archive of American Folk-Song, Library of Congress. Includes folk songs, sea songs, ballads, lumbering songs and stories, Paul Bunyan stories, bawdy songs, blues, humorous and popular songs, and dance music. Several Paul Bunyan stories are available online in the Digital Collection by the same name.
Benjamin A. Botkin duplication project, 1950-1958
Call Number: AFC 1970/042
Published/Created: 1950-1958.
Narratives, radio programs, and songs recorded in California, Colorado, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Washington, and Washington, D.C., by Benjamin A. Botkin and the Voice of America, 1949-58. Reel 1 includes tall tales and fishing tales. Reel 4 includes Spanish American tales told by Arthur Campa in Denver, 1950 and Levett J. Davidson mining and burro tales, Denver, Colorado, July 15, 1950. The collection also includes jokes.
Dwight Diller recordings of the Hammons family and Mose Coffman
Call Number: AFC 1973/007
Published/Created: 1970-1972
Collection of 8 hours of field recordings of instrumentals, songs, and stories performed with banjo, fiddle, guitar, and fiddlesticks, spoken, and sung by William Moses "Mose" Coffman, the Hammons family, and others. Recorded in Greenbrier and Pocahontas Counties, West Virginia, by Dwight Diller and Carl Fleischhauer from 1970-1972. The collection includes belief stories and tall tales.
Eleanor Jean Bonar collection of songs from Iowa and Kentucky, 1853-1954, bulk 1930-1939
Call Number: AFC 1971/001
Manuscript collection comprising texts of ballads, folksongs, popular songs, and poetry collected from family members (especially the Bonar-Batchelder family), friends, high school students, and published sources. Many are from the Appalachian Region; some songs were collected by Lona Counts at Berea College, Berea, Kentucky, recorded from oral tradition. Folder 15 includes a pamphlet titled "American Folk Lore Paul Bunyan Tales."
Helen Creighton collection of Nova Scotia recordings
Call Number: AFC 1944/016
Collection of field recordings of instrumentals, monologues, religious matter, sea shanties, songs, and stories recorded in Nova Scotia by Helen Creighton, July 1943-June 1944. The collection includes ghost stories, witch stories, tall tales, and "traditional tales."
J. Russell Reaver collection of American tall tales 1950
Call Number: AFC 1972/002
Collection of letters and submissions of tall tales to the magazine column "Can you beat it?" in The Progressive Farmer in 1950. The column was edited by J. Russell Reaver, who arranged the submissions by topic or theme. Most submissions are handwritten and originate from the southern and southeastern United States; some entries were submitted by children. Many stories are about agricultural crops, storms, hunting, animals, snakes, fish, insects (including boll weevils and mosquitos), etc.
Motif index to a collection of American tall tales, circa 1974 by Reaver, J. Russell (Joseph Russell)
Call Number: AFC 2006/003
Motif index to a collection of American tall tales that were submitted by readers to the magazine "Progressive Farmer" in 1949 and 1950, with motif numbers based on Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk-Literature.
Joseph S. Hall collection, 1932-1975.
Call Number: AFC 1987/035
Collection of field recordings documenting speech, folktales, local history, customs, beliefs, songs, ballads, hymns, fiddle tunes, and other forms of regional folklife recorded between 1937 and 1941 (discs) and 1956 and 1967 (tapes) by Joseph S. Hall in the Great Smoky Mountains region of Tennessee and North Carolina. Search for keywords "hunting stories," "bear stories," and "tall tales."
Library of Congress and Fisk University Mississippi Delta collection, 1941-1943
Call Number: AFC 1941/002
The collection consists of a portion of the materials generated by a joint field project in Coahoma County, Mississippi, 1941-1942, conducted by the Archive of American Folk Song, Library of Congress and Fisk University. Field recordings include jokes and folktales. Tall tales are available from MC Orr (AFS06626), Buck 'Asa' Ulysses Jefferson (AFS06627), and Asa Ware (AFS06630, AFS06631, AFS06632).
Ray B. Browne collection of folk music and spoken word from Alabama [sound recording].
Call Number: AFC 1960/005
Published/Created: 1960, 1951-1952
Collection of field recordings of folk songs, ballads, religious songs, popular songs, fiddle tunes, ghost and witch stories, personal experience narratives, and tall tales recorded during the summers of 1951 and 1952 by Ray B. Browne for his dissertation at the University of California, Los Angeles, Alabama Folk Songs, 1956. Recordings of folktales are on records AFS11706B, AFS11707, and AFS11708.
Vance Randolph collection, 1941-1972 (bulk 1941-1943)
Call Number: AFC 1941/001
The Vance Randolph collection documents aspects of Ozark Mountains folklife and culture from 1941-1972. Randolph made field recordings of folksongs, speech, and photographs in the Ozarks from 1941-1943 for the Archive of American Folk Song, Library of Congress. Search for key term "Belle Starr" to find legends and correspondence about this local outlaw, and key term "tall tales" for tall tales in general. The collection also includes jokes.
International storytelling collection, 1973-2013
Call Number: AFC 2001/008
Published/Created: 2001, 2011, 2013
Collection includes the archives from 1973-2013 of the International Storytelling Center, which produces the annual National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee. Includes office files, photographs, sound recordings, and video recordings of storytelling performances at the Festival and activities at the Center and its predecessor organizations, including conferences, board meetings, interviews with storytellers and others, and various materials submitted by storytellers from throughout the United States and from around the world that document their careers. Recordings of Tall tales are available from the Folktellers (82FEPT11, 84FEPT08, 86FEPT04, 87FEPT11) and Jackie Torrence (80FEBT03, 83FEPT05).

Text Resources in the AFC Reading Room

We always lie to strangers: Tall Tales from the Ozarks by Vance Rudolph
Call Number: PS558.A8 R3
Published/Created: 1951
A collection of tall tales from Vance Rudolph's fieldwork in the Ozarks.
Yarns and Tales from the Great Smokies by Joseph S. Hall
Call Number: GR108 .Y37
ISBN: 0960016821
Published/Created: 1979-01-01
A book of southern Appalachian stories gathered during Joseph S. Hall's fieldwork in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina.

Selected Blog Posts and Podcasts from the American Folklife Center

The Great American Sea Serpant
Former American Folklife Center staffer Stephanie Hall explores the lore of the sea serpant in Europe and the US. (Folklife Today Blog: August 8, 2016)
On the Bunny Trail: In Search of the Easter Bunny
AFC staff folklorist Stephen Winick explains the history of the Easter Bunny. (Folklife Today Blog: March 22, 2016)
On the trail of Bigfoot in the Library of Congress
AFC Folklife Specialist Meg Nicholas examines materials related to Bigfoot (aka Sasquatch) in the AFC Archives. (Folklife Today Blog: May 3, 2024)
"A Man Who Could Outrun the Shot" and Other Hunting Stories
Former AFC Folklife Specialist Stephani Hall describes several hunting stories in the AFC Collections. (Folklife Today Blog: November 17, 2014)

Jokes: Selected Collections from the American Folklife Center

Alongside tall tales, jokes and humorous anecdotes (ie funny stories) have historically been a popular form of American storytelling in both oral and written traditions. Many of the collections included on this subpage features jokes as well as tall tales. If the above collections include jokes, they have been noted in the description. In the digital collections, the search term "jokes" will locate relevant resources. Below, you will find a selection of additional AFC collections that feature jokes.

American Folklore lecture series from Everett/Edwards
Call Number: AFC 1979/096
Collection of 36 audio cassettes of lectures on various folklore topics and folklore genres delivered by noted scholars of folklore and folklife published in the "cassette curriculum" American Folklore series by Everett/Edwards, inc in 1979. Includes a lecture on Comic ancecdotes and jokes from William Hugh Jansen.
Charles S. Adams recordings of New England folklore and folk music
Call Number: AFC 1971/048
Collection of field recordings of tales, personal experience stories, jokes, poems, recitations, beliefs, fiddle tunes, and folksongs recorded in New Hampshire, Vermont, 1961-1963. Includes dialect jokes; tall tales; memories of quilting bees and husking bees; stories of Mormon experiences and history; folk dance music with fiddle, piano, and dance calls; songs, monologues, and conversations.
Gerald E. Parsons, Jr. riddling session
Call Number: AFC 1974/017
Tape recording of a riddling session and party where riddles, puzzles, and jokes were told and discussed at a home in Delaware during the evening of February 1, 1971, recorded by Gerald E. Parsons, Jr.
Harry Oster collection of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Iowa recordings
Call Number: AFC 1967/003
Published/Created: 1957-1966
Field recordings made by Harry Oster in Iowa, Louisiana, and Mississippi, 1957-1966. The collection includes spirituals, hymns, and bible tales; blues, talking blues, boogie woogie, work songs, field hollers, bawdy songs, folk tales, cante fable, exempla, rhymes, street cries, ballads, folk songs, parodies, nonsense songs, lullabies, jokes, and recitations from African American, Anglo American, German American, and French- speaking Creole performers.
University of Maryland Folklore Archive collection
Call Number: AFC 1974/024
Published/Created: 1967-1970
Field recordings collected by students from the University of Maryland, made under the supervision of Dr. George G. Carey, from 1967 to 1970 for the English department class "Introduction to American Folklore." Includes jokes, tales, legends, and belief stories from Pennsylvania Dutch, African American, Burmese, Rhodesian (Zimbabwean), Irish American, Jewish American, and Polish American communities.
International storytelling collection, 1973-2013
Call Number: AFC 2001/008
Collection includes the archives from 1973-2013 of the International Storytelling Center, which produces the annual National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee. Includes office files, photographs, sound recordings, and video recordings of storytelling performances at the Festival and activities at the Center and its predecessor organizations, including conferences, board meetings, interviews with storytellers and others, and various materials submitted by storytellers from throughout the United States and from around the world that document their careers. For some examples of jokes, see files 73FECW01, 73FEDG02, and 74FEJG01 for jokes from storytellers Bob Abernathy, Paul Fink, and Brooks Hayes.