"Certainly sir, you are in the lobby sir"
Joke Poo: The Compost Crisis
[Farmer in the barnyard] “Excuse me, I need your help. I forgot which pile is the manure pile?”
“Certainly, sir, you’re standing in all of them, sir.”
Okay, let’s analyze this joke:
Key Elements:
- Setting: A reception/lobby area, implying a hotel, office, or similar.
- Character 1 (The Guest/Lost Person): Exhibits forgetfulness and disorientation. The humor stems from the fundamental nature of forgetting something so basic as the room you’re in when you are at reception.
- Character 2 (The Receptionist): Possesses basic knowledge of the building and provides a simple, obvious answer. The humor here is in the understatement and lack of further probing. A good Receptionist would try to help find out where exactly the person needs to be.
- Humor: The humor is derived from the unexpected level of disorientation of the guest, and the dry, literal response of the receptionist. It’s a mild situational irony and relies on a relatable fear of losing one’s bearings. The gap between the guest’s need and the receptionist’s (lack of) help.
Enrichment & New Joke:
Now, let’s use some facts related to memory and the act of forgetting to build a new piece of humor:
Tidbit: The hippocampus is a region in the brain strongly associated with memory, particularly spatial memory and the formation of new memories. Research has shown that London taxi drivers, who must memorize a vast network of streets, have larger hippocampi than average. Also, a study showed that forgetting increased significantly in people over 60 who didn’t regularly learn something new.
New Joke/Observation:
I saw a guy at the hotel reception desperately trying to remember his room number. He looked genuinely distressed. The receptionist, bless her heart, just said, “Sir, you’re in the lobby. Maybe try learning something new everyday.” I thought about suggesting hippocampus exercises, but I also forgot what floor I was on. I am under 60.
Explanation of the New Humor:
- It builds on the original premise of forgetting and being in a reception area.
- It incorporates a relevant fact about the hippocampus and how to improve it.
- It introduces the concept of hippocampus exercises.
- It adds a layer of self-deprecating humor by having the narrator (presumably me/us) also forget their own floor, reinforcing the relatable fear of forgetfulness.
- The receptionist giving a solution is now a part of the joke.
- It is another layer of situational irony, a twist of the original, and it’s slightly funnier.