Sometimes our parents and elders do the funniest things, whether it’s hiding money and not being to find it later, or whether it’s their horrid imitation of J-Lo’s booty-shaking dance. Whatever these things are, they make us laugh (or turn red) and remind us of how funny and youthful our elders can be.
Money-Stasher
A funny moment I remember about my grandmother is how she would stash money every time we had guests over. She had guests almost every day so she had a habit of stashing money. The funny part is when my cousins and I would watch her as she ran around the house trying to find the money she stashed after her guests were gone. It’s still funny today but I know it was frustrating for her so of course I helped her. Or there were times I would come across the money while cleaning my room or while putting my things where they really belonged. Those were funny moments.
-Jesse, 18
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My Dad’s Hip-Hop Tunes
I love listening to music when I’m in the car. I always listen to music in the car whether I’m driving or in my dad’s car. Some of my best memories of my dad and I are in the car listening to music.
When I’m in the car, I usually listen to hip-hop stations and since my dad barely speaks or understands English, it can be a problem for him. Sometimes he gets irritated by the songs on the radio stations I listen to; however, on my dad’s good days, you can catch him singing along to the songs.
One day, when I was about ten, my dad and I were driving home from the hospital. A song by Nelly, “E.I.” came on. My dad began to sing “E-I” along with the song, and it was funny. That song is a fairly old song, it is hardly played on the radio anymore. These days, we hear songs like “Boom Boom Pow” or “Poker Face.”
One day when my dad was driving and one of these newer songs came on, my dad turned to me and said, “Why don’t they play EI anymore?” I looked at him, stunned because I could not believe he just asked why they stopped playing EI. I guess EI is really my dad’s favorite song.
-Arena, 17
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“Beach”
When I was in seventh grade, my Japanese teacher, Miss Okamoto would either make mistakes in English or not know the meaning of something. A few of the other students would talk among themselves, and the word “b****” would occasionally slip out. The students laughed but Sensei didn’t understand it. She had some sort of electronic dictionary and looked up the word. When she said the word, it would sound like “beach.” The definition she found said: B**** – 1. A female dog; 2. A playboy playmate. Everyone laughed, but from then on, we had to choose our words carefully around her.
-Jaleesa, 20
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My Mother’s Fascination With J-Lo
As I recall one day sitting on my couch, watching TRL Live on MTV, listening to a J-Lo music video, my mother sat on the couch to watch it with me. She started to make fun of the way J-Lo was dancing because she was just moving her hips around and waving her figure in the air. My mom then had the brilliant idea to mock what J-Lo was doing and then called herself “J-Lo.” My mom said she should get paid just as much as J-Lo, or more, because my mom has bigger hips and a bigger butt.
From that day on, my mom was known as “J-Lo” and whenever my friends come over, she does her little imitation of J-Lo for them, which in my case, is really embarrassing because that’s just too much of my mother to be moving around.
-Gracie, 16
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Sex Education
I recall when I was around eleven years old, my mother attempted to teach me about sex. The funny thing was she grabbed a pie server and a Ziploc bag and told me that a penis is the pie server and the condom is the Ziploc bag. I looked at her astonished.
-Marcus, 19
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Silly Senior Moments
My dad is a strong and tough man. He’s the type you won’t see crying often or laughing either. But when it comes to directly saying the names of my siblings and I, he stutters. It’s funny how he names all of my siblings and my name a couple of times really fast and finally, after a while, settles on the one he wants to call. You can say he was getting old but it’s funny how he did that. He goes through everyone’s name to get to my name, just to ask me to do the dishes. I find it really silly of my tough, almost perfect dad. LOL! My aunt also does this as well. I guess it’s in their blood.
This one time, my dad came into my sister’s room while all of us girls were in there and called out all of our names before settling upon my sister’s name. My dad would always laugh after finding the correct name. I actually started on this same “can’t-find-the-correct-name” habit and I even say my own name in it too. Whenever I do this, it reminds me of my silly and tough-guy dad.
-Angelina, 16
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My Dad’s Random Acts Of Thunder
Sitting in the living room, watching television with my family. Then all of a sudden, my father farts out of nowhere and says he hears thunder. He tries to hide the fact that he was the one who farted, and he even asks who farted. But obviously, all of us know it is him because he is always chuckling.
-Gracie, 16
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The Mask
My grandma is a very tiny person. Yet there is so much energy and anger in her tiny body. I guess that’s where I get my short temper. My brother made a Hanuman monkey mask for a dance performance at Fresno State. Somehow the mask got to my grandma’s house. My little cousin Janice was staying at her house and happened to find the mask quite creepy. One day I was visiting and Janice was misbehaving as usual. My grandma went into her room. She came out chasing Janice around wearing the Hanuman mask. I thought that was the funniest thing.
-Victoria, 16
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Party Mama
I was at a party and my friend’s mom heard a Michael Jackson song and she was screaming, “Owwwhh!” over and over. She was saying that that’s what Michael does in his songs. I couldn’t stop laughing. My friend was embarrassed.
I guess older people don’t mean to act that way in front of youth, but that’s just how they are. They can’t help it. They are just trying to have fun, just like us, and they can’t help what they do. But if that were my mom, it wouldn’t be funny. Young people like us think that our parents are uncool, which makes it hard to have friends over, but when you think about, they just want to have fun too.
-“Omar”, 18
In 2006, over 25 youth began participating in weekly after-school writing workshops where they congregated in the hallway of a two-story building in West Fresno and learned the essentials of creating media and telling their stories. The group evolved over the next five years and is now proudly recognized as The kNOw Youth Media.
Through our program, we create opportunities for our youth participants, who in turn create long-term positive change in their communities. Our approach weaves youth development and youth media innovation to produce our biannual youth publication, multimedia projects, and community forums.
The kNOw began as a project of New America Media, which was the country’s first and largest national collaboration and advocate of 2000 ethnic news organizations. In 2018 The kNOw became a project of Youth Leadership Institute.
