Saturday, June 06, 2009

Dining Humor

The latest dinner table entertainment (Remember Hello Moose? We still do that at times.) is jokes. Both Bethany and Andrew enjoy telling jokes–in quick succession , one joke after another.

Now, these are jokes told by someone who barely knows what a joke is and knows that laughter is the expected result, but who does not actually know any jokes, or how to fashion a punch line.


Andrew at the museum "repairing" a phone.


They go something like this.

Andrew says, “What did the helicopter talk to the other helicopter? Mommy says, “I don’t know. What did the helicopter say to the other helicopter?"

Andrew says…wait for it…“It talks to the other helicopter!”

Mommy and Andrew laugh together. Then it repeats several more times, substituting for “helicopter”, each time with something different.

Bethany's delivery might be somewhat less on formula. She says something such as, "What did one person talk to the other person?" Mommy says (These are more times than not, directed to Mommy.), “I don’t know. What did…?”. Bethany responds, “It's six o’clock!” Mommy and Bethany laugh together.

Sometimes Bethany and Andrew just tell the jokes to each other, much like a competition. And, they don’t necessarily wait for a reply before giving the punch-like line.

The jokes aren’t funny, but the delivery is good, and the repetitive energy makes it funny after awhile, in a punch-drunk sort of way.