PORCH PONDERINGS

A Tradition of Joke Telling

PROMPT January 29th

Write about something funny! Share a joke, recount a humorous story, or tell your readers about a funny experience you had.


I am a member of a community theater group. We perform in a community center theater that once was a school. It is rather an informal membership. The leader of the group contacts everyone in July.

“Do you want to be part of the show this year?”

So you reply, yay or nay. Then he assigns parts as people commit to performing. This is a unique, eclectic group. Some are farmers, ranchers, one lady raises goats, one lady is the postmistress of this tiny enclave (100 addresses), pastor of the community church, some retired people, a young mother who teaches in a small rural school, one fellow works for the highway department. Pretty much a cross-section of rural Montana adults. But one thing we all have in common is our love of the absurd, jokes, and theater.

After each show, it is the tradition to tell a joke after the curtain call. The jokes usually have to be slanted toward the subject of the play.

One time I played a telegram office employee. I had to deliver telegrams during the performance. I made the telegrams for the play. It was set in an old mining town. Silly melodrama, lots of fun.

My joke was:

“Did you know there are three ways to spread the news?
Why no, Norma. What are they?
Well, we have the modern telephone, then before that, there was the telegram, and then we have the oldest technology of all: tell-a-woman.”

It got a good response.