I do some occasional consulting work, and I was on a conference call recently when this humorous event happened:
The "insiders" (incl. me) jumped on the call ahead of time to game-plan before the "partner representatives" showed up. But, some of the partners started getting on the call early. So our project lead tells them that by arriving early they get "to listen to the comedic stylings of Aaron Strauss."
Oy. Vey. Talk about being put on the spot! And telling a joke on a conference call is even harder than in person because you can't see the other people's reactions. I immediately regressed to one of the first three-line jokes I was ever taught. In 7th grade Speech and Drama class, Mr. Andrukonis would let people out early if they could complete the "182 pun." The first example he ever gave, and the one I used on the conference call was:
182 cows walk into a bar. The bartender says "We don't serve your kind here." The cows say: "That's okay, we'll just go to the utter bar."
Now, on the call, I'm pretty nervous, and I'm trying to speed through the joke, so I don't lose people's attentions. But, I hit the punch line, and they all laugh. Phew. A colleague says that he "knows a five year old who would love that joke." Running with that line, I report that I've got another joke for five year olds. This pun I owe to one of my Wigwam campers:
Why couldn't the bicycle stand up?
Now I've told this riddle/pun about a dozen times, and no one has ever come up with the answer. So it was a big surprise when one of the partners chimed in with "it was too tired."
At that point, we all agreed, it was time to start the meeting.
Leave a comment