My children seem to be naturally funny — not just goofy, or doing silly things accidentally that get a laugh. But with a knack for humor and timing. Especially Kate.
And Flora has a wonderful sense of humor. When her father or I make a joke, and she gets it, she laughs, and declares, “I get that!”
Dan recently told the joke about the hunter that was an atheist. (Have you heard it?*) The girls now request it.
Last night, we were at Bella and Tadone’s. Now, I need to set this up a little bit: When Kate was younger, she had problems keeping her pants up. Because little girls don’t have hips, and it seems designers of little girls’ jeans were not wise to that fact. Sometimes, Kate, like your family plumber, showed a little more bum than she ever meant to. And people used to comment teasingly on it.
As we were sitting down to dinner, Kate was regaling Tadone with a story — and I do mean regaling. Tadone laughed when she was done, and said, “Katie, I think when you grow up, you are going to be an actress. You’ll be on stage!” Kate responded immediately, “Well, that’s better than telling me I’m going to be a plumber.”
Of course, sometimes they are accidentally funny too. Flora was asking me about “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World” recently. “Could they really hear the shot all over the world?”
“No, Flora, that’s kind of a metaphor. Like you learned about in school.”
“You mean idiom.”
“Okay, a figure of speech. Yes. It wasn’t really heard all around the world.”
“How far away was it heard then?”
* Dan did have to explain what an atheist was first, then he told the girls this joke at dinner:
An atheist hunter was out in the woods. As he was hunting, he accidentally woke up a hibernating bear, who started chasing him. The hunter ran and ran until he came to a cliff and couldn’t go any further. He looked up to the sky and said, “God, you know that I don’t really believe in you. But if you are there, please turn this bear into a Christian.”
The bear stopped charging right in front of the hunter. It folded its paws and lowered its head.
Then the bear said, “Bless us, oh Lord, and these they gifts that we are about to receive…”
What’s your favorite joke to tell kids?
Red Pen Mama 