Tell me a joke…

June 4, 2007 in Uncategorized
Todd_and_pattiIn July, I’ll leave to teach at the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication in Portland, Oregon, for several weeks. I’ll teach three courses there this summer with three amazing colleagues: Humor and Play as Intercultural Tools, Training at the Edge: Experiential Tools for Intercultural Learning, and Using Storytelling to Lead Change and Diversity Efforts. Oddly, I have funny photos of me with all three of my co-facilitators. Come, join us! Make funny faces in Portland! And, of course, learn important stuff that will save the world.David_liz_patti_in_seattle2sm

To prepare for one of the classes – the one about humor – I need your help. Send me your favorite jokes. Remember diagramming sentences in the 8th grade? We’ll do the same with the jokes you send, exploring what makes them funny and how they translate into different cultural contexts (or don’t.)
Kichom_scream_smSend your favorite jokes by leaving them in a comment – or if they are really raucous, by sending them via email.

Did you hear the one about two interculturalists teaching a course on humor? ….

About Patti Digh

Patti Digh is an author, speaker, and educator who builds learning communities and gets to the heart of difficult topics. Her work over the last three decades has focused on diversity, inclusion, social justice, and living and working mindfully. She has developed diversity strategies and educational programming for major nonprofit and corporate organizations and has been a featured speaker at many national and international conferences.

15 comments to " Tell me a joke… "

  • Reply
    Sarah
    June 5, 2007 AT 10:22AM

    Hey Patti,

    This isn’t a joke, but rather a hysterical book: http://tinyurl.com/334ymh

    Not a word in it, but it’s been sitting on my desk and every preson who picks it up laughs. It’s awful – and adorable – and just funny. Hope it helps!

    Sarah (who wants you to come to the East Coast!)

  • Reply
    Maggie
    June 5, 2007 AT 1:27PM

    This one always gets a groan, rather than a laugh, but I think it’s hysterical anyway.

    Q. What did one lesbian vampire say to the other?

    A. See you next month!

  • Reply
    Viaggiatore
    June 5, 2007 AT 2:34PM

    I just heard this one this week, and maybe it was just my mood at the time (or the perfect delivery of my southern gentleman friend who told it to me), but I giggled for a very long while afterwards:

    Him: “Have you ever smelled Moth Balls?”
    Me: “ummmm… yeah, of course.”
    Him: “How did you get their little legs apart?”

    Not sure it has any cultural relevance, but clearly I’m not qualified to make that judgment! Good luck with the classes!

  • Reply
    jasper
    June 5, 2007 AT 3:32PM

    Picture this:

    Two small boys in the hospital waiting surgery.

    The one asks the other, “What are you in for?”

    “A tonsilectomy” answers the second.

    “Oh, that’s no problem.” says the first. “I had that done when I was 6 years old. They put you to sleep and when you wake up your tonsils are gone and you get all the ice cream you can eat.”

    “Boy that sounds great,” the second boy said. “What are you in for?”

    “A circumcision,” answers the first boy.

    “I had that done when I was a baby, and I couldn’t walk for a year.”

  • Reply
    Laura
    June 5, 2007 AT 4:03PM

    Let’s hope i get this right. I adore jokes but I’m a dope who can never remember them! My friend told this one with the best accent, very helpful.

    Three dogs, a terrier, a retriever, and a chihuahua, were vying for the affection of one very lovely poodle. Not knowing who might be the best mate, the poodle came up with a test. “Whover uses the words ‘liver’ and ‘cheese’ in the best sentence will win my affection.”

    The terrier, an antsy, neurotic little fellow, said, “I hate liver and cheese?” To which the poodle replied, “Ok, not bad.”

    The retriever, ever the pleaser, said, “I LOVE liver and cheese?” And the poodle shrugged, “Alright.”

    And then the chihuahua, wearing a mini-sombrero, tweaked his little mustache, sidled up to the other dogs, raised his eyebrows and said, “Liver alone, cheese mine.”

    Snort.

  • Reply
    David Zinger
    June 5, 2007 AT 4:32PM

    Hi Patti:

    I see all of leadership as a potential “joke” and have started a new blog to be playful with leadership. See my latest post on 360-degree feedback.

    I wrote my Master’s thesis on humor and counselling – we have an extra “l” in counselling in Canada just for the “l” of it. I wanted to call my thesis: This Thesis is a Joke: An Examination of Humour in Counselling (we also put “u” in humor). My committee nixed it and it was called The Factors and Functions of Humour in Counselling. That was no joke.

    Not my favorite joke but one that came to mind reading the other contributions: Sex in the eighties is great but it improves if you pull over to the side of the road.

  • Reply
    David Zinger
    June 6, 2007 AT 1:35AM

    Just another quick aside. In the Globe and Mail yesterday there was a small piece that the ideal joke was 103 words in length. The longer the joke, the more payoff expected from the punch line.

    Of course, when you think of it, 103 is an odd number. And if you write it backwards, and don’t hear something about Satan, it is 301 which is still an odd number. And it is even odd that I mention this.

    You should not have got me started Patti.

  • Reply
    The Purloined Letter
    June 6, 2007 AT 5:14PM

    Still my favorite:

    What did the Buddha say to the hot dog vendor?

    Make me one with everything!

  • Reply
    Boadicea
    June 7, 2007 AT 3:31PM

    So, a drunk, a terrorist and an evangalist walk into a bar.

    The bartender looks up, shocked, and stammers “Mr. President, what are YOU doing here?”

  • Reply
    Donna Snyder
    June 7, 2007 AT 11:52PM

    bumpsticker:
    Bipartisan
    I’ll hug your elephant if you’ll kiss my ass

  • Reply
    janewilk
    June 8, 2007 AT 8:41AM

    Here’s two I like:
    A twenty dollar bill and a one dollar bill are chatting, and the one says to the twenty, “How’s life going for you?” The twenty says, “Great! I just got back from a beach vacation, I’ve been to casinos, restaurants, you name it! How about you?” And the one says, “Oh, you know – church, church, church.”

    The other one:
    What do you get when you cross an agnostic, a dyslexic, and an insomniac? A guy who lies awake all night wondering if there’s a dog.

  • Reply
    Sue Muller
    June 8, 2007 AT 2:36PM

    This is the one joke I’ve made up in my life and I trot it out whenever I have a chance.

    What do you call a cellist from the ‘hood?

    Yo Ma Ma.

  • Reply
    Heather Robinson
    June 8, 2007 AT 7:05PM

    I’ll offer two of my all-time favorites (in addition to the “one with everthing” joke David Zinger already contributed). As they are puns, they won’t travel into other languages…

    1) Q: Why don’t cannibals eat clowns?
    A: They taste funny.

    This one upsets grammarians, but I still like it…

    2) Q: What is the difference between the fiddle and pea green paint?

    A: It is easy to teach someone to fiddle.

    Look forward to seeing you two at Laugh Camp!

  • Reply
    Nicole
    June 10, 2007 AT 12:19PM

    This from one of the Prairie Home Companion joke shows they do every year- It would be good to listen to one online. . .

    A Grasshopper walks into a bar.

    The bartender says, “Say, we have a drink named after you!”

    The Grasshopper says, “You have a drink named Steve?”

  • Reply
    howard h.
    June 13, 2007 AT 12:35PM

    Me: How many feminists does it take to screw in a light bulb?

    You: I don’t know, how many?

    Me: (indignant) That’s not funny.

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