No soap radio
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. [
1]
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 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 (joke). 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.
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.
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. [
2].
In the 2001 movie
Training Day, Roger (
Scott Glenn) tells a similar joke to Jake Hoyt (
Ethan Hawke) where a man sees a snail on his lawn, looks down at it and asks "What the fuck's your problem!?" Jake takes the bait and starts laughing before realizing he's been had.
*
The Aristocrats*
Anti-humor*
Mornington Crescent*
Mao*
Scissors (game)*
Take a plane*
*
Nostalgia Central - No Soap Radio*
"No Soap Radio" podcast
