Tidbits and Trivia: January 26, 2021

I had hoped to spend that night making a stay in legend Cleveland. That was before I realized nosebleed tickets were $70. Unsurprisingly, it would have been cheaper to see them play the Knicks and Thunder (thrill) earlier in the week. Looking ahead to April, tickets are only $40, so I probably could have gotten yesterday’s tickets earlier for a similar price. But that requires foresight about the mask requirements, which weren’t in place when I could have gotten the tickets a month ago and will likely expire in April. All that to say: it sucks to be champion, and I’m going to have to settle for the tingling sensation of being in the same state for a few hours.


Today’s main topic of reflection is the Giannis jokes. I will attempt a literary analysis to bring out new perspectives on his psyche and the world at large. But mostly laugh.

We’ll start by assembling some hardware. I DuckDuckGo’d various permutations of “Giannis jokes” until I hit saturation. I drew a line between jokes and pranks, to the latter it is also quite tired; I distinguished jokes from humor in general, focusing on discrete sentences or questions and answers; and I sampled on Twitter but not on TikTok due to its textual nature, a point I’ll get to later.

2016

Knock Knock.
Who is here?
Barack Obama.
Obama who?
Obama-self (sung “All alone”).

2017

What’s the name of Drake’s new song?
Baaa-na-na.

I had one on my mustache, but I’ll shave it off for later.

Have you seen the new movie Constipation? No?
That’s because it hasn’t come out yet.

2021

I heard that Shakira and JLo weren’t performing because it was The Weekend…
They don’t work on Sundays?

How to make a fabric dance? !
You put a little “Boogie” in it!

2022

When the cows come out, where do they go?
To the mooooovies.

Why did the chicken cross the street?
He was running away from my plate.

Our limited data suggests three stages:

Media Days: 2016-2017

After his early prank tendencies, Giannis exposed Obama’s knock-knock joke on Media Day in 2016. It followed the signing of his first contract extension. The following year’s cavalcade of jokes — including one that interrupted Rashad Vaughn’s interview — followed a breakout season. That confidence showed in jokes, but it centered on Media Day, where he got to experience his material in front of a large audience.

Her English was pretty fluent already at this point, but I think it’s fair to mention that jokes are often an important ingredient in the language learning process. They can motivate language learners, and they represent mastery of a language beyond putting subjects, verbs, and objects in the correct order (e.g., “I’m diving the basketball”) . Especially after downplaying his English skills to reporters on previous media days — and in tandem with including President Obama and Drake in the jokes, which are probably bigger business here than in Athens — points to a player and a person who was increasingly comfortable with his new language and his new homeland.

Interregnum: 2018-2020

The most likely explanation for 2018-2020’s lack of material is my sampling technique (and the ~10 minutes I spent on it). I’m sure he released a number of B-side splitters that didn’t set the world on fire the way his Media Day tracks did.

But is it possible that the relative paucity of jokes during the period reflects the Bucks making the leap from a “good” to “great” team and assuming commensurate expectations to win a championship? The recent return to next-era jokes might support this claim.

Dad jokes: 2021-present

Last year saw an increase in jokes, coinciding with his second overtime and the championship. Notably, jokes from this period emerge frequently on Twitter and post-game pressers, as well as increasingly on TikTok (which I didn’t sample for this article). It may be the communication specialist in me, but I think the change of context from Media Day to everyday life is important. Despite the often performative nature of social networks, the jokes are imbued with his daily life and acquire an additional air of authenticity that is missing behind a microphone. Athletes in all sports have used social media to connect with fans without intermediaries, and Giannis is part of this trend.

Another important factor is Liam’s birth. This allows Giannis to aptly refer to his bad jokes as dad jokes. It could also portend a change in the age level of its material – the recent cow joke seems particularly kid-oriented to me. Dad jokes can even be a way to maintain parental identity even during demanding seasons and long car journeys.

The next era?

Throughout, Giannis’ jokes have been objectively pretty bad. In light of his young child (and another on the way), not to mention the joy he seems to derive from his current repertoire, I expect him to stay that course. But maybe he will surprise us.

In this room, I was hoping for a few things that didn’t pan out. On the one hand, I previewed this as a “literary analysis”. I was hoping to delve into the nuances of his choice of words, syntax, etc… but there’s not much you can do with “Why Did the Chicken Cross the Street”. (Although perhaps it is indeed symbolic, and the chicken represents the rest of the NBA?) I was also sensitive to the originality of the jokes: whether he invented them himself or simply had them googled. In the end, I didn’t perceive a change in originality over time, although that could be due to the challenge of discerning the originality of someone else’s jokes. Either way, I look forward to the future of Giannis jokes.


Without further ado, good luck with today’s quiz! The answers are in the comments below.

Issue 1

Survey

Giannis recently tied MJ for the 18th most triple-doubles of all time. He has more than all the following active players except who?

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    A: Kevin Durant

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    B: Draymond Green

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0 votes in total

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Issue 2

Survey

Khris recently recorded his 3,000th rebound. He came to MKE in the infamous trade of Khris Middleton, who sent Brandon Jennings to the Pistons in exchange for him, Brandon Knight, and what other player?

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    A: Vyacheslav Kravtsov

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    B: Tony Mitchell

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    D: Charlie Villenueva

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0 votes in total

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Issue 3

Survey

Savvy readers of Adam Wednesday’s Competing Segment will know that the Bucks have won how many of the 10 games they’ve played without Jrue?

Question #4

Survey

Rounding to the nearest tenth (sorry), what is DDV filming inside the arc (so far)?

Issue #5

Survey

How many stripes of how many colors do the Bucks’ City Edition jerseys have on each side?

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    A: 6 strips of 5 colors

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    B: 6 strips of 4 colors

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    C: 7 strips of 5 colors

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    D: 7 stripes of 4 colors

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