Next Friday America will rejoice in all the “See You Next Year” cracks which never get old. NEVER.
Seems like there are at least two kinds of dumb, obvious jokes here: the ones that are impersonal, like “see you next year” and the ones that directly involve one’s traits (“Since you’re Rich, can I have some money?”)
The latter should always be avoided because they are certain to be tiresome for the person on the receiving end. The former are lame but harmless.
Considering their track record, that’s not necessarily a ringing endorsement.
I know a student whose name (in Mandarin) sounded like the word for “lose.”
Nobody made fun of it, but one day he was participating in a race, and the teacher told the students to cheer his name repeatedly to support him, and all the kids loudly chanted, “Lose! Lose! Lose! Lose! Lose!”
I don’t mind Tar-zhay but only from people who refer to Wal-mar-shay as well.
Once while cutting a piece of apple wood with a miter saw to create chunks for smoking, the blade hit a knot or something, snagged, and the wood violently twisted in my hand, smacking the tip of one of my fingers, breaking my finger bone and splitting the skin open like a grape.
In the ER I asked the doc “will I be able to play the guitar after it heals?” He assured me I’d be able to. I said “great, I couldn’t play before!”
I expected a groan, since that joke is as old as Vaudeville, but I actually got a laugh out of him. It probably helped that he was so young he’d likely never heard nor seen anything resembling a Vaudeville routine, probably not even a Three Stooges short.
Oh man. Last week was our last week of school before the break, and I meet with a lot of students on a weekly basis, and I ended every single lesson with a version of this joke. “this is our last class of the year,” I would say, beginning a sentence, before they interrupted me with all the questions.
Watching their faces pass from confusion through alarm to understanding: I can confirm that it never gets old.
Now you’ve spoiled the joke by explaining it.
Any time I hear someone on TV say the word “heinous” I reflexively add “uhh, heh-heh heh-heh…he said…” and then say the funny part of that word. Those in the clan will get it, and yes, I still laugh at jokes for 12-year olds.
There’s some overlap here with this thread.
Was this compliment inappropriate?
The fact that if someone is (say) unusually tall or short or has a name like Adam West, if you comment on it or make a joke about it (especially the first time you meet them) you are an inexcusable dumbass.
But I am constantly amazed by the much broader phenomenon that most people are terrible at seeing the world from other people’s perspective. You see frequently on here - people write OPs asking for advice in which they seem completely incapable of understanding that many of the facts that are known to them are likely not known to their audience and are critically relevant.
The minority of people who can see the world from other people’s perspective tend to be good teachers.
They are a must do. When using one as a male you must point it at yourself and go “beep beep beep”.
It can be funny, despite tired and old.
In high school I had a classmate whose last name was pronounced very close to an obscene noun+verb combination. For privacy let’s say it was pronounced “Goatfuck”. There were people who thought that they were oh so clever in calling him “Goatfucker”. I mean, the name already is its own joke, no need to run it into the ground by just making an even worse joke on top of it.
Since I brought up never making a joke of someone’s name, there was one time I was tempted. The post by “solost” reminded me of it.
I cut my finger on a can lid and my wife drove me to the E.R. to get stitches. The doc came in and introduced himself as Doctor Wu. My mind went immediately to the song by Steely Dan.
"Are you with me, Doctor Wu?
Are you really just a shadow
Of the man that I once knew?
Are you crazy? Are you high
Or just an ordinary guy?
Have you done all you can do?
Are you with me, Doctor?"
I thought it was hilarious. He left for a moment, and I mentioned it to my wife. “Don’t go there,” she said. But, after he stitched me up, he said, “Well, I’ve done all I can do.” He was either a mind reader or he’d heard the joke before.
Overheard wayyyyyy too often in the workplace, often by the sales team.
“Working hard? Or hardly working?”
ha ha
If your son had said that to my high school AP English teacher, she’d have been delighted. (I mean, if her name had been Prufrock…)
I once assisted a young woman named Ariel. Avoiding the obvious trap, I asked her if she were a “bright and ardent spirit”, and she perked right up. Told me that one of the litmus tests she used for guys she dated was whether they referenced the Little Mermaid or The Tempest. Unfortunately, I’m clueless about reading signals, so I didn’t follow up the implied invitation.
Wait, so I’m not supposed to ask the cashier for “one winning lottery ticket, please!”
Even better…cock is another term for a man’s penis!
“Just living the dream”
My dermatologist is Dr. No. Altho I am sure he is thick-skinned about it, I have so far resisted the urge to ask if his practice is part of SPECTRE.
These days you can’t use the word ‘inconceivable’ without incurring some kind of interruption.
Surely you can’t be serious.
I hardly know her.