When she was finished, she always walked backwards as she left the grave.
One day, her friend Tammy asked, “Sue, why on earth do you always leave the cemetery walking backwards?”
Sue smiled and said, “When Bob was alive, he used to tell me, ‘You’ve got such a great ass, it could bring a dead man back to life!’… Well, I’m not taking any chances!”
Joke Poo: Fido’s Fear
Old Mr. Henderson walked his dachshund, Fido, around the perimeter of the dog park every morning. But, no matter what, he would always carefully lead Fido away from the park, always looking away from all the other dogs and owners, shielding Fido’s view with his own body.
One day, Mrs. Gable, a regular at the park, asked, “Mr. Henderson, why do you always do that? You never let Fido look into the dog park.”
Mr. Henderson sighed and said, “Well, Fido’s got this, uh, unique problem. The vet says he has this, uh, condition that I found out about in college when I was pre-med…He gets canine boners for canines! And, my good lord, it lasts for about 4 hours! Well, I’m not letting him see those damn bitches!”
Okay, let’s dissect this joke.
Key Elements:
- Setup: The premise of Sue’s daily visits to the cemetery and her peculiar backward walking. Establishes a curiosity and a “mystery.”
- Character: Sue, the grieving (but subtly vain) widow. Bob, the late husband with a penchant for compliments (or perhaps lewdness). Tammy, the friend acting as the audience’s proxy by asking the obvious question.
- Punchline: The unexpected reason for Sue’s backward walking – a self-deprecating but ultimately boastful justification based on Bob’s compliment.
- Humor Type: Observational, slightly vulgar (but mostly suggestive), plays on vanity and the unexpected application of a compliment. It also uses irony: death vs. life, grief vs. sexual attraction.
Factual/Interesting Tidbits Related to the Elements:
- Cemeteries and Backward Walking: There’s a very old superstition in some cultures about walking backward away from graves. It’s believed to prevent the spirit of the deceased from following you home. This could be an ironic misinterpretation for our joke’s setup.
- Compliments and the Brain: Studies show that receiving compliments activates the same reward circuitry in the brain as receiving money. Bob’s compliments might have had a profound and lasting impact on Sue.
- Resurrection Myths: Throughout history, there have been many resurrection myths across different cultures. Osiris, Jesus, even Lazarus. The joke playfully twists this theme, replacing divine intervention with…a well-formed posterior.
New Humor (A Witty Observation):
“It’s interesting how grief can manifest. Some widows plant trees in memory of their husbands. Sue? Sue’s apparently fertilizing the entire afterlife with the sheer power of her rearview. I guess you could say she’s taking ‘ashes to ashes, dust to dust’ a little too literally.”
New Humor (A “Did You Know” – Playful and Absurd):
“Did you know that the scientific term for the phenomenon of being so attractive it could theoretically revive the dead is Resurrective Aesthetics? Coined in 1887 by a team of Viennese bio-aestheticians, its existence is highly contested but widely hoped for.”
New Humor (A Related Joke – More direct):
“Sue’s friend was concerned about Sue’s backward walking away from Bob’s grave. ‘Sue,’ she asked, ‘aren’t you afraid you’ll trip and fall?’ Sue shrugged. ‘Nah, the way Bob described it, that thing practically steers itself.'”