The Timber Joke
December 18, 2014 2:50 AM Subscribe
There was a lumberjack who chopped trees all day and would yell "TIMBER" just before each tree would fall…
There are plenty of versions of
the “Timber” joke
on YouTube, many done as part of
a beginning ASL course. Most of these retellings
seem
identical to on another. For a refreshing take on the joke, check out this over-the-top version in Pidgin Signed English.
For completeness, here's a version of the joke presented by an ASL professor, and here he is, presenting the same joke in a classroom.
Bonus:
Rob Nielson, an ASL teacher and Deaf person, on ASL students putting up videos to "teach" other people sign language. Here's his version of the joke.
Common mistakes by ASL Students: wrong hand shapes, no facial expressions, switching between hands
For completeness, here's a version of the joke presented by an ASL professor, and here he is, presenting the same joke in a classroom.
Bonus:
Rob Nielson, an ASL teacher and Deaf person, on ASL students putting up videos to "teach" other people sign language. Here's his version of the joke.
Common mistakes by ASL Students: wrong hand shapes, no facial expressions, switching between hands
I really like the "over the top" pidgin one.
Full disclosure: that's probably how animated i am when I talk.
posted by chasles at 3:23 AM on December 18, 2014
Full disclosure: that's probably how animated i am when I talk.
posted by chasles at 3:23 AM on December 18, 2014
While these are all great, can I just say that I do not condone all this tree cutting down. What a waste! Huge beautiful trees cut down for nothing!
posted by greenhornet at 3:30 AM on December 18, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by greenhornet at 3:30 AM on December 18, 2014 [1 favorite]
Those trees died to make you laugh. A noble sacrifice, I believe.
posted by ardgedee at 4:18 AM on December 18, 2014 [5 favorites]
posted by ardgedee at 4:18 AM on December 18, 2014 [5 favorites]
Side note: The correct thing to yell when cutting down a tree is "Falling!" Forestry and pedantry all in one go.
posted by Polyhymnia at 8:48 AM on December 18, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Polyhymnia at 8:48 AM on December 18, 2014 [1 favorite]
Polyhymnia inspires my curiosity here: why do we (theoretically) yell "Timber!"?
AFAIK, it's never been a verb, and "Tree!" would presumably carry better (fully voiced vowel).
posted by IAmBroom at 9:13 AM on December 18, 2014
AFAIK, it's never been a verb, and "Tree!" would presumably carry better (fully voiced vowel).
posted by IAmBroom at 9:13 AM on December 18, 2014
The great Ken Campbell once commissioned (and performed in) a version of Macbeth in Pidgin English. I was never lucky enough to see it, but I do know that Lady Macbeth's call for evil spirits to "unsex me here" became "Satan takem me handbag!"
posted by Paul Slade at 10:05 AM on December 18, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Paul Slade at 10:05 AM on December 18, 2014 [1 favorite]
I have taken three years of ASL so far and typically at the end of each year the assignment is to copy the Timber story as exactly as possible. There is another story that is typically used in the same manner: the gum story, which is meant to teach the different ways to modify the sign for walking to aid in describing a person.
posted by cobain_angel at 1:19 PM on December 18, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by cobain_angel at 1:19 PM on December 18, 2014 [1 favorite]
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posted by Deathalicious at 2:51 AM on December 18, 2014