Knock, knock

April 29, 2008 by Barbara.

As I’ve mentioned before, we read Chirp magazines fairly often. Reid chooses them over most books. I’m glad we have a few from when Danielle was young but I’d add to our collection with yard sale treasures if ever I found them. It’s funny to read the pages exhorting us to go to the backyard and look for bugs when our backyard has at least 3 feet of snow in it but it’s better than limiting ourselves to the winter issues. The toughest part for me, though, are the jokes on the back cover. They’re not at all offensive, although the knock-knock jokes occasionally make me groan. No, my problem is that Reid never understands the jokes but won’t let me skip the page. Instead she asks me to explain them and that sucks the humour out of any joke. I might be more sensitive to this than most as I am awful at telling jokes (or so I’m told). I certainly have had to explain more than my share, I think.

Most recently, I read the May 2008 issue:

1. Tongue twister: Say “backyard fun” 5 times quickly. Reid won’t ever do these but she could do them if she would only try.
2. Pun/Riddle: What’s the biggest ant in the world? (An eleph-ant!)
3. Pun/Riddle: How does a farmer cut her grass? (With a lawn-mooer!) Extra points to Chirp for breaking gender stereotypes.
4. Knock-knock joke:
Me: Knock, Knock.
Reid: Who’s there?
Me: Eddie.
Reid: Who Eddie? (I smile because I like how she continues to get the question backwards. I hope she outgrows it before the other kids make fun of her but not too soon.)
Me: Eddie-body want to come out to play with me? (I look at her expectantly, thinking this one is obviously funny and she’ll laugh.)
Reid: (Dead silent with expectant look.)
Me: Can you hear how “anybody” and “Eddie-body” sound the same? That’s funny. (I guess kids have to learn what funny is?)

What I want to know is this: when do kids find other people’s knock-knock jokes funny and, on the other hand, when can they re-tell funny knock-knock jokes? I remember wishing my nieces and nephews and friends’ kids would *stop*  telling the ones that they make up that are just plain pointless. We’re deep in the middle of that stage at our house. Reid laughs uproariously when she completes a knock-knock joke. Sometimes they involve made-up, silly words and sometimes “bathroom” words. Either way, they tickle Reid’s funny bone and leave me smiling at how much she enjoys them, at least for the first 2 or 3 jokes. Recently Reid has started wanting to take turns starting the exchange which means, of course, that I need to have good knock-knock jokes in my head. I generally don’t. I’ve done a little Internet research and now just need to memorize a few. Not that Reid will find them amusing but I have a little pride in my joke-telling skills, no matter how humble they may be.

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