Scottish Country Dancing Dictionary

The Black Joke

Scottish Country Dance Instruction

THE BLACK JOKE (J8x32) 3C (4C set) John Nuttall Atholl 60th Anniversary

1- 4 1s+2s dance ½ Double Fig of 8 (1s cross down, 2s dance up). 1s finish facing out
5- 6 1s+2s change places (1M+2M LH,1L+2L RH)
7-10 1s+3s dance ½ Double Fig of 8 (1s dance down, 3s cross up). 1s finish facing out
11-12 1s+3s change places (1M+3L LH, 1L+3M RH)
13-16 1s cross RH and cast up
17-22 2s+1s+3s set and link; all cross RH with dancer opposite
23-26 2s+1s+3s set and link to finish on the sidelines
27-30 1M dances ½ Fig of 8 down round 3s as 1L dances ½ Fig of 8 up round 2s
31-32 2s+1s+3s set

(MINICRIB. Dance crib compiled by Charles Upton, Deeside Caledonian Society, and his successors)


Dance Notes

This dance follows a structure of 6-bar and 10-bar phrases.

Keith Rose's Crib Diagrams


Dance Instruction Videos

The Black Joke - Scottish Country Dancing Instruction Video

Dance Information

The notes accompanying the dance explain it was created to match the traditional 18th-century tune 'The Black Joke,' which features this unusual phrasing.

Music: "The Black Joke" - 6 bars + 6 bars + 10 bars + 10 bars phrases.


The Black Joke, also spelled Black Joak, was a bawdy song popular in London around 1730. William Hogarth alluded to it in the Tavern Scene of A Rake's Progress.

According to Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, the song's refrain included "Her black joke and belly so white", with "black joke" referring to female genitalia.

Patrick O'Brian referenced the song in his 1969 novel Master and Commander, depicting it sung aboard the fictional Royal Navy sloop Sophie in 1800. From 1730 onwards, variations of the lyrics and tune emerged, such as The White Joak.

The melody later became known as The Sprig of Shillelagh, and Thomas Moore (1779–1852) set his song "Sublime was the warning which Liberty spoke" to the same tune.

Muzio Clementi composed Black Joke for Keyboard in C Major with 21 variations in 1777, later published in 1780. In 1913, Cecil Sharp, Herbert MacIlwaine, and George Butterworth included the tune Black Joke in Morris Dance Tunes, Set 2. Sharp had collected the melody in April 1912 from Michael Handy, a dancer with Ilmington Morris. In 1976, John Kirkpatrick recorded the tune on the album Plain Capers.

The Black Joke Tune - Information Video

The Black Joke
The Black Joke


This page contains both original content, which is copyrighted, and excerpts from Wikipedia and other sources using the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Text from this original Black Joke article on Wikipedia.
Image from National Library Of Scotland, licensed under Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0.

Back to the top of this Scottish Country Dancing Instructions 'The Black Joke' page