My Joke Collection (#8)
Mugger: "This is a stickup—now come on, your money or your life!"
Jack Benny: (silence)
Mugger: "Look, bud, I said your money or your life!"
Jack Benny: "I'm thinking it over!"
—Jack Benny (Wikipedia)
Timing is everything. Jack Benny's stingy television character may have clutched his pocketbook with a death grip but he knew the value of silence—and wasn't afraid to give it away.
Let's see, would I rather be rich or alive? Rich, of course. But I've got money only while I'm alive. Yet, hmmm. Mr. Benny's supreme circular thinking is the second quality that makes this a treasured part of any collection. Circular reasoning is humanity's perpetual motion machine.
The third reason? Humor often comes from what we don't say. Complete silence can do that. So can not saying certain words. Growing up, there were many words Mom placed off-limit. Most we didn't know anyway. A side effect is that we kids pushed ourselves to the limits of laughter. We spent hour after hour thinking up other ways to say "stupid", "pee", and "fart". Especially fart. As an adult I still can't believe I'm able to say it. Fart. You adults out there, instead of an expensive night out on the town, a birthday gift, or a honeymoon, converse about gassy leaks from the digestive pipe without using that crucial word. There's nothin' like it.
Fart.
Click here for more info about this joke collection thing.
Jack Benny: (silence)
Mugger: "Look, bud, I said your money or your life!"
Jack Benny: "I'm thinking it over!"
—Jack Benny (Wikipedia)
Timing is everything. Jack Benny's stingy television character may have clutched his pocketbook with a death grip but he knew the value of silence—and wasn't afraid to give it away.
Let's see, would I rather be rich or alive? Rich, of course. But I've got money only while I'm alive. Yet, hmmm. Mr. Benny's supreme circular thinking is the second quality that makes this a treasured part of any collection. Circular reasoning is humanity's perpetual motion machine.
The third reason? Humor often comes from what we don't say. Complete silence can do that. So can not saying certain words. Growing up, there were many words Mom placed off-limit. Most we didn't know anyway. A side effect is that we kids pushed ourselves to the limits of laughter. We spent hour after hour thinking up other ways to say "stupid", "pee", and "fart". Especially fart. As an adult I still can't believe I'm able to say it. Fart. You adults out there, instead of an expensive night out on the town, a birthday gift, or a honeymoon, converse about gassy leaks from the digestive pipe without using that crucial word. There's nothin' like it.
Fart.
Click here for more info about this joke collection thing.
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