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Akbi's Cultural Obsessions · Collection 11b

Regional Humor

The jokes that come from a place: its language, habits, and gloriously specific ways of seeing the world.

Akbi’s sitcom riff · The Golden GirlsSeptember 27, 2026

Regional humor

Rose, Dorothy, and the Therapist

Four women who love one another and badly need a break. A therapist asks Rose how Dorothy’s criticism makes her feel. Rose answers in the language of St. Olaf—or at least the St. Olaf of my imagination.

The fun is in the precision: an impossibly specific literal meaning, an equally elaborate figurative one, and Dorothy reaching the end of her patience before Rose reaches the end of her vocabulary.

Illustration of four older women at a therapy session; one cheerfully explains something while another gives her a dry, exasperated look

THERAPIST: Rose, how do you feel about Dorothy saying these things about you?

ROSE: I think she’s a gerkonenokken. Literally, it’s the precise moment when dog doo turns white. But figuratively it refers to the kind of person you don’t want to share your hootencoggles with.

DOROTHY: Rose, if you say one more of those stupid words—

ROSE: Oh, blow it out your tubenburbles!