Italian folk tale parody

(this is best told while eating a watermelon)

Have you heard the real story of Cinderella? They changed it for the kids, but originally this is how it went: Cinderella really wants to go the ball. Her sisters leave, and the fairy godmother comes to visit. You know the situation. Anyway, after giving her everything she needs, the fairy godmother tells Cinderella she has to be back by midnight or her pussy will turn into a watermelon.

"Oh no! I don't want that," exclaims Cinderella, "I'll be back at 11:45."

"OK, just remember, if your not back by midnight, your pussy will turn into a watermelon."

Cinderella is very scared about this prospect and vows again to be home by midnight. She goes to the ball, and has a wonderful time dancing and dining with the prince, after which he asks her if she would like some desert.

"Sure," she says, "I'll have a piece of cake."

"Waiter! bring some cake, and a big slice of Watermelon!" The waiter brings the desert and the prince gobbles down the watermelon with tremendous enthusiasm. (at this point in the story it is nice to have a slice of watermelon in hand and stuff one's face with it)

"Would you like some more cake?" asks the prince.

"Sure," says Cinderella

"Waiter! more cake and more watermelon!"

At this point the prince is stuffing is face with the second slice (and the storyteller should be doing the same) and looks up, his face covered with watermelon juice, and

asks, "by the way Cinderella, what time do you have to be home?"

"oh....four, five o'clock in the morning."

ANALYSIS

My father told me this story sometime between 1988 and 1990 in Rome, Italy. We were eating lunch with a group of people in a restaurant during the summer, and my father, being someone who loves to shock, told this story while eating a slice of watermelon. My father was around 66 years old at the time. He is a Roman prince, who spent his life rejecting traditional values, in part by telling stories like this at inappropriate moments (or you could call them the most appropriate, depending on the objective...) Incidentally, the story was told in Italian, and the word for pussy is "figa" meaning "fig," but feminized. Thus the story actually said "your fig will turn into a watermelon."

The story is obviously a parody of the "real" Cinderella story, and like the original, it exhibits certain interesting sexual themes. I think that the idea of the vagina turning into a watermelon has something to do with impregnation, especially since women are often told that having a baby is like having a watermelon pass through their vagina. This prospect scares the young, innocent Cinderella. She has a fig, that is small, and doesn't want it to grow into a big red thing, but when she sees how much the prince enjoys watermelon, she decides to forget about the godmother's warnings and delve into the world of sex. She thus leaves her innocence behind and decides to stay the night with the prince, in the hopes that he will be very happy about eating her watermelon.

Watermelon is a very sensual fruit. In fact, my father told me that when he was 12 or 13 (in the late nineteen thirties) his friends would put watermelons in the sun, and when they were nice and warm, they would put holes in them and use them as aides in masturbation. This type sexualization of the watermelon might have led someone to make up this Cinderella parody.

Annotation: Cinderella is Aarne Thomson tale type 510A

Data:

Myself

Male, 22

Italian American Student

Italian, English, Spanish, French

Berkeley, California

November 23, 1997