Growing up in the 60's in a tiny farm town in Northwest Iowa, I learned very early on that a sense of humor was imperative to survival. After all, Iowa has about the harshest extremes of climate on the planet... it's like living in Northern Siberia in the Winter (which lasts about 8-9 months), and living in Southern Hell in the Summer... sheesh! To be fair, however, Spring & Fall are quite pleasant - all 2 weeks of them (combined).

So, by virtue of the weather, alone, Iowa is no place for wimps or whiners. Joking about the weather is more than just making funny - it's a way to keep you from sobbing uncontrollably about how fricking miserable it is out there! For example, when the thermometer shows below 0° (sometimes WAAAY below 0°), one might say, "It's a bit nipple today, huh?" ... and the response would be, "Yep - just a tit." This kind of banter is traditionally done without ever changing expression. I think Iowans don't use many facial expressions because it's usually either too damn cold or too damn hot to move your face.


In Iowa, those who can tell a good one-liner without changing expression are the ones who seem to live longest and have the fewest wrinkles. If you can tell a real thigh-slapper on a consistent basis, you will probably be elected mayor at some point during your 98-year lifespan.

Classic Northwest Iowa humor would usually include Farmer jokes (of course, since most everyone is a farmer), Minnesota jokes, obviously weather humor and various ethnic jokes (usually targeting either Scandinavians or Poles or some other European group that emigrated en masse to a nearby town). One of my favorite squeaky-clean farmer jokes was,
Q: Why don't farmers wear tennis shoes?
A: Because seed corn companies don't give them away.
(explanation: a vast majority of Iowa farmers wear the freebie jackets and caps from these companies)

While at University of Iowa in the late 70's, there were some brilliant t-shirts around town, such as:
"Did you fart, or are we in Iowa?" (Iowa is FULL of stinky hog farms)
"University of Iowa - Idaho City, Ohio" (U of I is actually in Iowa City, Iowa, tho most people outside the state think Iowa is known for either potatoes or Cleveland)
"Welcome to Iowa - Please set your watch back 30 years" (okay - this was really kind of true back then...)
"Iowa is a four-letter word" (no 'splainin' needed)

After the unfortunate floods in Iowa & the Midwest a few years ago, there was apparently a t-shirt around that spoofed on the state Motto, which is "Iowa - A Place To Grow" - the spoof shirt was "Iowa - A Place To Row" (a groaner, I suppose.)

As strong and stoic as Iowans can be, they can also be a little sensitive about their Iowaness - especially when there are visitors from out of state who poke fun at the Iowa thing. Humor would often save the day here, too by diffusing the smarty-pants-ness of these big shot city folks. For example, when a city person makes a thinly veiled snide comment about how small the town is, one might reply: "Our town is so small, it's a poke & plumb town. Yep, you poke your head out the window and you're plumb out of town." Another favorite is "Our town is so rural, the zip code is EIEIO". Yep, you gotta laugh.

When the movie, "Fargo" was released a few years ago, I was living in South Florida. I thought it was brilliant, and that the Cohen brothers had captured the essence of Minnesota - especially the accent! - very well. (my hometown was only about 30-some miles from Minnesota, so the accent is very similar). According to my folks (who are still proud Iowans living in the Hawkeye State), the locals weren't too impressed. They felt the movie exaggerated the "country-ness" and definitely the accent, thereby making fun of them... hmmm, I didn't think so.

I left Iowa at age 23 (when I found out we were free to go...)  and did everything in my power to escape my Iowaness for many years...but when I reached my 40's, I had finally learned to embrace my Hawkeye heritage and actually appreciate it. Now I celebrate being a former corn-fed Iowa girl, though I prefer to celebrate from the beautifully lumpy mountains of North Carolina...

Funny how things all come around and eventually start to make more sense... even Iowaness.

Yep.