Is the Pope Catholic? A Content Analysis of American Jokelore about the Catholic Clergy

Abstract

A frequently used example to explain the folklore genre of a pointed rhetorical question1 is the expression, ‘Is the Pope Catholic?’ Such a text is often sarcastically applied when the listener feels that the questioner has asked an obvious or foolish question, one where the answer is or should be known. The texture of this ‘question’ is an obvious concrete reference to the leader of the Roman Catholic Church; there is no conspicuous slur intended, no apparent threat, no inferiority/superiority relationship. This rhetorical question appears to be, simply, an example of a joke of ‘transcendent nature’.2