The cycle consists of eight pieces: The main theme of the first Humoresque was sketched in New York City on New Year's Eve 1892, with the inscription Marche funèbre.

A 1989 letter published in the Orlando Sentinel[3] refers to it: "The story of Amtrak waste disposal brings to mind an amusing song of 40 to 50 years ago.

[4] A 2008 memoir of 1930s life on a Carolina plantation[5] describes a railroad trip in a Pullman car and notes: "A sign over the toilet contained a memorable warning, and all of us children sang its words to the melody of Dvorak's Humoresque."

Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas claimed that he and Yale law professor Thurman Arnold were the first to combine the humorous lyrics with Dvořák's music.

[6] Ed Cray wrote, "Sometime in the early 1930s, according to his autobiography, Go East, Young Man,[7] William O. Douglas and fellow Yale law school professor Thurman Arnold were riding the New Haven Railroad and were inspired by a sign in the toilet.