Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Knock-knock!

The Terrors are learning to tell jokes. Oh.my.god. Shoot me now, people. Girl Terror "gets" that jokes are funny things you tell a person, and they laugh. She doesn't seem to understand the difference between "Funny due to content" and "funny due to delivery". The first time she told us her joke, she giggled so much we ended up laughing, too. Now, she thinks her joke is funny. Even though she NEVER gets the punch line right. Here is her version of the knock-knock joke:

GT: "Knock-knock!"
Long-suffering mother: "Who's there?"
GT: "Banana!" (tee hee hee)
LSM: "Banana who?"
GT: "Knock-knock!" (giggling)
LSM: "Who's there?"
GT: "Banana!"
LSM: "Banana who?"
GT: "Knock-knock!" (almost speechless due to giggles)
LSM: "Who's there?"
GT: "Orange!" (hysterics)
LSM: "Orange who?"
GT: "HEE HEE HEE!! You're so glad I didn't say Banana!!"

Her brother has caught the knock-knock fever, mainly because he loves to do the Knock knock motion, flapping his entire arm. This is HIS version of the same joke:

BT: "NOT NOT!"
LSM: "Who's there?"
BT: "NOT NOT!"
LSM: refuses to answer due to twitch in eyelid. This turns the joke into a monologue.
BT: "NOT NOT! NANA!!" He cackles. "NOT NOT!! NOT NOT!!! NANA!!"

His part is written in shouting capitals because that's the way he talks. All the time.
The other day I caught them sitting at the table, telling the joke to each other. The assignment of lines seemed to be random, with both of them shouting "Knock knock" (or, in Boy Terror language, "NOT NOT") and "Banana" repeatedly, and then convulsing into laughter. Perhaps I am really raising the new generation of late-night TV hosts.

4 comments:

Jeannie said...

Ah - you must be forgetting when you were young and a banana could be funny all on its own. Just wait til they find out bums are funny. I remember my brother and I telling that same joke over and over.

OldHorsetailSnake said...

I remember part of an old song:

"Lemons for me, bananas for you."

Which, apparently, is how it works out in your family.

(Oh chuckle snort titter laugh cackle!)

Baba said...

(I'm new here; just stumbled on to your blog ... familiar subjects.)
My son (almost 4) is also going through a "Knock-knock" phase (again).

One of his favorites is
"Knock ...
"Who's ..."
"Ach"
"Ach who?"
"Bless you! Do you have a cold?"

It's even funnier now that he's begun to make up his own ... because they make no sense, but his tone is so earnest:
"Knock ..."
"Who's there?"
"Blubbhh"
"Blubbhh who?"
"I thought you said blubbh instead of blah."
Over and over except with slightly new nonsense words each time.

This past Christmas, he received a Knock-Knock joke book. It wasn't as fun as one might expect. If you're going to read the jokes to a three year-old, you'll have a lot of explaining to do. Often, you have to explain the key word AND the pun. And then, since a lot of the punchlines are are common expressions, you have to explain what the expression means.
e.g.,
Knock ...
Who's
Detail.
{What's "detail" mean?}
Detail who?
Detail is wagging the dog.
{Detail? The tail? See?}
{There's this expression, "the tail is ..."}

Sheeesh! By that time it's an expository essay, not a joke.

~~Baba
http://occupationdad.blogspot.com

P.S. Do your little ones know the Wiggles' song "Knock Knock, Who's There?" If not, dare you introduce them to it?

Anonymous said...

I'm laughing so hard because my boys went through a "joke" phase and they'd want to have a "comedy hour" EVERY.FREAKING.NIGHT. and me and my husband would have to suffer through hours of "jokes" (But, not really jokes at all) and yeah, we'd end up crying from laughing because, well, the things that came out of their mouth, but still, I remember cringing when they'd come running in and ask "Can we have comedy hour now?"

hahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.