Thursday, April 4, 2013

Just For Laffs

You may have heard this one before, in Singapore or in Washington.

A new guy arrives in prison, is introduced to his cellmate, and tries to settle in. At mealtime, the two take their places at the mess hall.

Just when the new prisoner starts on his chow, he hears another prisoner shout, "22!" Everyone bursts into laughter spontaneously.

A few minutes later, another prisoner calls out, "36!" The prisoners are besides themselves, practically rolling in the aisles.

"What's going on here?" asks the new prisoner, turning to his smiling mentor.

"Well, we only have one joke book in here.  After so many times of retelling, everyone more or less knows them all by heart. Now, when someone wants to tell a joke, all he does is mention the number of the joke.  Everybody remembers the joke, and they laugh just as hard as if it was told the first time."

"I see," replied the new prisoner.  "It is a curious custom, but I suppose it does save time."

Soon, the new prisoner got hold of the book, and starts to memorize some of the jokes. At the next opportunity, he screws up his courage to tell his first joke for the lunchroom crowd.

"53!" he called out with all the vigor he could muster.

There was absolute silence in the hall.  Chagrined, he turned to his cellmate buddy to ask why no one laughed.

"Well," replied his friend, "I guess some people can tell a joke, and some can't."

16 comments:

  1. Hhm..perhaps should post his recent joke telling performance on China social media and see their reactions.

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  2. His jokes are so bad, so off colour that even the ST is not reporting it.

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  3. only daft 60% sinkies find him funny...

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  4. "His jokes are so bad, so off colour that even the ST is not reporting it."

    Another censorship just like Mee Siam Mai Hum.

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  5. Ages ago, Mr peanut spoke about needing people with high EQ in leadership roles. Like most politician talk, saying it surely didn't make it so. His successor and his entire team are social misfits, just ask former classmates of the Anns, Wongs and Fus, and their sidekick P-asses. You know a country is kafkaesque (aka a malignant form of bureaucratic) when all its "leeders" have lost their sense of humor at the age of 2 (when they learned to talk). We have just such a situation here. We are not asking for anything close to Obamaesque flowery speeches, just a buffoon like Bush Jnr would be a great improvement.

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  6. Reminds me of that BeeGee's song :"I started a joke...."

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    1. Yup.... and the joke is you with the whole world laughing at you ....! KNN!

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  7. Everyone seems to think he was telling jokes, including himself. At the heart of this is a character trait no one seems to have noticed - sneering at the less fortunate and an absence of empathy. Neuroscientists believe that mathematicians seem to have little or no empathy with others. And the PM is a mathematician.I recall that at the TV press conference to explain the detention of Teo Soh Lung and others, questions were asked if they underwent torture. After GCT denied torture was used, the PM, remarked that "it could have been worse". This is the key to his personalty.

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  8. I was trying to look for that joke in ST but couldn't find it. The one about pork chop, which I didn't understand what the joke was about.

    Then I found it in the net. Then I realised, now we have Shanghai pork chop added to the previous Mee Siam Mai Hum.

    WTF, that must be the crudest joke for our leader to poke fun at China!

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  9. maybe his sister should dissect his skull and confirm the existence of a brain inside

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    1. Obama is leading the way and has just proposed $100 million in federal funding to seed an exhaustive brain mapping initiative similar to the Human Genome Project that mapped all human DNA, officially called Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN).

      “As humans we can identify galaxies light-years away, study particles smaller than an atom but we still haven’t unlocked the mystery of the three pounds of matter than sits between our ears,” Obama said.

      A very kind gesture indeed.

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  10. Lee Hsien Loong would have never been the PM had it not been for his meddling tyrant of a father.

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  11. how did lhl get elected?

    grc or smc?

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    Replies
    1. Next round..MEGA grc just 4 him..to be safe

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  12. "Mee Siam Mai Hum!" is indeed a classic joke which at one time took the nation by storm. Everywhere you go then - at that time, one could hear Mee Siam Mai Hum bring played and laughed at. Even till today it is synonymous to a national icon. It will be so forever having etched into the minds of the ppl. The moment you mention it, we all know what the joke is about and we would all laugh spontaneously and giggle uncontrollably. It clearly shows the disconnect and out of touch with the daily hawker fare the Rakyat are used to! That's why it became a joke. We may laugh at it. But it's a sad and pitiful situation of our present predicament which we just laugh it off as a joke. Think it over deeply and you will soon realize why as a nation we are in such a mess and in such a deep shit!

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  13. Despite all the criticism of PAP.
    After 50 years.
    And here we are. Still stuck with them.

    Just like herpes that keeps returning.
    PAP keeps getting re-elected every 5 years.
    At least with herpes.
    We get to enjoy the screw.
    Which is more than I can say for PAP ....

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