“I wanted to be a doctor, but I didn’t have the patients.”
This was my contribution to my parent’s tape recorder and every available member of my extended family, every chance I could get, for a painfully long time at age two. I said it every way imaginable…but my favorite was to spend time perfecting my best Groucho Marx imitation…
It was the seventies. I have questioned my folks repeatedly regarding their recreational drug use, but they continue to deny that my sense of humor is to be blamed on them…
My three year old learned from a 5-year year on a long car trip the following Joke Theme:
There was this boy . . . and his pants fell down! {uproarious laughter}
Place nothing or anything in for the ellipsis and you’ve got countless variations on the story. It makes us laugh everytime just because he thinks it’s so funny. We even tell him the joke and he laughs. It’s priceless!
I wanted to let you know that after I read this, I played this Geography game with my 3 sisters while we waited in line for rides at the amusement park.
Anyone who said an “A” place name that also ended in “a” got punched in the arm, hard.
It is not only the jokes they tell, but sometimes just the things that come out of their mouths, specially if you catch them unawares.
A friend of mine has a 4 year old and nearly 7 year old daughters. One day as Mom was bustling about doing some housework, she came quickly around a corner just as the near 7 year old was about to pass. “Oh, you scared me like cheese!” were the words she said. Later on she was in the living room spending some good quality time with mom when she said, “Scared me like cheese, what is that supposed to mean?”
Aside from that bit of unrelated humor, when my sister and I had a little song we would sing to each other. The words were simple: " A P anda U anda P U!" and whenever you said the P you pointed to yourself and when you said U you would point at your partner indicating that they were the one that smelled.
I’d give anything to understand the origin of that…
Well, maybe VISUAL comedy is more “natural” for a child. I remember Bree, the daughter of a housemate. She was one who was dying to be a comic, at the age of two! She would walk past a room full of laughing adults and start laughing back without the slightest clue, such was her penchant for joining in on this sometimes mysterious thing called humor.
One evening when I was babysitting her and 5-yr old brother Joshua she decided that it would make us laugh by emeging from her room with a pillow case over her. Naturally a full-sized case covered her down to her ankles. For some reason this sent Joshua into hysterics – and the same for a then-29-yr old boob, ME. I’ll never forget it. (Wonder what she’s like as an adult? Hmmm.)
No they don’t. It’s wonderful and funny that they want to make the people they love laugh and smile. That’s what’s great about a three years old childs jokes.
i cant wait for my little one to get to that stage… I love her to bits now… and who here knows how an 8 month old can giggle when you blow raspberries on her belly… but the inane and/or nonsensical jokes are what I’m really looking forward to.
I just got to work and now I want to go home and spend more time with the little phyreling :’)
My sister used to tell jokes, and laugh uproariously, but the best part came afterwards.
These were stock jokes, which anyone who hadn’t heard them 27,000 times would probably find funny, but you needed to get her to explain them to get the most out of it.
Her: “Why did the chicken cross the road?”
Me: “I don’t know, why?”
Her: “To get to the other side!” (convulses in laughter).
Me: (laughs, snaps into serious mode) “Quick, why is that funny?”
Her: (visibly pulls herself together) “Because chickens can’t walk on pavement!”
It’s a mixed bag. On the one hand, that giggling is infectious, but on the other, being the parent of a toddler gives one true insight into the truth of the expression that “silence is golden.”
Every once in a while, some exhausted, cynical part of your brain reminds you of the all the time you spent teaching this child to talk, and wondering if maybe you shouldn’t have taken it a bit slower.
[sub]Yeah, it’s been one of those days, today.[/sub]
I’m glad this was bumped because now I don’t have to start my own thread. I can introduce you to the magic knock-knock joke here and now.
Knock-knock!
Who’s there?
Tick.
Tick who?
Tickle!
Whereupon you lunge and tickle them mercelessly for a few seconds before trying it again.
My little niece was one of those who would put forth a stream of nonsensical knock-knock jokes without quite getting what it was that made them a joke. I did that joke three times and now she wont play with me anymore.
This post reminded me of something that my daughter was saying for awhile. There was a time when she would use a newly learned word as much as possible, regardless of whether or not she was using it properly. For awhile she was using the word “passionate” for fart. Very odd. Hearing a six year old say “I just made a passionate.” is just priceless.
My 3 yo made up a joke the other day that he loves to tell. He tells it to everyone, and they all have to stop and think for a minute because it sounds as if it might be a good joke but they just don’t get it. See what you think.
How do you get a light from a chicken?
Get a hen.
I then told him several jokes this weekend and he has been wanting me to tell them over and over again. He has been telling them to his mother and I also. The one that cracks me up is the interupting cow knock knock joke. Here’s the way he tells it.
We’re all familiar with the Knock Knock - who’s there - Banana - Banana Who (repeat adnauseum) then - Orange - Orange who - Orange you glad I didn’t say Banana? joke right?
My 3 yr old’s version goes like this
Pixie: Knock Knock
Mommy: Who’s there
Pixie: Banana
Mommy: Banana Who
Pixie: I said Banana, now open this door before I smack you.
I swear we didn’t teach her that nor is that a phrase she hears at home.
Since this thread’s been resurrected, I bring you (also on tape) my brother’s 3-year-old version of My Country 'Tis of Thee:
My country 'tis a street
Swee land o hibudee
Of dee a sing.
Land where the pilgrims died
Land where the children died
From every mountain high
Le flea dumb ling.
