Pissing in the Snow and Other Ozark Folktales

I have a copy of this book that has been with me for a number of years now and every now and again, I find myself leafing through it. It never ever fails to bring a chuckle or a down right laugh. This is a collection, for lack of a better word, of Dirty Jokes, dating back to the 1800's. The jokes and stories range from the cute to the absolute raunchy. They, for the most part are presented in the dialect of the teller. The author has gone to great pains to research their origins and has given credit to the individual teller when ever possible. Being well in to my dotage now, these jokes are the ones I grew up with here in the Ozarks (in fact, I personally know some of the individuals mentioned in the book), and they never fail to bring back fond memories. Most of the jokes, like most of the people in this area at that era, are very earthy and to the point. I suppose there may be those who might be offended, but they are, the jokes and stories, apart of our heritage and I am grateful to the author for having preserved them. For those that are offended, and I rather pity them, well they certainly need not read past the first page. Many of these stories would be lost now for not for his research and his recordings. Recommend this one highly and recommend this one be one you buy and keep as you will no doubt want to give it a reread and it is certainly something that future generations should have.

After the kids were snug in their sleeping bags and tents, their parents would pop the corks on their favorite brews and this collection of dirty, one-pager, country stories was passed from person to person around the campfire and read aloud. People would literally fall over, roaring with laughter, gasping for breadth. And often,the reader was paralized with laughter and couldnt continue. The stories are red neck filthy and funny beyond words. I didnt get the cultural relevance, I was too busy laughing. Not for the politically correct.

I took a strange but ultimately interesting course in American Folklore back at good old MWC. Our Professor made us read this book, and I can never thank him enough. I am still not sure what the purpose of us reading this book was, but the stories were hilarious. I laughed so much reading these stories. Many of which were simply extended dirty jokes. This was by far the best book I read at college. I don't know much about Folklore, but at the very least if you want to read a funny book, get pissing in the snow.

When I first read this book 20 years ago, I had no idea that this type of material (dirty jokes, to be precise) constituted folklore or any other basis for serious study. I merely thought that it was a guilty entertainment. You might imagine my delight to find that in addition to some very funny, albeit very crude and crass, stories, there was a thoughtful, intellectual critical introduction and a series of short annotations after each nasty excerpt, including thematic code numbers under the Stith Thompson indexing system. I simply can't recommend this book to highly for anyone with earthy tastes, but an aspiration toward the higher and more thoughtful aspects of the vulgar. Also, it's very reasonably priced, compared to the other works in the genre.

Excellent old American humor! Taken from supposedly real stories from the Ozarks, and the surrounding areas. Keep a Kleenex close by, because you will laugh till tears come to your eyes.