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 1966.
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 of 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 you.
The purpose of the prank is to make the one victim of the joke's telling respond with one of two favorable (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.
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, trying 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.
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 bull and a bear are taking a bath together. The bull says, "Could you please pass the soap?" The bear replies, "No soap, radio!"
- Three penguins are sitting in a bathtub, and the first one turns to the one on the right, and says "Pass me the soap", and the other one says "No soap, radio!"
- A foreign man is flying in an airplane. He points out 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.
- A king and an elephant were sitting in a bathtub. The king said, "pass the soap" and the elephant said, "No soap, 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, and a band with the name appearing at the Crazy Horse on The Sopranos. It has been used as the name for rock bands and a sketch comedy show as well.
See also: Mornington Crescent
External links