Fairy Tale Spotlight: The World's Shortest Fairy Tale?

I think the title of this blog may be a bit misleading. I considered writing the blog about this one last week but felt it was not up to my standards. But I suppose I must have reconsidered or else I would not be doing it now. This blog is not about the actual world's shortest fairy tale, as I really was not able to figure that one out. It is about a story that is actually called The World's Shortest Fairy Tale. But then... is it really a story?

The fairy tale in question could be considered more of a joke. In fact, I really think that's what it is intended to be. It has a swift set up, followed by an often lengthy punchline. I guess I better stop talking about it and just let you read it. It's pretty modern, but has been passed around so much that there is no way to identify the author. So... here ya go!

Once upon a time, a guy asked a girl “Will you marry me?” The girl said, “NO!” And the guy lived happily ever after and rode motorcycles and went fishing and hunting and played golf a lot and drank beer and scotch and had tons of money in the bank and left the toilet seat up and farted whenever he wanted.

The end

There is a version for females too, but it plays out about the same--even the farting part. Go figure. As you can see, this is a classic joke with the theme of a fairy tale. The main characters could almost be considered a prince and princess. But alas, the happy ending turns out a bit differently than your general Grimm story.

There are a few reasons I chose to finally write about this. That being:

1. Oral Tradition

2. Whispering Campaign Effect

3. Basis in reality.

The World's Shortest Fairy Tale was mainly passed around in the same way as the original fairy tales were... which was through oral tradition. They were, of course, printed into books and onto the internet through various mediums such as social media. You can pretty much find this fairy tale all over the internet, all written in slightly different ways by different people. It's true nature as a simple joke helps it go viral in a similar way as old tales.

The latter case also leads to something I often refer to as the Whispering Campaign Effect. When stories are passed around, they have a tendency to change. This isn't always because the person who heard the story did not understand it--although that can certainly happen--but that the story can sometimes simply be altered by the biases of the new writer. This is especially true as I am sure many women were ready to take revenge for the male version of the story and promptly write their own.

I have said before that I believe fairy tales do have a basis in reality, and so does this story/joke. It echos the frustrations the two sexes have with one another. Timeless really. Even Aesop had a few things to say on the matter. Of course, that led me to chuckle when I considered that the term fairy tale did not really apply--not technically. All the characters were just frustrated mortals dealing with mortal issues. So that's when I got an idea.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you The Real World's Shortest Fairy Tale!

Once upon a time, a beautiful fairy asked a mortal man to marry her, for she was so greatly in love with him. The man unfortunately said, "No." And so, the fairy retaliated by taking away the man's favorite "bone" and so used it to create a handsome golem who was three times his manly stature. The fairy and golem lived happily ever after while the man died somewhere unknown and woman-less.

The end.

So after reading this new version, is it still a joke? What do you think?

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