...and the rest of what's left

your turn to tell the joke

"... and that's why they had high foreheads and small ears!" bram said laughing, beating isabel for the pun.

we were hanging out at joey's cafe, which by the way is a name that i think is quite odd for a beer pub in a medieval city like brugge.

as we cracked up at each other's jokes, our laughs were drowned by the song playing in the pub. if it was dolly parton singing again, i swear it was her third song that day. i pretended not to hear, humming another song instead in my head. then when i thought that nothing can be more cheesier than the pasta we had for dinner, i realized it REALLY was old dolly singing.

darn.

"who has another one?" i asked, looking at rosien and wim's direction. they both said "pass" and hid behind their half-filled glasses, a rosé for her and a beer for him.

"i already joked about the baboons!" snapped wim. he smiled and gave his girl a nod. i thought i saw the unlit candles melting behind them.



"my turn!" lebo said, ready to keep the banter going.

she takes a swig of beer and starts "so, there was a hitchiker... " and delivered the funniest punchline ever since the french said "non" to the eu constitution, only to be met by blank stares from the two couples from antwerp.

"pfft..." lebo pretending to gas out, muffling the sound just a little bit.

at both ends of the table, stephen and i were having a roll. i couldn't keep myself from stomping my feet and snorting (yes, i snort when i laugh).

"uhm, ok, we'll act this out!" stephen excitedly suggested, his chinky eyes still welling up from laughing. "you guys might get the pun from this. ok i'll be the driver..."

"...i'm the passenger" flipped lebo, readying for her role.

"and i'm the hitchiker..." while sticking out my right thumb.

the three of us went on with the gag, completely enjoying ourselves.

and then we got to the punchline. this time with much gusto.

but still there was silence.

and if you were there with us, you could have heard me fart for real (it was part of the joke!). our audience of four were more confused and maybe even bothered.

***

"son," i remember a good uncle told me once, "nothing kills a good joke but a bad translation."

uncle, may i add,"...telling it twice in a one night is even worse."





state of mind: kapag minamalas ka ba naman....
in between my ears: julia fordham

this is marc's version of the truth, sometime at 11:45 PM if you can't live with it, he can.