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No soap radio (often No soap, radio, No Soap Radio, sometimes "No soap... radio?", "No soap. Radio!") is the traditional punchline for a type of prank joke which has a body not directly related to the punchline itself, but is made as if to be humorous by participants in a prank. The first known reference to this form of anti-humor was in the late 1940s. *
The joke is notable for its use as a basic sociological and psychological experiment, specifically relating to mob mentality and the pressure to conform. The basic setup is similar to the Asch conformity experiments, in which they test a person's proclivity to agree with a group despite their own judgements.
The prank
The prank itself requires one joke teller, at least two co-conspirators, and a victim. The joke teller will catch the attention of the victim and announce his intention of telling a joke, perhaps stating that it would be particularly to the victim's taste. The joke teller will then proceed to tell the joke, which can be of two main types.
- A short joke, often thought of beforehand.
- A very long joke, usually improvised and told in a rambling fashion.
The punchline of the joke will have been told to the co-conspirators beforehand – traditionally the phrase, "No soap radio." After the joke teller says the punchline, the co-conspirators will immediately laugh uproariously, treating the joke as if it were, in fact, funny.
In effect, the joke is not to be found in the content itself, but rather in how the victim reacts. The joke is not in "No soap radio." The joke is on the victim.
The purpose of the prank is to make the one victim of the joke's telling respond with one of two favourable (to the joke tellers) results:
- Negative understanding is expressing confusion about what the joke means and feeling left out. In the best case, the victim may inquire about the joke multiple times, ask for a retelling, perhaps over an extended period (sometimes days or a week, rarely longer). The victim may switch to false understanding after getting (facetious) derision expressed from the conspirators. Normally after some time of negative understanding, the prank is revealed in full to the victim.
- False understanding is acting as if the joke is humorous when in fact the victim doesn't understand the joke at all. This usually results in savage derision and immediate abandonment of pretense by the conspirators, due to the deception involved.
Additionally, there are various unfavorable outcomes:
- The victim may have heard of the "No soap radio" prank before, or figure out what is going on, and understand that this is a prank rather than a real joke. This may result in a few laughs on the part of the conspirators and victim anyway, and is more of a neutral outcome than anything else.
- The victim may just ignore the joke and walk away or change the subject. The victim in this case doesn't understand the joke and doesn't care. This is typically the worst outcome.
- The victim may dismiss the joke as one that purposely doesn't make sense without fathoming the prank behind it. This may be used advantageously in a method similar to that used in negative understanding, but is much more difficult.
- The victim may think the joke is funny for an unintended reason. This is rare, however, and usually results from a poor telling of the joke.
- Because no soap radio violates expectations of how a joke is supposed to work, the victim may laugh at the meta-joke of hearing a nonsensical phrase when they expected a punchline.
- The victim may respond to the punch line with, "No, you told it wrong," and proceed to tell the joke in a different way or tell another joke intended to offend the pranksters and/or functions as a prank, like The Aristocrats. When the pranksters resist listening or laughing at the joke, the victim teases the pranksters for not playing along or having no sense of humor.
The prank is difficult to pull off convincingly. An outburst of laughter is difficult to fake, even for experienced actors. A simple chuckle, possibly with a statement suggesting understanding of the joke (i.e., "Haha, I get it, that's hilarious!") may work better.
Psychology
No soap radio is a classic example of anti-humor. Of the outcomes listed, false understanding is the most desirable one, to the tellers of the joke. This scenario is a demonstration of groupthink and peer pressure, the need to conform to one's peers. Despite the entire thing being utter nonsense with no hidden meaning, nothing to get, no punchline, nothing special, the key is the conspirators laughing. One can judge a person this way, as being more individualistic or more eager to please their friends, seeing whether or not they exhibit false understanding. The results have typically shown that in practice: when negative understanding results it is more likely from a more independent thinking person, and false understanding is more common for the more group-minded.
This can be likened to laugh tracks, which are intended to make television viewers more inclined to laugh during television shows.
No soap radio is known to have been used frequently in elementary, middle, and high school at various points in history. Although it has not been documented, it is understandable that the joke would thrive in settings so rich in peer pressure.
Examples and popular culture
Since the short variety of joke is usually thought of beforehand, there are a few commonly used ones. For some reason, they often involve animals in bathtubs.
- Two polar bears are sitting in a bathtub. The first one says, "Pass the soap." The second one says, "No soap, radio!"
- A foreign man is flying in an airplane. He points out of the window at the unfamiliar countryside below and exclaims, "No soap... radio?"
- A penguin and a polar bear are sitting on an iceberg. The penguin yells, "Radio!" They both jump in the water.
- Two elephants are sitting in the bathtub. One elephant says to the Other, "Please pass the soap." The elephant replies to the other elephant, "What do I look like, a radio?"
The long variety of joke is normally made up on the spot, but may be reused after that. There have at times been a few classic archetypes. One famous long form starts with, "Alright, so these two baseball players are sitting in the stadium for a hockey game," and then goes on, made up as one goes along.
Over the years the joke has become widely known and entered popular culture in other forms, including a radio labeled "No Soap, Radio!" on an episode of The Simpsons, a popular podcast named after the joke, and a band with the name appearing at the Crazy Horse on The Sopranos. It has been used as the name for rock bands, as well as a short-lived TV sketch comedy show (à la Monty Python's Flying Circus) starring Steve Guttenberg that aired on ABC in the spring of 1982. *.
See also
References
External links
English phrases | Humor | Practical jokes | Social psychology
"No soap radio"