Running jokes

I believe that if you get two or more people together for an extended length of time, some silly thing or other crops up and it becomes a fixture of mirth and merriment. Other people might not get the joke-in fact they may think you all are a bunch of blithering idiots-but to that group that whatever-it-is always gets a laugh.

The running joke among the other designer at work and me is when we hear some odd word or phrase on the local morning radio show, I'll say "Hey, that'd be a good name for my band!" or similar. For example:

CALLER: I went to Catholic school, and if the sister caught us with gum, she'd make us toss it in the gum bucket...
YD: Gumbucket? That's the name of my band!

So far, I've gotten a laugh when 'Ass Tattoo' and 'Walrus Pecker' came up in various conversations. And I think those would be good band names, actually.

Maybe it ain't funny and you have to be there.

Families have their share of jokes and incidents which become legend after a few years. A couple for us when I was growing up were recalling the time my stepfather ripped the crotch on his pants (Superman!) and he tried to staple the pants back together instead of trying something odd like, say, stitching the seam back together with a needle and thread-or even using the tailor's secret weapon-duct tape. That'd be comfortable, sitting on staples and running a forklift for 8 hours!

The other one concerned Mom's cream of potato soup, which (at least the bowl I always got) always seemed to have loads of celery and mushrooms and not a lot of potatoes. So I took to reciting the recipe at the table:

"To make potato soup: Chop up 5 pounds of celery. Take one small potato and dunk it in the soup base for 3 seconds."

One night she served up the potato soup. I started the recitation. I then picked up the spoon and lifted up a large, peeled baking potato, cleverly concealed in the soupbowl. She said "There! You're always saying there's no potatoes in the soup!", to which I said "You didn't have to use the whole year's supply on me."

Again, maybe not all that funny to the outside observer-but a good laugh at get-togethers.

There's a few of my running jokes. Anybody got some of their own they'd care to share with the class?

All the talk of cream of potato soup has gotten me hungry. I may have to make me a pot of that this weekend-unsullied by the demon celery, of course.

yankeedog out.