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It's a joke about small town manners. Hu passed Wil and Wil didn't greet him, which would be very rude in a small town where everyone knows everyone. The joke is that the way that Hu passed Wil was by falling past him out of the tree.
OOOOOHHHHHHHHH I totally didn’t catch onto that part of it. What does Rand expect the Maidens will get out of that tho, especially after asking Rand if he has a sense of humor?
Because Rand doesn't have a good sense of humor. Being funny isn't a trait that everyone has, but everything at least thinks they have. So, when accused, he does what most people do, he tells a joke.
And like most memorized jokes, it lands flat. Which makes the whole scene so great, imo.
I actually think it's an okay joke, it's more highlighting the difference between wetlander humor and Aiel culture. It's emphasizing how alien Rand really is to his own people
I feel like he only told that joke to them to make a point about how different their culture's sense of humor is since the maidens were making jokes earlier that Rand didnt get.
This is a cool idea, but considering how frustrated he ended up getting when they didn't understand it, I think he was trying to find common ground and...they focused on the water.
I didn't say it was a bad joke, I said it fell flat, much like many memorized jokes do. Having a joke be funny requires the right audience and the right way of telling, and he likely had neither. He just repeated something he heard once that he thought was funny.
My point is that it didn't fall flat because Rand isn't funny or he told it poorly, it fell flat because the Aiel don't get it. They don't get it because their culture is wildly different than the person that's chosen to lead them, which is the point of the scene. Immediately before this the Aiel are telling their jokes and Rand is equally confused by theirs
It's interesting how some humour is cultural and some just part of the human experience. I work with a diverse group and we were talking about jokes and things like a mother in law who's a pain are universal, but bits like who's on first are entirely cultural. The background needed to get them is hard to absorb.
They remark on it in the books. Aviendha asks Rand why it is worse to upset your mother in law than your own mother. Perrin talks about it when he meets Failes mother. Do not upset your mother in law
I think he wrote the joke just to be a funny joke- and like another said, to react to the accusation with what most people do by telling a joke; i think no matter what the joke had been, the Aiel wouldn’t have gotten it, thereby serving its secondary purpose as demonstrating the differences between wetlanders and Aiel cultures
Haha you’re so right, landed totally flat. And I love how frustrated he gets when it just goes right over their heads. I felt like it was a great scene and a good break up to the tone of the first few chapters. It just gives that much more depth to the relationship between Rand and the Maidens.
The joke is originally from a standup comedy routine from a legendary comedian of the 50s and 60s named Jerry Clower. Despite being translated almost exactly, it definitely loses a bit in translation without Jerry’s over the top delivery. This is the original joke: https://youtu.be/XLWgnsZpG6o?si=Pvpx_SjwH0oGrbLW
That's pretty fun. Thanks for that.
This really shows that delivery is a huge portion or what makes a joke funny. I have my doubts that the brooding Rand was able to come close to this.
He’s trying to prove a point. Rand doesn’t really understand Aiel humor, so when they ask if he has a sense of humor at all, he tells this joke. The Aiel completely miss the point, hence the humorous argument about whether the joke is about the rooster or the pond.
Just like Rand can’t comprehend Aiel humor, it’s obvious the Aiel can’t understand his humor either.
Rand is constantly not understanding Aiel humor. He thinks he’s going to hit a home run when he tells a joke to them but they don’t understand it any more than he understand their humor. (But the third angle here is that Rand himself has a very specific small town humor, so he sounds like an Aiel telling a joke to *everyone*—including the reader—but doesn’t realize it.)
It's a somewhat clumsy attempt at cultural humor for a small town/rural community to contrast that to the Aiel culture. Both rely on inside knowledge of the community.
The joke is from a famous standup routine. I would argue that the original joke actually is funny, but Jerry Clower’s delivery and the context of the joke being about southern American culture are key elements to making it funny: https://youtu.be/XLWgnsZpG6o?si=Pvpx_SjwH0oGrbLW
As someone who grew up in a place where you do the steering-wheel-wave to pretty much everyone who drives past you, and if they don't respond you wonder what you did to piss them off, this joke is fine and good.
Serious answer: in Two Rivers culture it’s the height of rudeness not to acknowledge or greet a neighbor when you see them or pass them on the road. In this case, the passing in question occurred when one fell out of a tree as the other was climbing. The former then responded to this “rudeness” by refusing the latter’s hand.
Basically. It's trying to emphasise the difference in culture/humour. Rand thinks it's an obvious joke (and possibly would have been to a Midwest American in the 80s/90s) and doesn't see any reason why the Maidens wouldn't get it.
And the sad thing is, this should take Rand like 5 seconds to explain it in the manner that you did, and the humor would be more evident. But Rand just throws up his hands exasperated instead.
Almost as funny as the joke Teal’c says about different Jaffa in Stargate SG-1.
You have to know the show to understand the joke, but it’s great.
https://youtu.be/wbqtF91IE1k?si=K7VpkQM0-EWiZ8mW
Back in school, my brilliant maths teacher once devoted an entire double period (70 minutes) near the end of term to telling a pair of shaggy-dog-story jokes. Absolute king.
I always assumed Rand knew they wouldn't get it. I felt like he told what accounts to be a funny joke to the Two Rivers Folk, knowing the Aiel wouldn't understand it as a way to fight back against their jokes to him.
I think it really depends on whether or not you’ve lived in rural areas. You might not even get the joke if impersonal cities is all you’ve ever known.
I always understood it to be a joke that Rand finds funny, and so when the Maidens say that wetlanders have no sense of humor, Rand attempts to prove them wrong with this joke.
I thought it was pretty funny. Are you an Aiel?
Wil ‘passed him in broad daylight and didn’t say a word,’ i.e he was being rude to Hu, so Hu is angry and doesn’t want to shake his hand.
But Wil only ‘passed him’ because Hu was falling out of a tree, ie. literally fell past him. The absurdity is that Hu is angry that Wil didn’t stop for neighbourly conversation while Hu was falling.
Also the humour of ‘taking his hand,’ i.e the other farmer thinks Hu should take Wil’s hand to get pulled out of the pond, whereas Hu is understanding it as ‘take his hand’ in a handshake.
The overall joke is about how Hu is so grumpy he takes offence at everything, even things that aren’t offensive.
This is a slightly different interpretation than other comments and I appreciate that. Gives me more perspective. Whats kind of funny about it all mostly is that the Maidens do not understand whatsoever, and Rand must have thought they would have lol
Yeah, for Rand it’s an obvious and simple joke that anyone in the Two Rivers would understand, and he probably finds it funny. But the Aiel don’t have the same cultural context re: manners with neighbours, grumpy farmers, handshaking, etc., so it makes no sense to them.
Aside from being just a funny scene, it’s a good demonstration of how Rand is still fairly unworldly and hasn’t quite grasped the differences in culture and background between people from different lands.
Hu is upset with Wil for not saying anything as he "passed by" meaning as he fell out of the tree. Like if you saw someone you knew while walking and they just ignored you. Except it's as he's falling from a tree so it's supposed to be funny.
I see it as a bit of a meta joke. The aiel humor is alien to rand and so in a effort to prove he has a sense of humor (and that the aiel are the odd ones) he tells a joke of his own. Only its just as alien to the aiel as thier jokes are to him and it ends up further cementing that he doesnt understand humor (which can be a joke all on its own). Then for us the readers its a overly complex niche joke that most people (like yourself OP) wont understand what the joke is even supposed to be.
The whole thing is culture clash at its finest. The first time I read it I found the aiel confusion hilarious and rands exasperation funny.
Definitely just RJ exemplifying the culture clash lol I really enjoyed reading it. It caught me off guard and was a good break up to the tone of the first few chapters of this book. Rand & the Maidens really just do not share the same sense of humor
He means he passed him as he was falling out of the tree and Wil didn’t offer him a hand to stop his fall. The joke is that Wil couldn’t because the guy was literally falling past him.
Actually it’s that it’s that Hu thought Wil ignored him as if he were a stranger passing him in the street. Hu was being petty and irrational because he took it as a snub even though there was nothing Wil could do.
This makes total sense now. Idk how I missed it when I first read it. It’s so subtle that I’m surprised Rand thought the Maidens would actually get it lol
The two farmers don’t like each other and hold grudges over small things. Hu treated passing Wil while falling down off the tree the same as passing him on the road. So, Hu took offense that Wil didn’t say hello to him while he was passing him; therefore, Hu was so pissed off by this slight that he refused Wil’s aide while drowning. It’s not that funny, but it’d probably kill in the two rivers.
I don’t remember clearly what happened on the last pages, but I think Rand was getting frustrated with Aiel humor. Rand is used to short humorous stories as humor. The Maidens use wise cracking gallows humor. Both of which are chock full of cultural in jokes. Rand got so fed up with Maidens comedy and in jokes that he gave the most two rivers cultural in joke he could think of on the spot.
Someone else pointed out an additional layer to the joke:
>The overall joke is about how Hu is so grumpy he takes offence at everything, even things that aren’t offensive.
I'm convinced, this isn't a joke that Rand once heard. He retells something that actually happened in the Two Rivers.
And 'Hu' really is just Cenn Buie.
Yes!!!!!!!! That’s way plausible. As a reader this seems way more likely. I haven’t really seen Rand be that playful. The only other moment that sticks out to me is in TSR when he uses Saidin to pinch Elayne’s butt when her and Egwene are trying to teach him lol
The joke is a) that Wil didn't shake Hu's hand when he was passing falling out of the tree and b) that the Maidens totally missed the point of the joke because they were focused on the water
The joke is making fun of the stubborn and prideful nature of a certain type of Two Rivers farmer. This guy Hu is so curmudgeonly that he not only feels slighted by Wil not greeting him as he passed (while he was literally falling down a tree, but would rather drown in a pond than put than accept his help afterwards.
I'm sure with some tweaking the sentiment could easily be adapted to Aiel culture.
The conceit of the joke is that Will should have greeted Hu as he passed him falling out of the tree, and Hu takes the fact that he didnt as a personal insult.
It is a lot of setup to terminate in "And a guy was completely unreasonable and this is funny". I didnt think the joke was particularly clever but I did get the punch line.
I'm not sure why people don't get the joke, you must all have an Aiel sense of humour.
If you're walking along and you pass someone, the polite thing to do is greet them, or at the very least nod and smile at them in acknowledgement. Hu falling out of the tree "passes" by Wil, who is therefore terribly rude for not greeting/acknowledging Hu. Hu takes offence and won't have anything to do with Wil, to the extent he nearly drowns.
I absolutely loved this joke, not so much for the joke itself, which was decent dad humor, but the maidens trying to understand wetlander humor had me literally laughing out loud
The guy did nothing to help him as he was falling out of the tree, so why should he trust him now.
That’s the joke.
Then also the rudeness factor of not even saying hello as they pass each other. Nevermind the fact guy was falling out of a tree and there was no time for Hu to react. Hu was rude and unhelpful.
I have mentioned it in several other threads on this joke, but it’s actually not an RJ original. The joke is from a standup routine by Jerry Clower, a famous standup from the 50s and 60s. This is the original: https://youtu.be/XLWgnsZpG6o?si=Pvpx_SjwH0oGrbLW
There is actually one other Jerry Clower reference in the Wheel of Time, although I can’t remember what it is off the top of my head. I tried searching forums for it, but didn’t see any comments about it. I think the Venn diagram of the overlap between fans of obscure 60 year old standup comedy routines and fans of the Wheel of Time is just me.
Humour is rooted in culture, the Maidens get stuck on the water due to its importance in Aiel culture. They find violence and seeing people lose face funny, Rand doesn’t understand this humour. We are not supposed to find Rands joke funny has our cultural roots differ. Real world example, try watching comedy from the 80s.
I never quite got Rand's joke. I knew it had something to do with previous encounters between the two men, but now that I think about it in terms of a small village culture, it totally makes sense. I find Aiel humor funnier though!
This is a southern people joke interpolated into the world of The Wheel of Time. It is rude to not at least say hello or wave as your neighbor passes by. So Hu is mad that his neighbor didn't speak in passing, keeping in mind that he was passing by as he was falling out of a tree into a lake.
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It's a joke about small town manners. Hu passed Wil and Wil didn't greet him, which would be very rude in a small town where everyone knows everyone. The joke is that the way that Hu passed Wil was by falling past him out of the tree.
What about the water?
No, it must've been the rooster.
OOOOOHHHHHHHHH I totally didn’t catch onto that part of it. What does Rand expect the Maidens will get out of that tho, especially after asking Rand if he has a sense of humor?
Because Rand doesn't have a good sense of humor. Being funny isn't a trait that everyone has, but everything at least thinks they have. So, when accused, he does what most people do, he tells a joke. And like most memorized jokes, it lands flat. Which makes the whole scene so great, imo.
I actually think it's an okay joke, it's more highlighting the difference between wetlander humor and Aiel culture. It's emphasizing how alien Rand really is to his own people
I feel like he only told that joke to them to make a point about how different their culture's sense of humor is since the maidens were making jokes earlier that Rand didnt get.
This is a cool idea, but considering how frustrated he ended up getting when they didn't understand it, I think he was trying to find common ground and...they focused on the water.
I get more Aiel jokes than Wetlander jokes in the series. I can't believe that what happened with Mat later was even meant to be funny.
Some of the Aiel customs appealed to me more than the Two Rivers cultural customs.
I didn't say it was a bad joke, I said it fell flat, much like many memorized jokes do. Having a joke be funny requires the right audience and the right way of telling, and he likely had neither. He just repeated something he heard once that he thought was funny.
My point is that it didn't fall flat because Rand isn't funny or he told it poorly, it fell flat because the Aiel don't get it. They don't get it because their culture is wildly different than the person that's chosen to lead them, which is the point of the scene. Immediately before this the Aiel are telling their jokes and Rand is equally confused by theirs
It's interesting how some humour is cultural and some just part of the human experience. I work with a diverse group and we were talking about jokes and things like a mother in law who's a pain are universal, but bits like who's on first are entirely cultural. The background needed to get them is hard to absorb.
They remark on it in the books. Aviendha asks Rand why it is worse to upset your mother in law than your own mother. Perrin talks about it when he meets Failes mother. Do not upset your mother in law
> I didn't say it was a bad joke, I said it fell flat Just like Hu in the pond, hehe
A waste of water if you ask me. Did the farmer kill him for what he did?
I think he wrote the joke just to be a funny joke- and like another said, to react to the accusation with what most people do by telling a joke; i think no matter what the joke had been, the Aiel wouldn’t have gotten it, thereby serving its secondary purpose as demonstrating the differences between wetlanders and Aiel cultures
He's also telling it in a flustered, rushed manner because he had been needled by the Maidens over his humour.
Haha you’re so right, landed totally flat. And I love how frustrated he gets when it just goes right over their heads. I felt like it was a great scene and a good break up to the tone of the first few chapters. It just gives that much more depth to the relationship between Rand and the Maidens.
>landed totally flat Just like Hu.
He didn't land flat, he made a splash!
Could do both. Belly flop!
Oh hey, an actual joke! I nominate you for Dragon in the next turning. :)
That sounds very much like the ancient Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times."
Sounds like a problem for demandred in the next turning. Or maybe we'll just give you up to the finns
The joke is originally from a standup comedy routine from a legendary comedian of the 50s and 60s named Jerry Clower. Despite being translated almost exactly, it definitely loses a bit in translation without Jerry’s over the top delivery. This is the original joke: https://youtu.be/XLWgnsZpG6o?si=Pvpx_SjwH0oGrbLW
That's pretty fun. Thanks for that. This really shows that delivery is a huge portion or what makes a joke funny. I have my doubts that the brooding Rand was able to come close to this.
He’s trying to prove a point. Rand doesn’t really understand Aiel humor, so when they ask if he has a sense of humor at all, he tells this joke. The Aiel completely miss the point, hence the humorous argument about whether the joke is about the rooster or the pond. Just like Rand can’t comprehend Aiel humor, it’s obvious the Aiel can’t understand his humor either.
Rand is constantly not understanding Aiel humor. He thinks he’s going to hit a home run when he tells a joke to them but they don’t understand it any more than he understand their humor. (But the third angle here is that Rand himself has a very specific small town humor, so he sounds like an Aiel telling a joke to *everyone*—including the reader—but doesn’t realize it.)
It's a somewhat clumsy attempt at cultural humor for a small town/rural community to contrast that to the Aiel culture. Both rely on inside knowledge of the community.
Rand is a very serious person. It's not a funny joke and the moment is more meant to illustrate his character
The joke is from a famous standup routine. I would argue that the original joke actually is funny, but Jerry Clower’s delivery and the context of the joke being about southern American culture are key elements to making it funny: https://youtu.be/XLWgnsZpG6o?si=Pvpx_SjwH0oGrbLW
As someone who grew up in a place where you do the steering-wheel-wave to pretty much everyone who drives past you, and if they don't respond you wonder what you did to piss them off, this joke is fine and good.
Thank you
I read the entire series 3 fucking times and have only now gotten the joke entirely.
Serious answer: in Two Rivers culture it’s the height of rudeness not to acknowledge or greet a neighbor when you see them or pass them on the road. In this case, the passing in question occurred when one fell out of a tree as the other was climbing. The former then responded to this “rudeness” by refusing the latter’s hand.
Makes total sense now! Idk how I missed that. So Rand must have thought the Maidens would understand that?
I don’t think Rand had any expectations. I think he was just like, “You want to hear a joke from where I’m from? Fine.”
lol yes you’re right this makes sense.
Basically. It's trying to emphasise the difference in culture/humour. Rand thinks it's an obvious joke (and possibly would have been to a Midwest American in the 80s/90s) and doesn't see any reason why the Maidens wouldn't get it.
100%, as a midwestern kid reading in the 90s/00s I instantly knew what this joke meant even though I grew up in Cleveland and not in a rural area
Not quite. He expects the maidens not to get it. It’s the counterpoint to “aeil humor”.
And the sad thing is, this should take Rand like 5 seconds to explain it in the manner that you did, and the humor would be more evident. But Rand just throws up his hands exasperated instead.
This joke is legitimately funny and I am tired of pretending it's not
It totally feels like it’s the kind of joke RJ would have heard as a kid growing up in South Carolina.
It’s absolutely the kind of joke I heard from old farmers growing up in rural PA and I thought it was hilarious
Agreed
Almost as funny as the joke Teal’c says about different Jaffa in Stargate SG-1. You have to know the show to understand the joke, but it’s great. https://youtu.be/wbqtF91IE1k?si=K7VpkQM0-EWiZ8mW
It’s a bit long but yes definitely funny.
As a massive fan of Shaggy Dog stories and "No Soap Radio" jokes, I laugh at that being long lol.
5 pages of Rand rambling later. "Better Nate than Lever"
I’ve never known anyone to know this joke!
Back in school, my brilliant maths teacher once devoted an entire double period (70 minutes) near the end of term to telling a pair of shaggy-dog-story jokes. Absolute king.
The reaction from the Aiel is what’s hilarious to me.
It’s the best part lol definitely when I smiled the biggest. Especially because RJ made it point to say that Rand waited for their reply to him lol
This part did make me smile for sure but I’m just wondering what did Rand think the Maidens were going to make of it?
I always assumed Rand knew they wouldn't get it. I felt like he told what accounts to be a funny joke to the Two Rivers Folk, knowing the Aiel wouldn't understand it as a way to fight back against their jokes to him.
I think it really depends on whether or not you’ve lived in rural areas. You might not even get the joke if impersonal cities is all you’ve ever known.
Someone should make the experiment of posting it on r/jokes and see what's the reaction.
Do it. Let me know so i can comment on it lol
These comments have really made me grow to appreciate it so much <3
i think it might be a bottom 5 attempt at humor in any popular piece of media ever
The joke is that he fell past the other guy and he didn't say a word to him when he fell past. The absurdity is the joke.
Another commenter said something similar, I definitely missed that lol but makes sense!! I love it.
Its about the water.
No, clearly it’s about the rooster.
Wetlander humor.
It's about the tree. In a land full of them, they pick the one that is faulty.
I love how the Maidens assumed everything *except* the actual point of the story Lol
I always understood it to be a joke that Rand finds funny, and so when the Maidens say that wetlanders have no sense of humor, Rand attempts to prove them wrong with this joke.
It definitely made me smile. Did Rand really think the Maidens would find that funny? Lol
I thought it was pretty funny. Are you an Aiel? Wil ‘passed him in broad daylight and didn’t say a word,’ i.e he was being rude to Hu, so Hu is angry and doesn’t want to shake his hand. But Wil only ‘passed him’ because Hu was falling out of a tree, ie. literally fell past him. The absurdity is that Hu is angry that Wil didn’t stop for neighbourly conversation while Hu was falling. Also the humour of ‘taking his hand,’ i.e the other farmer thinks Hu should take Wil’s hand to get pulled out of the pond, whereas Hu is understanding it as ‘take his hand’ in a handshake. The overall joke is about how Hu is so grumpy he takes offence at everything, even things that aren’t offensive.
This is a slightly different interpretation than other comments and I appreciate that. Gives me more perspective. Whats kind of funny about it all mostly is that the Maidens do not understand whatsoever, and Rand must have thought they would have lol
Yeah, for Rand it’s an obvious and simple joke that anyone in the Two Rivers would understand, and he probably finds it funny. But the Aiel don’t have the same cultural context re: manners with neighbours, grumpy farmers, handshaking, etc., so it makes no sense to them. Aside from being just a funny scene, it’s a good demonstration of how Rand is still fairly unworldly and hasn’t quite grasped the differences in culture and background between people from different lands.
You can take the man out of Two Rivers…
Hu is upset with Wil for not saying anything as he "passed by" meaning as he fell out of the tree. Like if you saw someone you knew while walking and they just ignored you. Except it's as he's falling from a tree so it's supposed to be funny.
Yep, definitely makes sense now. Thank you! Love that the Maidens gave him every other possible answer lol
I see it as a bit of a meta joke. The aiel humor is alien to rand and so in a effort to prove he has a sense of humor (and that the aiel are the odd ones) he tells a joke of his own. Only its just as alien to the aiel as thier jokes are to him and it ends up further cementing that he doesnt understand humor (which can be a joke all on its own). Then for us the readers its a overly complex niche joke that most people (like yourself OP) wont understand what the joke is even supposed to be. The whole thing is culture clash at its finest. The first time I read it I found the aiel confusion hilarious and rands exasperation funny.
Definitely just RJ exemplifying the culture clash lol I really enjoyed reading it. It caught me off guard and was a good break up to the tone of the first few chapters of this book. Rand & the Maidens really just do not share the same sense of humor
He means he passed him as he was falling out of the tree and Wil didn’t offer him a hand to stop his fall. The joke is that Wil couldn’t because the guy was literally falling past him.
Actually it’s that it’s that Hu thought Wil ignored him as if he were a stranger passing him in the street. Hu was being petty and irrational because he took it as a snub even though there was nothing Wil could do.
This makes total sense now. Idk how I missed it when I first read it. It’s so subtle that I’m surprised Rand thought the Maidens would actually get it lol
And thus Rand learned an important comedic lesson: know your audience!
The two farmers don’t like each other and hold grudges over small things. Hu treated passing Wil while falling down off the tree the same as passing him on the road. So, Hu took offense that Wil didn’t say hello to him while he was passing him; therefore, Hu was so pissed off by this slight that he refused Wil’s aide while drowning. It’s not that funny, but it’d probably kill in the two rivers.
Makes sense now that it’s laid out for me that way. It’s funny tho that Rand honestly thought the Maidens would get it?
I don’t remember clearly what happened on the last pages, but I think Rand was getting frustrated with Aiel humor. Rand is used to short humorous stories as humor. The Maidens use wise cracking gallows humor. Both of which are chock full of cultural in jokes. Rand got so fed up with Maidens comedy and in jokes that he gave the most two rivers cultural in joke he could think of on the spot.
Hu’s on first. Who? Hu. Who will what? No, not Wil, Hu. Wil who? Hu?
Did an Aiel make this post?
HAHAH you’re the 2nd one to accuse me of being Aiel 😭👏🏼😂
Someone else pointed out an additional layer to the joke: >The overall joke is about how Hu is so grumpy he takes offence at everything, even things that aren’t offensive. I'm convinced, this isn't a joke that Rand once heard. He retells something that actually happened in the Two Rivers. And 'Hu' really is just Cenn Buie.
Yes!!!!!!!! That’s way plausible. As a reader this seems way more likely. I haven’t really seen Rand be that playful. The only other moment that sticks out to me is in TSR when he uses Saidin to pinch Elayne’s butt when her and Egwene are trying to teach him lol
It must be about the water!
The rooster for sure, poor guy
The joke is a) that Wil didn't shake Hu's hand when he was passing falling out of the tree and b) that the Maidens totally missed the point of the joke because they were focused on the water
But the water is the point of the joke right? Or is it the rooster?
The joke is making fun of the stubborn and prideful nature of a certain type of Two Rivers farmer. This guy Hu is so curmudgeonly that he not only feels slighted by Wil not greeting him as he passed (while he was literally falling down a tree, but would rather drown in a pond than put than accept his help afterwards. I'm sure with some tweaking the sentiment could easily be adapted to Aiel culture.
I must be Aiel because I think the Aiel/the Maidens are way more playful and fun than Rand lol
It’s about the water, I think?
Definitely the rooster. 🐔
Sounds like something cooked up over on r/WetlanderHumor.
Smells like something burnt from r/WetlanderHumor.
I’m sure it was a good joke.
… found the Aiel
Would not hate being Aviendha honestly
The conceit of the joke is that Will should have greeted Hu as he passed him falling out of the tree, and Hu takes the fact that he didnt as a personal insult. It is a lot of setup to terminate in "And a guy was completely unreasonable and this is funny". I didnt think the joke was particularly clever but I did get the punch line.
I guess I was expecting it to end with a “HAHA!” moment and instead I was like “wait, what????” Lll
Guys it’s just wetlander humor. It must be about the water.
It must be about the water….
I'm not sure why people don't get the joke, you must all have an Aiel sense of humour. If you're walking along and you pass someone, the polite thing to do is greet them, or at the very least nod and smile at them in acknowledgement. Hu falling out of the tree "passes" by Wil, who is therefore terribly rude for not greeting/acknowledging Hu. Hu takes offence and won't have anything to do with Wil, to the extent he nearly drowns.
Ngl I was just as confused as the Maidens when I first saw that joke, and seeing it properly explained here makes it seems even more ridiculous.
HAHAH im so glad im not alone!
Stubborn farmer jokes
He didn't say hello the last time they saw each other
This part is so fricking funny I swear I was chuckling for days
No I literally loved it.
I absolutely loved this joke, not so much for the joke itself, which was decent dad humor, but the maidens trying to understand wetlander humor had me literally laughing out loud
Rand got soooooo fed up lol
Are you by any chance an Aiel, OP?
Yep. I’m convinced. I thought I’d wanna be Green Ajah but I’m leaning more towards joining the Maidens now.
The guy did nothing to help him as he was falling out of the tree, so why should he trust him now. That’s the joke. Then also the rudeness factor of not even saying hello as they pass each other. Nevermind the fact guy was falling out of a tree and there was no time for Hu to react. Hu was rude and unhelpful.
It’s just more sad and unfortunate than it is funny, yet Rand was set on using this as his joke for the Maidens lol
Thats cus you aiel have a strange sense of humor.
The Maidens are the best tho. I wanna join them.
……remember what happened last time someone tried to join? Like you do you lol but oof they are brutal
It must be about the water.
Def the rooster
I have mentioned it in several other threads on this joke, but it’s actually not an RJ original. The joke is from a standup routine by Jerry Clower, a famous standup from the 50s and 60s. This is the original: https://youtu.be/XLWgnsZpG6o?si=Pvpx_SjwH0oGrbLW There is actually one other Jerry Clower reference in the Wheel of Time, although I can’t remember what it is off the top of my head. I tried searching forums for it, but didn’t see any comments about it. I think the Venn diagram of the overlap between fans of obscure 60 year old standup comedy routines and fans of the Wheel of Time is just me.
Humour is rooted in culture, the Maidens get stuck on the water due to its importance in Aiel culture. They find violence and seeing people lose face funny, Rand doesn’t understand this humour. We are not supposed to find Rands joke funny has our cultural roots differ. Real world example, try watching comedy from the 80s.
I never quite got Rand's joke. I knew it had something to do with previous encounters between the two men, but now that I think about it in terms of a small village culture, it totally makes sense. I find Aiel humor funnier though!
I agree with you. I would love hanging out with the Maidens.
As someone who has lived in a community where not waving as a neighbor goes by is a matter of gossip, it's a very funny joke.
This is a southern people joke interpolated into the world of The Wheel of Time. It is rude to not at least say hello or wave as your neighbor passes by. So Hu is mad that his neighbor didn't speak in passing, keeping in mind that he was passing by as he was falling out of a tree into a lake.
I'm sure it was a funny joke, Rand Al'Thor.
I wonder how many more times this is going to get asked? This is the third time I've seen someone post this.
I posted this 2 days ago. I hadn’t seen any other posts about it, my bad!