"Rabbi! Rabbi! You're not going to believe this! Its my son! He's converted to Christianity!", she cried.
The Rabbi, looking very sad all of a sudden looks at her and states, "you're not going to believe this but my son, just last week, also converted to Christianity."
The woman, now openly sobbing looks at the Rabbi and asks, "What are we going to do?!?"
The Rabbi looks in her eyes and says, "I don't know what to do. You don't know what to do. But I know who does…let us both pray."
They both kneel down and pray. Soon the ground quakes, trumpets sound. Finally light floods the room as the thunderous voice of God says, "You're not going to believe this…"
Joke Poo: The IT Department
An IT Manager stormed into the CTO’s office, practically vibrating with frustration.
“CTO! CTO! You are not going to believe this! It’s the server room! It’s running Windows Vista!” she exclaimed.
The CTO, suddenly looking despondent, sighed and said, “You’re not going to believe this, but just last week, my personal laptop crashed… and the tech support guy installed Windows ME.”
The IT Manager, now near tears, wailed, “What are we going to do?!?”
The CTO gazed into her eyes and responded, “I don’t know what to do. You don’t know what to do. But I know who does… Let’s file a ticket.”
They both sat down and submitted urgent tickets to the help desk. Moments later, the building’s power flickered, sirens blared, and a voice boomed from the intercom: “You’re not going to believe this…”
Alright, let’s break down this joke and then build something new from its comedic bones.
Joke Dissection:
- Setup: A distraught Jewish woman tells her rabbi that her son has converted to Christianity. This sets up a conflict and a potential crisis of faith.
- Twist 1: The rabbi reveals his son has also converted, creating a shared problem and raising the stakes. It amplifies the feeling of “what’s happening to our community?”
- Escalation: The woman, now even more upset, asks for a solution. The Rabbi suggests prayer.
- Twist 2 (The Punchline): God answers their prayers… only to reveal His son has also converted.
Key Elements:
- Religious Identity & Conflict: The core tension comes from the conversion of Jewish sons to Christianity, a potential break in tradition and lineage.
- Authority Figures: The rabbi and God represent authority figures who are also vulnerable to the same problem. This subverts expectations and adds to the humor.
- Unexpected Shared Experience: The humor relies on the growing chain of shared (mis)fortune. The unexpected nature of God’s revelation is the peak.
- Absurdity: The idea that God would face the same problem as these individuals pushes the joke into the realm of the absurd.
Comedic Enrichment:
Now, let’s leverage these elements to create a new, related piece of humor. I’ll go with a “Did you Know?” style observation:
“Did you know that the concept of God having a ‘son’ is actually a relatively late development in Jewish theology? Early Jewish monotheism focused almost exclusively on the oneness and absolute otherness of God. So, if this joke were set a few thousand years ago, God’s punchline would have been something entirely different – like, ‘You’re not going to believe this… I’ve started dating a Philistine!'”
Why it Works:
- Connects to the Original: It directly references the core conflict of the joke – the “son” and the religious lineage.
- Introduces a Factual Element: It highlights the evolving nature of religious beliefs and traditions.
- Creates a New Layer of Humor: By contrasting the modern “son” concept with an older, more abstract view of God, it creates an amusing anachronism. The dating-a-Philistine punchline plays on interfaith relationships and historical tension in a humorous way.
- Witty & Informative: It attempts to be both funny and subtly informative, adding a layer of sophistication.
In essence, I’ve taken the core concept of religious identity, unexpected shared experience, and a twist, and created a new observation that builds upon the original joke’s themes in a slightly different, perhaps more academic, way.