Editors Note: Many moons ago, ‘Shoe and I discussed the story behind the story of the making of a now famous (some might say infamous) shaggy frog joke about a frog going into a bank and asking for a loan. I first heard the joke told on radio by none other than Kerry O’Keefe as an alternative to commentating on a major cricket match played at the Gabba.
By way of introduction to this major work, proudly published by the Pig’s Arms, here is Kerry O’Keefe’s retelling of the joke – the joke that was written by Christina Binning Wilson (Sandshoe to the interweb tubalists or ‘Shoe to her mates at th Pig’s Arms).
So get yourself some pleasing refreshments and a comfortable chair, settle back and begin our odyssey …
Part 1 – Owning (up)
Story and photo by Sandshoe
Acknowledgements
It is not easy being pink. Yet fortune itself I threw in my lot with the Pigs Arms and became a piglet. Thank you,Mike Jones, proprietor and editor-blogger for your kind encouragement responding to my enquiry you are happy to publish this Special Feature at the Arms.
To Astyages, the troubadour who posted the shaggy dog ‘Herbal T for Two’ at the Pigs’ Arms.1
That was a while ago. I was living in Adelaide. I said I wrote one of those. I said I would post it. This is its story.
I do really get the joke
The half-a-dozen perhaps people who I originally read my joke to laughed. I had supposed they thought I gave it my best shot.
Now, when I find a version of it again to send it off to the Pigs Arms, I get it. My friend, Wojciech, comes by. Now, convulsed with laughter I read it to Wojciech.
Wojciech laughed and laughed, possibly at my laughing.
I rewrote and wrote it again, teased at it to make it topical and meander, wrote an introductory reference given it was address to astyages, his “shaggy dog” and I chortled. The pseudo-truth tickling my funny bone no end was that soon it would be revealed “a shaggy frog”.
Before mailing finished copy to Mike Jones, illustrations, and a link to information about the natural history of a local frog I chose to promote, I settled to search online might anyone by an incident of synchronicity have spun a yarn like it and I supposed–surely–I would find “a shaggy frog”.
I grouped and googled key words out of the text:
frog
bank
loan
My blood ran cold. I added:
shaggy frog
rolling stone
It is an extreme sensation feeling mortified.
When I found its original replicated near faithful word for word online, bloody icicles instantly formed in my veins I swear and began to counteract immediately–somewhere in the pit of my stomach– an inferno of heat I felt drain from my brain. Blood coursed the extent of my body from my head to my toes and back again. A WHOOOOOSHHHHHHH.
I read it first on Page 9 of Charismatics, Articles of Spiritual Enlightenment for Christians, Charismatics, the Halo on the Internet, at http://www.sfSpirit.com, San Francisco, Volume 9, Number 6 June 2002
http://www.sfspirit.org/articles/pdf/02-06.pdf
Reckon I was ashen. I made a few google searches.
The Golden Gate Breakfast Club newsletter in San Francisco – ‘the nicest people in the world meeting each week for breakfast, friendship and enlightenment. Since 1946!’ –reported (link archived):
‘Marty Mijalski was able to deliver his joke postponed from last week this morning. It was the frog applies for a loan joke. The punch line: knick-knack, Patty Whack. Give the frog a loan. His old man’s a rolling stone. Alan Garber told that joke five years ago.’
FIVE YEARS AGO!
My stomach knotted.
Self conscious anxiety is a debilitating condition.
Three failed and abandoned computers with files I hauled around until I could afford to no longer are scattered. I saw in the bowels of the world’s computer parts dumps or reassembled into recycled metal toys for small and larger boys and girls. I do have Apple floppy disks that might have on them a file of the original text. I have the rudiments only of the vintage Apple computer and software in unsealed packaging I bought on eBay in the last year attempting to put together another system.
I have not got in my possession any of the original email or files–and no original hard copy.
I did write one comment only on a website, Author Culture, and not hearing a word from that site I felt embarrassed at my naivety and little did I know how naïve, not even half. I shelved all thought about it as best as I could and didn’t search it in detail any further beyond recognising it was feral. I felt overwhelmed with a sense of loss. Astyages asked once how I was doing with it and when would I present it. I think I mumbled ‘Tell you soon’. I confided in no-one other than Wojciech.
Having moved from Adelaide to accommodation in Bordertown last year, I was ill from overwork and circumstances previous to my deciding to move from Adelaide to housing I could afford, from the hardship of moving house and home and having to abandon possessions to do that. In retrospect I can see a complex set of circumstances not overlooking I dealt with a struggle to rebuild an existence in Bordertown on my own. I was in hospital for a while and recovering and I took a case to the Tenancy Tribunal as the piglets will recall. I was busy as people get. I eventually confided over a shared meal with a newly-met local friend I had written a joke. I was flattered yes, but acutely self conscious and I showed her online.
Christine was empathetic. In a matter of days, I heard the news from her I would, she said, never believe, but she “heard the joke on the radio” and that she yelped in recognition, “That’s Christina’s joke!”
RADIO!
Over my head.
I missed who exactly the fellow was, although I was entreated he is famous. Something something you know the cricket. He travels all over the world doing his thing, she said, looking a little disconcerted I did not seem to understand her meaning.
I was–instead–in shock again. I begin feeling excruciated. Isolated, particularly isolated.
I do not have ABC Radio National reception, neither local ABC radio reception that is reliable, but neither can I use my online download internet quota playing radio all day and meanwhile, not a hint even of the NBN. No SBS reception. Media is a sensitive issue for me out of all life’s niceties I do not have living in Bordertown and I’ve a list.
Fancy excruciated. I have never used the word, but I vacillated between the healthy stirring of curiosity, feeling tickled pink and miserable.
Jim came down to potter around the cottage doing odd jobs and I referred the matter to Jim. Jim is my landlord. Jim knows about stuff. He might know about cricket. I braced myself.
“I wrote a joke a few years ago.”
“U…huh.”
I describe the gist…a frog…um…he goes for a loan and that I am ridden with guilt…because I owe the joke to the Pigs Arms…but…online…multiplying…like rabbits. I hang my head on the inside.
Jim and I had never exchanged an opinion about joke telling. Neither had ever told the other a joke.
“Oh,” says Jim, as he worked, “I know that one. Is that the one…
THE ONE!
…about a frog who goes into… I start to feel hysterical… a bank and wants a loan?”
“Yes.”
“My son has it on his phone.”
PHONE!
“He’s been carrying it around for a while now–PAUSE–That’s an old joke.”
I have an ear for nuance. I sat up out of the mud of embarrassment.
“It’s a fair age now,” I agree to show I appreciate a duty of care.
“O, yes, it is” Jim says, glad we agree on that.
“I wrote it,” I say as calmly as possible. I saw consideration I wrote it dawn.
I mumble and dash off, “I remember the day I wrote it… formula… can’t find the original… sigh… never mind… I wrote it.”
I did ask Jim who ‘the cricket chap’ is. I find a recording of Kerry O’Keefe, broadcaster and the commenter lisabella’s reference added at 10PM AEST on March 12, 2006 on the whirlpool forum online where she posts a link to a recording–
‘When Kerry first told it, the joke took nearly 3 overs of cricket before he finally got to the punchline!!!’
http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200603/r74772_210339.mp3
If lisabella is right, putting to the universe a month earlier, on 19 Feb 2006 at 11AM she was hoping for ‘an audio link or does some one have it on their hard disk’ to provide her for her brother, the broadcast by Kerry was at the Brisbane Cricket Ground at Woolloongabba (the gabba) during the ABC’s cricket coverage Tuesday 14 February 2006 at approx. 2pm on the 3rd One Day final between Australia & Sri Lanka.
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/477040
I view for the first time a series of YouTube videos that record the joke, beginning with one made using Kerry O’Keefe’s recording.
Uploaded 13May, 2009
by FuManchu5ltr
The Classic Frog Joke on the ABC
‘Yet another reason to listen to cricket coverage on ABC radio around Australia. It’s entertaining.’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Y3AXzZqg2k
Authenticity
Of all the versions, Kerry O’Keefe’s meticulous reading is as close to the original as any. The ironies are out of sight. No irony as mind bending that it was not unlike from my viewpoint as a former facilitator of a writers’ group listening to a writer read to an audience in a community centre (cf The Making of that Joke. Part 6 – Creative Writers) except they’re reading my stuff.
fstx posts on the same forum as lisabella at 11AM on Feb 20 AEST, before saying ‘Not that it makes the joke any better!’:
‘I’ve heard a version where it’s a chocolate bar and the banker’s name is Caddyshack, so the punchline is…
“It’s a Kit-Kat, Caddyshack…” ‘
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/477040
The Disney Channel?
It was kicking around as it turns out well before Kerry’s choice to broadcast the joke at the cricket in 2006, not intending to detract from Kerry’s choice or performance of it–to the contrary.
On the forum of DFWStangs.net selling Mustang Fords, where the page loading near rolls over from the weight of flickering animation and advertisements reckoned to disappear out of sight were I to become a registered user, it is called ‘The Frog and the Elephant’ uploaded 05-30-2002, 03:58 PM by the contributor whose location is listed as Las Colinas (Texas I assume). A commenter, lilgeezy, at Irving in New Brunswick, Canada writes 07-06-2002, 02:11 AM–in reply to a query ‘were its origins Sesame Street’:
‘that WAS on the disney channel when those lil kids go out and tell their favorite jokes… not that i was watching it or nething, i just … heard….
http://www.dfwstangs.net/forums/showthread.php?t=42220
Live Jokes
The Independent Daily is the English language newspaper of the Island of Mauritius. The joke is published in Vol. 1, No.250, Port Louis, Thursday September 2, 2010, Section 4>‘Listings’ viewable through the website of Stanford University, headed with the caption ‘J USTINJEST BY HILAMA’ and illustrated with a cartoon frog.
I feel substantially queasy about my impoverished status when I view in a bottom left hand quadrant the glossy colour ad for ‘LM Live Jokes in your Daily Life’ in which a beautiful young woman naturally laughs at her mobile phone in hand. The contrast between the status of her clothing and the implied delight the lovely lass is provided by her subscription is in marked contrast to my own circumstances when I imagine a customer’s laughter may conceivably be at my feral.
http://www.stanford.edu/group/mauritianachlgy/news%20PDF’s/The%20Independent%20-%2002.09.10.pdf
Far more than I can imagine
I wonder, I cannot help but, that the $50,000 amount the frog asks for, and not the original $30,000, might inspire enhanced donation to the church building fund where, for the pastor at Willingham Church, Cambridgeshire, UK it fits illustration of ‘a case of mistaken identity’.
http://www.willinghamchurch.org/index.php/sermons/9-sermons/40-who-do-you-say-i-am
chieko posted it in a yahoo forum:
Resolved Question
Why would a bank loan money to a Christian when the Rapture could happen at any moment?
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081225222740AAKIDh4
Pauline Archell-Thompson in UK submitted the joke to the New Zealand Hare Krishna Spiritual Resource network.
http://www.salagram.net/Newsletter133.html
Harry Mooring of Leeds submitted it to The Parishioner magazine of the Kiltarlity Church and Kirkhill Church where it is published on P 17 of The Parishioner Newsletter Issue 57 – November 2012 alongside The Moosie’s Prayer’ described, ironically, as ‘This anonymous, humorous poem…clearly aimed at children …lends yet another twist to the story of the “poor church mouse” –
http://www.kiltarlityandkirkhill.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/newsletter-november2012.pdf
Greg Jones, a pastor at the Church of Brethren, at Bunkertown, McAlisterville, in Pennsylvania, USA published the joke and the comment Dialegomai (see below) in the Bunkertown COB newsletter. The analytical method of Dialegomai interested me considered from the viewpoint of the method I used to construct the joke (cf. The Making of That Joke. Part 2 –Building the Joke)
Dialegomai
By Pastor Greg
1 Corinthians 7:1-11 April 11, 2010 Bunkertown COB
Chances are that your mind was racing ahead trying to figure out how all the things in that story would fit together. Why a frog? Is Patty’s name significant?
What’s up with the little pink elephant? The answer came when we viewed the whole story, not just the little bits and pieces along the way. I want you to keep this in mind as we turn once again to Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian Church.
My best advice to you continues Pastor Greg, is to keep your eyes focused on the whole story. Look at the big picture. Don’t get hung up on the individual events that are happening in your life right now. Think and reason.
http://www.bunkertownchurch.org/sermons/2010/2010-0411.pdf
The Pope features alongside in the adjoining column on P 4 of The Knight Register of the Newsletter of Knights of Columbus Council No. 13072, St. Mary Parish, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Vol. 1, No. 1, August – October 2003
http://www.whartono.ca/Newsletter11.pdf
On Seiyaku dot com it is forwarded under:
No serious joke…site about the English language could be complete without a collection of puns. Here’s one of them.
http://www.seiyaku.com/humour/english/puns/frog.html
The member pladecalvo in Valencia, Spain posted the joke on the July 2007 at 09:31 AM in the City Data-Com Religion and Spirituality Forum that demands Let’s Hear Some Nice Clean Jokes!
http://www.city-data.com/forum/religion-spirituality/87463-lets-hear-some-nice-clean-jokes-19.html
Received by the MoonlightBlue blogger from Ricky in Salò in the Province of Brescia, Lombardy in Italy and so they seem to know it in in Pembroke Dock in Pembrokeshire in the UK in 2007.
http://www.moonlightblue.co.uk/my_notes_to_october_2007.htm
It is known in the ‘Aloha newsletter of the Welcome to our Punahou Class of 1959 Web Site in Punahoe Hawaii, USA
http://www.lff1.org/punahou59/ppunahourrated1.htm
Recreation and hobby clubs have adopted it including have called it their own from hunting and fishing to flying and service clubs among which is Probus in Deloraine in Tasmania and from Rotarians in America to Kent in the UK to ‘Snippets’ (from club bulletins) at the Rotary Club at Diamond Creek (Melbourne, Victoria) where its contribution is attributed December 5th 2012 to the Rotary Club of Rosanna (Melbourne).
http://www.rotary9790.org.au/clubs/Funnies9.asp
Just to give you the idea: the Tourist Information Centre website of Yea, ‘situated at the junction of the Melba Highway and Goulburn Valley highways approximately 100 kms from Melbourne’. includes the joke in The Humour File.
http://www.yea.com.au/humour/humourfile.htm
How did I not guess it would be recounted by the Queensland Frog Society. O course I had supposed it would appeal to environmentalists who love frogs. They were my main target group. It is introduced by the editor as follows: Oldies are the best.. I think we have had this before but for anyone who has not heard it here it is again. Thanks Trish (I love it).
www.qldfrogs.asn.au/_dbase_upl/winter06final.pdf
Tombro at Lake Macquarie, New South Wales said on the Glasgow (Scotland, UK) Guide Board on 31st Aug 2009, 10:03am thank you to Brian of Maitland, New South Wales for posting it (the day before) because [Tombro] ‘had a bloody great laugh and…sang it out loud. Whoops, he said, now the neighbours know I’m an absolute nutcase !
http://discuss.glasgowguide.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=17189
Bozo in Perth who was met with enthusiasm by GSX in Shed has uploaded it rightly or wrongly on a site called ‘a Dad joke’ on January 3 last, claiming the frog hopped into the new HSBC Bank Branch in Subiaco
http://www.perthstreetbikes.com/forum/f21/todays-dad-joke-131866/index45.html
A version of it made P12 of the Tasmanian Wild Life newsletter, Noises From the Bush Issue #3 (Revised)
http://www.wildlifetasmania.com/images/newsletter03_revised%20edition_.pdf
September 2005 in Darwin it was enjoyed by a commenter who thought it was very funny when it was posted on the Gold Coast and Milano in Kiev, Ukraine, said ‘Witty, witty stuff’.
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=384956
It was told on Crikey described as ‘The Kerry O’Keefe joke’ by ShowsOn on Mar 4, 2009 at 10:11 pm which inspired the telling of other frog jokes:
An Aussie in London Town posted it the Michael Bublé forum on 17 January 2005 – 10:34 PM and calls for more as bad:
OK, so I told you it was bad – so does anybody out there in Bubleland have any jokes worse than this?
http://board.michaelbuble.com/index.php?showtopic=5019&st=20
Oldershaw and Co Chartered Accountants Newsletter in NZ March 2005 published it on Page 3 under the title ‘Smiley Bit’ above an article on ‘Spicers Wealth Management’ promoting the availability of a review report generated on reccommending finance company debentures.
http://www.oldershaw.co.nz/files/docs/newsletter%20-%20march%2005.pdf
… maybe a money spinner for Dang Good Jokes albeit maybe they could cut the music and animations
http://www.danggoodjokes.com/loan/
Authorculture writes:
The Perils of Sing-Song Names
I couldn’t resist this lesson in choosing character names. I’m serious here. Really. Use care when naming the folks who populate your stories or your masterpiece may become just a bad joke . . .
Linda Yezak May 28, 2010 11:55 AM
I got a kick out of it myself. Of course, I had to stretch to make it fit into a writing site!
http://authorculture.blogspot.com.au/2010/05/perils-of-sing-song-names.html
Charise undertakes ‘to give analyseing humour a go’ under the heading ‘‘Let’s Not Kill the Frog’ and is instructional what happens to bad joke tellers. http://wordservewatercooler.com/2012/01/17/lets-not-kill-the-frog/
The blogger tgatzajr wins my heart by presenting it in a list under the heading ‘Jokes I have Shamelessly stolen’.
http://pleonast.com/rooms/53760
Techno-Path~ asks ‘3 years ago’:
Why did someone make up ‘nick nak patty whack, give the frog a loan, his old mans a rolling stone’? don’t ask me why I want to know, I have no clue. But, if anyone has any Ideas, just type them here please
~The Techno-Path~
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100508120350AAzzVmr
From a website supporting the boy scouts;
Favourite Skit:
This Skit is meant for Boy Scouts.
Decide for yourself if it is appropriate for your younger scouts or not.
Required:
3 scouts – a frog seeking a loan, Patty Wack the loan officer, Mr. Smith the bank manager.
a statue, stick, or some small silly item
http://boyscouttrail.com/content/skit/give_the_frog_a_loan-535.asp
Eric B of Albany, CA provides:
a review for the Collage Gallery Art Galleries, Home Decor, Jewelry Categories: Potrero Hill
on the 8/11/2008
As the old joke punch line goes – It’s a knick knack paddy whack, give the frog a loan!
LiveJournal Inc denounces it as an an unwanted house guest under ‘punnybusiness’:
Please don’t post the story that ends in “It’s a knick-knack, Patti Whack. Give the frog a loan. His old man’s a Rolling Stone.” – we’ve seen it way too many times. If you post it, I’ll delete it.
http://puns.livejournal.com/profile
If it is published in the volume quoted (please see link below) using the language represented on the webpage, I would be plain disappointed. I know beyond any question of doubt the mother of the frog did not ‘croak’ as is suggested. My research of variations so far of the joke shows this one is unique that extraneous information has been written into it couched in language generally considered by English language speakers sensitive to the language of death and dying across the board of different cultures to be unsafe language to use, disrespectful, rough. The context is made sad. I think a child will identify it is not a joke made happy by introducing the death of the frog’s mother and will fix that.
You cannot believe everything anyway. Neither did the bank manager ‘scowl’ at the teller. Neither does Patty roll her eyes in any version I had read. Elaborating details of body language as well robs the audience of their individual interpretation which is an element of the humour and the strength of the writing.
“You Can Bank on It” from “The Ants Are My Friends” by Richard Lederer & Stan Kegel (©2007 Marion Street Press) “With a knick-knack, paddy whack. Give the dog a bone. This old man came rolling home” from “Knick-Knack Paddy Whack”
(Traditional)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/puns/message/15791
Gypsy-Girl posted an all masculine players version that stars Paddy Whack.
5th-Mar-2010 07:42 pm – Friday Funny!! 🙂
hrafen spotted that one coming but yeah
gypsey girl replied ‘ Kinda predictable, yes 😉 But for some reason it really tickled my funnybone 🙂 ’
http://gypsey-girl.livejournal.com/
Christine on 7 November 2011 on the BB Fans (Big Brother) forum says: This is a joke, which was on one of my Birthday cards. It’s a bit corny though I’m afraid:-
http://www.bbfans.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=2565&p=56385&start=15
A delightful variation: posted by Warm Body September 18 2007 but the source of the variation ‘RandomFerret’ and ‘RebelWorm’ artwork…
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3373573&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=61
On the 31st Jan 2013 it was loaded as The frog and Miss Whack on Simplifying Life Choices
http://www.yourlifechoices.com.au/news/the-frog-and-miss-whack
The joke is #7 of 7 chosen for publication by the columnist, Greg Heberlein for the Seattle Times article ‘Who’s Standing Next to Bubba’ Sunday, December 19, 1999 under Wall Street Recap. Consider it [the column] suggests the journalist a holiday gift for putting up with the conventional ramblings. This intro is already too long – our joke cup runneth over. But we must thank all the sources: Steve Leuthold’s clients, who submit jokes for his monthly investment newsletter; Eric Miller of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, who collects witty stuff for the company’s semi-monthly publication; Don Gher of Bellevue’s Coldstream Capital, who missed his calling as a comic; and, your loyal scribe’s firstborn son Tom, who scoured the Web for every funny story it had.
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19991219&slug=3002366
Loaded on the blog OPUS under the heading ‘cover of a rolling stone!! Tuesday, April 24, 2007
http://opusbangalore.blogspot.com.au/2007/04/cover-of-rolling-stone.html
Posted in a bundle on the Australian Trade & Shipping web site
http://www.australiatrade.com.au/Jokes/may.htm
Sent in an email it seems originally by Personal Growth Concepts which included the following disclaimer:
The information provided in this email is presented for educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for the advice and treatment of a licensed professional clinician, doctor, coach or pastoral counselor.
http://www.personalgrowthconcepts.com/content/publish/qa_2005_06.shtml
The frog has his own mention on The Book Vault where is a substantial collection of jokes and articles
…and uploaded by blogger mom at frog parenting blogspot who posted the joke on Tuesday, April 28, 2009 under ‘Frog Humour and today’s stuff…Not for Profit but for JOY!’ and her baby born on April 29, 2009 ‘at about 8Amish’.
Earliest References
While one earlier may still be found, the earliest reference I have found is on the website of ‘Silicon Investor’ where it was uploaded on 6/24/1998 8:12:00 AM by Henry Volquardsen. Note the date reads 24 June, 1998 because the date sequence is m/d/y. No, I do not know Henry as far as I am aware, regardless Henry may have known my name at one moment in history in 1987 and I his by sheerest chance just by it passing in front of his or my eyes in a fax or other document, but lucky I am to have a beautifully written text online on Silicon Investor that recalls a Henry Volquardsen from the memory of a colleague.
His friend writing in 2008 says of Henry:
‘And then, of course Henry Volquardsen, was a very dear friend who was on the long dated FX desk in NY. He was a big guy (like me) who started out as a file clerk and was on Citibank NY’s long dated FX desk at 55 Water street I believe. He would hang around in the New York evening to watch our currency and interest rate markets open, some days it was slow and he would talk to the bond dealers the AUD dealer and me as he was trying to get indications in to local market sentiment. Henry and I talked for hours on end about history, he was then studying the 100 year war in Europe, mass psychology, Ownership of central banks…. etc.’
Unmistakeable I am sure, the same. And I might as well have known Henry given insight and experience of the finance industry I have when I based my own methodology as an accounts executive on my training in History and Politics, primarily choosing to telephone dealers and traders I could engage in conversation to appreciate different points of view, and always an AUD dealer. I trained and listened intently and learned and understood the market in this window of time watching trading lights skipping across and up and down in heart stopping patterns on a Reuters screen. Thus far remarkable enough.
The joke was, remarkably, posted on the site Roots Web Ancestry on Tue, 3 Nov 1998 22:51:04 EST
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/KILGORE/1998-11/0910215618
As follows without prejudice the discussion ‘Donna Richoux’ provides her associates in apparent good faith (please see the link below).
‘Donna Richoux:
[nq:2]”It’s a knick-knack, Patty Black, give the frog a loan.”(snip)[/nq]
[nq:1]It’s a knick-knack, Patty Black, give the frog a loan; His old man’s a Rolling Stone![/nq]
That’s lovely but the version I learned didn’t have it. Now I’m wondering whether it was part of a strain that lost the Rolling Stone line, or whether it never had it, and Rolling Stone was added later.
A Google on “give the frog a loan” plus “rolling stone” gives 553. The same phrase with a minus -stone gives 291. So it’s not just me that stops at “loan.”
Okay, here we go. The Google Groups archives show the “Rolling Stone” version only back 1998, with several references to it having been on the Muppets with Kermit the Frog (long before?). I can’t call up the entire posts because of a technical glitch. But the version minus “stone” shows up in posts each year from 1982 to 1986. So I think the very appropriate addition of “Rolling Stone” was a professional addition from the Muppet crew.
Patty Black sure gets a lot of variation.
Best Donna Richoux’
http://www.englishforums.com/English/Puns/8/kvxng/post.htm
My note on the foregoing:
I appreciate the energy and attention given the frog goes to a bank for a loan joke by Donna Richoux and her associates (please see link above).
The content of the text written by Donna is speculative and based on then incomplete research result of a failed internet connection – as can be derived as was clearly intended by its author, but the speculation is inaccurate that the Rolling Stone addition online is a professional addition by the Muppets team and the content is inaccurate ‘that it shows up in posts between 1982 and 1986’.
Only researching what Donna advises concerning the Muppets did I know the Muppets had a story line in one of their early films that refers to a bank, which might be the source of confusion. I have not seen the films.
I am sure however the Muppets research facility may accord me, as I do the Muppets equal respect if question arises by referring to their archival record of published material to identify the frog goes to a bank for a loan joke is not in their archives as a published article of theirs.
Patty Black I knew nothing of until my recent discovery of the reference only as result of researching the frog goes to a bank for a loan joke; ‘Patty Black’ as a play on ‘Paddy Whack’ is not as far as I can determine in popular ascendance over my original adaptation of ‘Paddy Whack’ that was ‘Patricia Whack’ aka ‘Ms Whack’ and ‘Patti Whack’. I do have a fictional character whose name is ‘Black’ which is coincidence.
Again remarkably posted in rj-jokers Teresa’s Jokers RJ List on Sep 15, 1998 at 1:51 pm
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rj-jokers/message/126
As a source of interest, I note amiright.com makes no claims to copyright of jokes permitted, only their presentation. All jokes are assumed [by amiright] to be public domain.
http://www.amiright.com/jokes/rollingstones.shtml
Preben Ormen telling the joke on Thursday, September 8th, 2011 at 14:14 under the heading ‘Give the Frog a Loan’ prefaced it as follows:
Apropos nothing, I just remembered a cute joke that riffed on a nursery rhyme. What made it all the more funny at the time, was the fact it was told by a biker on the run from the California cops that we met while swinging at anchor in our 32 foot Westsail cutter “Ibis” in Mazatlan, Mexico. He arrived late one afternoon in a terrific downpour in a beat up old Columbia 29 sloop. I watched him anchor and silently reassured myself he had just the right scope out so he wouldn’t swing into us when the tide or weather changed.
When done, he sat under the main hatch and lit up a smoke. We exchanged hand waves in greeting and a short hello and welcome, but the rain was so heavy and noisy we couldn’t really have a conversation. You got to see a tropical downpour to believe it.
We got to know each other better and one day the story rolled around.
Videos
…please see the heart these children invest in the acting including a fabulous frog costume and support actors. This is such a lovely video and I hope the children and their responsible adults are happy I post this link here:
Give the Frog a Loan
Uploaded on Dec 18, 2010
byNoSandOnTheBeach
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr3fZXpjSXM
…Kermit wants a loan by Bubba Brand was loaded with a very pretty sound track as:
a response to Episode 1-No Pants Show
Uploaded on Sep 24, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edWiDs1Je18
…at a party shared with friends:
Frog Goes Into a Bank
Uploaded on Aug 7, 2006
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXG-VFmP7uk
…Kermit by Revmondo:
Kerry O’ Keefe’s Frog Joke retold
Uploaded on Mar 16, 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hbpg1Jy9KBc
…loaded as”
The story of Mick Jagger’s son Kermit and his attempt to get a loan from a bank.
Ribbit! Ribbit!-Kermit Jagger Seeks a Loan From a Bank
Uploaded on Nov 1, 2011 by frankdary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAcOqIrRCy8
…Carlo Luceno:
A frog walks into a bank.
Uploaded on May 3, 2011
Tracy tells a joke on Saturday night.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=yjepHCif2Os
…a charming sound effect is added at the end and the collateral is a pig:
A Frog Walks into a Bank
Published on Mar 30, 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZw5MqQBzfg
…the barest summary Frog walks into a bank
by smileslime who says:
I take bits and pieces from the internet and create these joke collages’
Uploaded on Oct 31, 2006
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woSg0tOjDog
…and charming that the story teller gesticulates to indicate the minute size of the pink elephant.
Give the Frog a Loan
Published on May 7, 2012 by Danielle Stone
Classic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScPJWeLnQwQ
…interesting delivery, content and a really nice smile…
The Frog At The Bank 12/4/12
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UU07CTHk_qo
…nicely interpreted recently…
Uploaded Jan 30, 2013 by Mike Braswell·
Just a joke about a frog and a bank. and some frog pics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVfUFjQ4HNg
Disclaimer
Small variations occur telling the joke from only recall, but the adherent loyalty shown the story line is indication of the genuine fondness people feel for the joke.
Variations include the delightful and delightfully satirical and fans have made changes to the name of the teller and frog by way of personal preference and innovation.
The frog has been variously named by his fans Kermit the Frog, Kermit Jagger, Wally… while the inclination seems obvious I had no intention to name the frog Kermit which was to avoid potential copyright infraction although in an edited version I do have the teller, Patricia Whack, refer to the frog with a note of derision as follows, once, when she addresses the bank manager that the frog wants a loan.
‘Kermitt out here…”
The frog has been overly called Kermit, and he truly did not ever say to the teller his surname was Jagger as occurs in the re-telling, but there you are, and that’s I suppose society too, running along on assumptions and getting stuck on earworms, but in this case a fond one. However, just because a frog can talk and goes to a bank to raise a loan is no reason to assume his name is Kermit. Neither because he claims falsely his identity is Mick Jagger’s son is it a logical conclusion he will claim his name is Kermit Jagger.
A frog is neither automatically a Muppet. Frog mothers have been around. They know the score. The kid probably won’t like the attention.
Anyone whose work uploading and adapting the joke as a genuine contribution to joke sites is not included by a link I regret in almost all cases that has to have been the case and I apologise I cannot individually acknowledge it.
I could not include every link to the friends and included a representation of the foes of the frog who goes to a bank for a loan joke.
In one case I did not link very purposefully because the material that is revealed is not suitable for a general audience and younger children supervised by their parents.
I admire the odds have fallen very much in favour in this regard of the frog who goes to the bank for a loan joke that it seems the frog somehow speaks to be used for ends that are good; leastwise has been treated kindly, whimsically and generously. The popular, regardless flawed frog is a phenomenon and the philosophers of all sorts who got and get the joke and have run with it have paid the frog – and the teller and the bank manager– a great compliment.
The trinity is in the wings as I write. When we create with a healthy perspective we invest magic and our creations become themselves. Take a bow: the frog, the teller and the bank manager.
To the people who don’t yet and might never know or understand or even accept this is true that the pleasure they have found in this joke and the frustration of its detractors are directly proportional to the affection I feel for the fans, the kind loyalty and controversy shown the frog goes to a bank for a loan joke, sincerely, thank you.
(Continued Part 2 – Building The Joke)
FOOTNOTE:
1. the wildly wonderful shaggy dog written by astyages that sent me in 2011 on this journey finding my frog.

The frog/bank joke was originally created by Patricia Starfire, PhD (who resides in Hawaii). In summer 1982, she told me “I made up a joke! here it is …..” The joke did -not- have the Rolling Stones reference (the frog did not have a name). The punchline was simply “that’s a nick nack Paddy Whack, give the frog a loan.”
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This is the complete Wagner ring cycle,Shoe. Give me time and I’ll stroll casually through it all. Rome wasn’t built in a day, was it. I thought the joke rhymed with the well known song. Was that the point of the joke// If someone pinched it, you ought to get paid for it. I have to read it properly first though.
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Hi Gez. Certainly Rome is not built in a day. Gez I am not laying claim it has been ‘pinched’. It is generally acknowledged someone wrote it.
This is not a quagmire anyway I am stepping into regards the people who do make profit from it at this juncture. I have adjusted first to itself and that a great number of people have had in some respects a lot of joy out of it, and derived great creative and dramatic pleasure. Not a lot of people get this eccentric opportunity to study the history of the lifestyle of their joke.
I would like perhaps as much as anything to have the further resources to study it, but first off, mate, it’s literature. Fascinating. 🙂
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I imagined folk would come back to it from time to time and watch the videos.
I am sorry the links look higgledpiddedly, but they are largely there simply as backup to reference what I have written so that it is clear I have invested weeks, months, searching its character and distribution. If I was to get immediately strident about the money, Gez that would all change lickety split and there would be truly nothing to wonder at… 🙂
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Dear astyages
This experience caused me inclusive of time in hospital from overwork – combined with other irritating life stuff – a rollercoaster of anxiety I thought would never end. It was April 2011 I told you I would post a shaggy dog. I inadvertently deleted that date when I was editing and looks as if I have not returned it to the text.
I apologise sincerely I was unable to even go near the subject of what had happened to the promised joke. Other pressing life matters as well intervened (*like a sense of imminent death for a time).
I will mention here that a discovery like this in result on the individual is different from recognition in the form of book we understand is going to be published and has our name on it. We anticipate that.
Different people would respond to this discovery differently, not a profound thought, but bringing us back to it being a different perspective regards an impact on feeling self conscious and that is not a happy experience to feel exposed initially ‘like a fool’ in front of the whole world without knowing it (in the first instance) and then suffering the experience of self conscious wondering what will happen once I owned up.
Vis-a-vis the thought counting, which ever one it is I have had that counts. The story begins because you wrote the shaggy dog. That is independent as a thought of your status alongside mine because I wrote the joke and I think the world will enjoy your joke if specifically it catches up with it through its attachment to this story. People love jokes. Most joke sites accrue jokes. I only hope you did not mind my attaching it to the story without telling you, but rather deciding to surprise you with it.
Albeit somewhat clumsily the story is told because the spaces have somehow lapsed, although I originally had separated each reference off from the next because of the size of the research and document .
Asty, it may be easier than an archaeological computer-code-finding bod… to determine where the original was uploaded and I might have myself and forgotten about it… someone might provide a clue to avoid an ultimate trawl…
Shoe (Christina)
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That’s quite a meta-story ‘Shoe! Pity the original has become a project for an archaeological computer-code-finding bod…
On the other hand; on the upside, you have become a cultural meme; something of your spirit has now become, irretrievably part of Ozzie folk-lore and folk culture! And I too, as the quoted inspiration for said meme, have also become a cultural meme! ‘Shoe you have made me immortal! (Or at least, you would have, if I hadn’t already achieved immortality as the reward for scaling Parnassus and having one of my books in both the State Library of SA and the National Library in Canberra! Still… it’s the thought that counts!)
Love the whole idea of a ‘shaggy frog’ story!
🙂
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I meant to post a reply to your comment here, asty and would you know, it ended up above here.
Re: your loving ‘a shaggy frog’. I am pleased. Thank you. You can imagine how I chuckled and as your joke has inclusion of an exotic environment in its text that would include frogs. I loved the idea of revealing to you, however the frog was in a ‘bank’ going for a loan. Transposition of ideas. Oh, personally I reckon no greater-utterly simple-compliment myself originally that I was so keen to put my frog up to reply to your ‘dog’. Asty, I loved your joke. It is every bit as silly as mine.
Until Mike knew about it, I mention again, nobody did other than one friend and the two people I confessed about it to that were here, immediately in my vicinity. I told my eldest daughter, Angela, a couple of weeks ago in anticipation of this being published. My other immediate family until now has no idea in the least I wrote the joke. Thank you for yours, astyages.
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I have it in my recording archives – Kerry – Grandstand 2006. Whole family thought it was very funny. Knowing the history and truth of its making is now a bit of a worry. How did it get pinched?
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Vivienne, this is my logic regards it having been attributed very early to probably the Muppets. I will contact the Muppets agent and enquire for their attention to their archives to ascertain conclusively it is not in their writing archive as their original material. I have no doubt they will not find it there. Of course, if any money is required to do that I do not have any. That will put a different slant on my approach.
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Shoe, just a worry that it was pinched and you get no credit. Sorry, I haven’t read all of your article – just so long ! Still, these things happen to the best of us in different forms. When I was a Shire Councillor I fought for the purchase of a new A1 fire fighting unit (bloody great big truck/tanker) instead of assisting with the finance of second hand basic trucks for brigades to work their arses off remodelling. The Councillor who was the strongest voice against my motion carried on about it at great length. In the end, I won and we got the new equipment. About four years later he was quoted in the local paper as saying this was the best thing the Council ever did. I was speechless.
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Vivienne, how well I understand your moment of not having prepared a speech (speechless) to make in response to a Councillor who has completed a 360 without acknowledgement, nevertheless I have learned a truth about intellectual copyright; a lot of people hold it in regard by at least being respectful. The only solution to a situation like that one is fling yourself out of the volunteer seats screaming like a banshee. Everybody is always so nice in those situations. 😉
Vivienne, truly, nothing is so enormously lost in regard to the frog that has not been found through the experience. I truly appreciate you are feeling regretful for me. That is kind. On one hand it serves me right for disallowing screeds of email jokes. It shows but I have always been a good girl for the corporation and councils alike. The outcome however would have been different. Y’ know, an experiment observed is one altered. 😉
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I ntoice it was another Councillor Vivienne. For a moment I read it wrong. My imagining went to it being the mayor in ermine… 🙂
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The other Councillor was the Mayor on and off – been on the Council for ages and ages. At the time he announced it (the fire unit purchases) was the best thing Council had done (it had become permanent policy for new fire fighting units) I had ceased to be a Councillor. I found that most men are not keen on giving credit where credit is due.
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Viv someone (male gender) was suggesting t’other day that when years pass and familiarity with something grows, next thing the mind begins to assume ownership as well as possession and forgets otherwise. I hope, though that fellow was able to look you frankly in the eye over supper. 😉
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On a serious note regards the fire tanker being a new unit as opposed to buying second hand fire trucks, that is a fine achievement of yours to have championed a proper resource for your community and standing up to strident opposition. Congratulations, Vivienne and every community that is properly resourced for fire is a more secure entity in our network grid.
Thank you, Viv. I hope you accept my small recognition. I am moved to hear about that.
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Thanks again Shoe. What they used to buy were not old units, they were old truck bodies, diesel – they had to be turned into a fire unit with the addition of tanker for water, places for hoses and all the accompanying stuff and then painted and labelled with the appropriate brigade name and then pass certification. The brigade put in hours of work and although the results looked good we never had a top notch unit capable of fire fighting a house fire in a village. We had installed a town water system which was therefore not capable of being used. That Councillor was jealous of one brigade which had saved a considerable amount of money to put towards the new unit. I kept telling him that the unit would be available for anywhere in the shire and it would not be the sole possession of one village. It was a crazy time. Anyway I won over the majority of the council. In that time I also had a ride in a new unit up a small local mountain to see how it operated. We remained friends and that chap only just retired from council – did not stand at the 2012 elections – he is now in his 80s.
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Why do you think it is that a worry, Vivienne?
I tell the story successively in the Parts (as I know it.)
I need to add a postscript here to be clear: I am not making an accusation directed at anybody that it was pinched, other than there is one offender in the USA who has interpreted that adding a couple of words to it means he can sell himself as a writer on its back. I have not included reference to that in this text. I have a draft of a letter to send to him.
Curiously Vivienne, the question has been asked a few times who wrote it or why and/or comment has in fact been made that ‘someone made it up’, which I think is really respectful that people recognised it belonged to someone.
Vivienne, query as to whose it was was raised very early and it was attributed ‘as probably belonging to the Muppets’. I think that is in my favour regards an arguement should I want to stop anybody from wrongly using it, to prevent it being used in deviance from the good that it exclusively almost has been used for as far as I have researched, which is my bigger worry because it is like seeing a child of yours in the street after years that you have lost, but didn’t know.
It becomes clear in Part 3 the possible avenues it got out, but that includes I might have posted it on a website when I first started computing and was wet behind the ears, did not know what I was doing, lost the reference and the site and did not give it another thought.
I have an inkling and a few possible alternatives, one of which is very funny or sad depending on one’s viewpoint. Thank you Vivienne. Kerry reads it so well doesn’t he, aside the laugh that everybody is hooked on. His reading is very centred and detemined to communicate it. 🙂
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Dada was the founder of a rather anarchic art movement, ‘Shoe, called ‘Dada-ism’; the objects the artists created were invariably as useful and practical as the fur-lined coffee-cup which one of their most famous exhibits…
Here’s what Wiki says:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dada
And here, proving it is evidently still a viable art movement, is a link to ‘Da-da Online’:
http://members.peak.org/~dadaist/English/Graphics/index.html
Have fun!
🙂
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Thank you asty
I love the library on Dada. This page is going in for a Pigs Arms ‘Who’s got the biggest…’ challenge. I’d better include for the record asty, I know what Dada was and Dada-ism is, but appreciate you have supposed I don’t because I was going to survey the town what the burghers think about what the anthropologist said and I ‘don’t know’. All good.
The frog goes to a bank for a loan joke is a shaggy frog is Dada-ism. Mate, I cannot tell a lie. It’s off the wall. 😉
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I think what appeals to me about a ‘shaggy frog’ is that it seems somehow like nature indulging in a little ‘Da-da-ism’… Remember Dada? The fur-lined coffee-cups etc…?
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I am going to take that comment with me to the library, do a survey, ha ha ha, on the street outside intercepting lurkers coming oot of the real h’estate office if they recall ‘‘Da-da-ism’… Remember Dada? The fur-lined coffee-cups etc…?” and whether they believe evoked by frog instead of dog are fur lined coffee cups etc’ You know they’ll say they know a shaggy frog joke but don’t know the answer to the question…what was it again…I’ll say the anthropologist sent me, Asty, old soldier, RECALL me, will you, in the pitiful hot sun approaching 40 degrees if not over trying to establish a measure. Have a heart. I don’t know. Trust me. (Fur lined frog? Inside? Shaggy frog? Hahaha… ) 🙂
What are friends for. I arsk y’. I expected this at the bar.
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How about one of those pyjama bags, asty? Will that fill the imagination? A shaggy frog, cosy inside to keep the pjs warm in? My nephew in Canada uploaded a pic this morning of a kermy standing looking at a drawing he had done of the back of a cloth frog that appeared to be at a stage of dissection…
Wags… now is an Australian wag (a humourist) … dog … tail … something can be done with it … 🙂
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The trouble with the pajama bag ‘Shoe, is that it’s just far too useful!
The whole point of Da-da was the utter uselessness of the objects created which were intended to reflect the decadent state to which German society had already fallen by the start of the 20th century…
Now, a pajama bag for a nudist… this might have potential!
😉
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asty, how fabulously useless.
You could contribute (well) to the script by David Nobbs of Reginald Perrin’s useless things empire (The Fall & Rise of RP’). How significantly better Reggie would have prospered with your dada-ist shaggy frog pj bag for nudists. 😉
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWpVJU1K2-c
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I’m a big fan of Reggie Perrin too ‘Shoe… in fact I’ve been a fan of Leonard Rossitter ever since ‘Rising Damp’…
Yes… I think that with my imagination and Reggie Perrin’s ‘Grot’, we could have conquered the world!
🙂
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I’d have liked to have worked for Reggie Perin, ‘Shoe, and he DID try to fit me in; but he couldn’t find a use for me…
😉
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A contemporary spin, indeed, however and there will of course be someone who will claim it still far too useful.
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Quite possibly!
😉
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