I just had a “who’s on first” interaction with a patient

Totally my fault.

Me:I see you are taking a new medication. Who prescribed it?

Patient: You did

Me: I am pretty sure I didn’t

Patient: No, you did

Me: It looks like a rheumatologic medication. Have you been seeing a rheumatologist?

Patient: You

Me: I am your primary doctor but I am not a rheumatologist. Have you seen a rheumatologist?

Patient: Yes

Me: And what is the name of the rheumatologist who prescribed the medication?

Patient: You

Me: No, I didn’t prescribe it. I think your rheumatologist did.

Patient: That’s right.

Me: So who prescribed the medication?

Patient You did.

Me: What’s the name of your rheumatologist?

Patient: You!

My apologies to the apparently new rheumatologist in town, Dr. Yu. If she had only said DOCTOR YU, I wouldn’t have looked so stupid.

Pretty funny. It’s enough to turn someone psycho.

As in Fawlty Towers:

Psychobunny.

Where’s my shield and sword?!

$10 says she kept saying “Yu” on purpose.

I might have.

On a similar note, I vaguely recall hearing about a physician named Dr. Hu somewhere (And a Google search reveals there are several doctors out there with that name).

I understand you’re seeing a dermatologist now as well. Can I ask their name?

Hu.

Your dermatologist. What is their name?

No, Watt is the name of my other doctor.

That’s what I’m asking you!

Probably apocryphal but I heard of a medical office with a Dr. White and a Dr. Wong.

I feel like a certain Steely Dan song might fit right in here.

I always wanted that Steely Dan song to be some kind of oblique Ringworld reference, but the lyrics didn’t really match up with the Ringworld universe, alas.

My dad had one oncologist named Dr. Hu, and a surgeon named Dr. Black. He never failed to add that Dr. Black was indeed Black, but he’d always say “Dr. Black, who is Black,” and I’d say, “Wait, Dr. Hu is Black?” It was a running gag in his dying months. (My dad’s, not Dr. Black’s or Dr. Hu’s.)

I got this prescription from The Doctor.

Doctor who?

Yes, Doctor Hu.

I had a woman ask me about a plant growing along the trail last spring. She couldn’t find it in her plant book and asked me if it was some sort of weed.

I told her it was knotweed. She asked if I knew what it was. I said knotweed and again she asked what it was. So I spelled it for her and then we were good.

One of my kids had an unmarried female elementary teacher with the Korean family name 유, who was addressed by her students as “Miss You”. Yes, the jokes wrote themselves, given the sense of humor of kids.

There’s a reason they stopped with the T family on Krakatoa, and it’s not because of any deficiencies in Ugandan cuisine.

Watt likes to swim at the Y.

The rock concert version by The Credibility Gap.

A reference to The Twenty-One Balloons, by William Pene du Bois?

After hearing all last year about Taylor Swift on tv and the radio touring the country (she even did a couple shows in our city) I eventually saw a listing for movies at one of our local theaters and saw her concert film listed. My first thought was “That’s strange. I wonder why they changed the name of the tour in the movie from her actual summer tour I’ve been hearing about nonstop. I actually liked the name ‘heiress tour’……”