the funny


Jennifer, my good buddy, you are the go-to girl for this question. Because I, and the rest of the world, need to know if this is f’real:

On another note (and while we’re waiting for Jen to get back to us), thanks for the comment love yesterday. All 10% of you. Hey, it’s something. Yesterday reminded me of an old (verrrry old) SNL skit where Buck Henry was host. (Told you it was an old one.) He was a new talkshow host and was doing anything, and everything, to get callers to call in and talk on-air. And with each minute of dead-air time, he’d desperately try to come up with some sort of topic that would get the callers riled up. At one point, he said something about how much he loved dead puppies. (Very likely a had-to-be-there moment.) So be glad that I didn’t resort to posting about dead puppies or something equally vile. But watch out next year. No telling what I’ll do.

In an unusual, if not ironic, turn of events, Snopes B*tch, otherwise known to readers as Wordnerd, got totally served by the internets this past weekend.

 

Wordnerd, who adopted the title “Snopes B*tch” recently as she described her efforts to rid the internet of sappy emails (otherwise known as glurge) and too-good-to-be-true emails, found herself on the other side of the proverbial fence when she entered a Blockbuster video rental store, intending to cash in a ticket for two free rentals, a tub of popcorn, and two twenty-ounce Coca-Cola products.

 

Her plans were thwarted, however, by a steely-eyed manager who immediately declared the internet-generated coupon to be a complete hoax, albeit a damn good looking facsimile of a Blockbuster coupon.

 

When approached for comment, Wordnerd exclaimed that she did not wish to be quoted and wanted the entire thing to ‘just go away’. However, as she closed the doors on reporters and their eager questions, she could be heard to be mumbling something about wishing she had found this out before her family spent thirty g*ddamn minutes arguing about which movies to rent.

 

Wordnerd’s representatives issued the following statement this morning: “Wordnerd is extremely distressed at this development but considers it a private matter. She hopes that readers will respect her privacy as she attempts to come to terms with what occurred.”

Lexophile. It’s not in the dictionary yet. Heck, it hasn’t even made Wikipedia. But it will. Because there are enough of us word lovers to make it happen. Until it does, it’s up to us to continue to appreciate the power of wordplay. And the fun of it. So on this Friday, I present to you a list of some pretty funny plays on words. Snicker if you wish.

I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me.

Police were called to a day care where a three-year-old was resisting a rest.

Did you hear about the guy whose whole left side was cut off? He’s all right now.

The roundest knight at King Arthur’s round table was Sir Cumference.

The butcher backed up into the meat grinder and got a little behind in his work.

To write with a broken pencil is pointless.

When fish are in schools they sometimes take debate.

The short fortune teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.

A thief who stole a calendar got twelve months.

A thief fell and broke his leg in wet cement. He became a hardened criminal.

Thieves who steal corn from a garden could be charged with stalking.

We’ll never run out of math teachers because they always multiply.

When the smog lifts in Los Angeles, U.C.L.A.

The math professor went crazy with the blackboard. He did a number on it.

The professor discovered that her theory of earthquakes was on shaky ground.

The dead batteries were given out free of charge.

If you take a laptop computer for a run you could jog your memory.

A dentist and a manicurist fought tooth and nail.

A bicycle can’t stand alone; it is two tired.

A will is a dead giveaway.

Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.

A backward poet writes inverse.

In a democracy it’s your vote that counts; in feudalism, it’s your Count that votes.

A chicken crossing the road: poultry in motion.

If you don’t pay your exorcist you can get repossessed.

With her marriage she got a new name and a dress.

Show me a piano falling down a mine shaft and I’ll show you A-flat miner.

When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.

The guy who fell onto an upholstery machine was fully recovered.

A grenade fell onto a kitchen floor in France, resulted in Linoleum Blownapart.

You are stuck with your debt if you can’t budge it.

Local Area Network in Australia: The LAN down under.

He broke into song because he couldn’t find the key.

A calendar’s days are numbered.

A lot of money is tainted: ‘Taint yours, and ‘taint mine.

A boiled egg is hard to beat.

He had a photographic memory which was never developed.

A plateau is a high form of flattery.

Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end.

When you’ve seen one shopping center you’ve seen a mall.

If you jump off a Paris bridge, you are in Seine.

When she saw her first strands of gray hair, she thought she’d dye.

Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead to know basis.

Santa’s helpers are subordinate clauses.

Accupuncture: a jab well done.

I’m a sucker for gadgets. In fact, I’m going to admit something that I probably shouldn’t admit to anyone, but here goes. If I thought I could get away with it without the postman (and my husband) making fun of me, I’d order anything and everything off of those infomercials. That little sandwich maker? Where the lady takes last night’s leftovers and prepares a hearty omelet? Mmmm good. The bags where you suck all the air out and are able to fit all of your winter clothes into a cigar box? Hell yeah. I actually ordered a Ronco Glass & Bottle Cutter AND the Rhinestone and Stud Machine when I was a kid. And I actually own a Pasta Pro. (It sucks, in case you were wondering.) So the truth is out.

You may giggle quietly among yourselves.

So I’m no stranger to catalog and mail order. I love receiving packages, and I figure, heck, it just may work. That said, my most recent purchase came in today. It’s a package of eight terra cotta balls (each about the size of a malted milk ball) which contain seeds for a lovely hummingbird/butterfly garden. You just “place on ground in full sun DON’T BURY!”, keep moist, and “soon you will enjoy bouquets of wildflower blossoms!” Laugh all you want. I’ll just be enjoying my lovely garden.

But here’s the funny. It’s the invoice. And I hope it shows up on my credit card statement, so that Mr. Nerd can ponder the significance before asking me if there’s anything I need to tell him. On the invoice, in all caps, it says I purchased “HUMMBUTT SEEDBALLZ.”

Edit. I’m leaving this post up for another day or two, because I’m anxious to hear your stories as well. Something tells me we could all write a book on this subject!

As a very young child, I remember Art Linkletter and his book/tv show. My parents would watch it, laugh, and I’d just stare. Because, you know, it’s just how us kids talked. What was funny about that?

As I got older, I saw that the whole thing was pretty entertaining. Because kids can really say some funny stuff.

And then when I got me some kids of my own? Well…

Now don’t get me wrong. Y’all know me well enough by now to know that I don’t throw a bunch of sappy sentiment around here. And y’all also know that being a kid does not, in my opinion, make you automatically adorable. And that’s coming from a mom.

But I was talking to some co-workers yesterday, and we started telling stories of cute (and not so cute) things that kids have said. And I remembered this.

Except it’s not cute.

It is, however, funny as hell.

Let me ‘splain. See, back when Mr. Cool and Miss Priss were wee tots, Miss Priss indicated to her ever-so-big brother that she’d like to see what it’s like to use the restroom standing up. You know, like boys do. So the five-year-old big brother, in his infinite wisdom, told her he’d show her how. And so he did. One bright, sunny morning, they went into the bathroom. And Mr. Cool proceeded to show her how it’s done. Everything was going well, and I was listening/watching without them knowing I was listening/watching, when I heard him describe the process as such (and I quote, because I couldn’t make this stuff up): “See, it’s pretty easy. Except in the mornings when sometimes you have to bend the bone down.”

This is the same kid that was explaining how (back when he was 3) no one ever stayed in the same bed at our house. He would wake up, come crawl in with daddy and me, then later, sister would wake up, call for us, mom would go lie down with her until she fell asleep again, blah blah blah. Except that he told his daycare teacher “my mom sleeps around a lot.”

Then my daughter, after hearing my explanation that sometimes you just feel worse in the morning, especially when you have a cold, told her teacher that she was just having a little “morning sickness.” Except she was five.

Calling Larry Springer…

Okay, one more thing! It’s the weekend, and it’s trivia time! Give it a go!!! Click the know-it-all button!

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