Jul 17, 2008 06:10 PM
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New York, 4:15 AM
Wed Feb 10
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John McCain got in trouble this week for an old joke he told once about how women enjoy rape. No one gets his sense of humor! He grew up with the subtle wit of Sir Francis Burnand's Punch, is it his fault the kids today all read filthy comic books or whatever? Similarly, The New Yorker got in trouble this week for printing a cover that everyone had to pretend not to understand in order to be outraged about how no one would get the joke. It was complicated. But we have advice from an expert that will help. John McCain needs to read this email from your day editor's mother.
Maybe, though, you could have summarized all of your tips by using the very sage advice that kid gave you in 2nd grade, when the teacher had you guys write an advice column. Each of you wrote one letter asking for advice and each of you answered one letter. You had a sad letter about basically how you were too hip for 2nd grade, you were telling all sorts of funny jokes and nobody got them. And you wanted to know how to make those kids understand.
And the kid who answered your letter wrote:
Alex,
you should tell funnier jokes.To this day, I laugh and laugh and laugh when I think of that, and how mad you were about it.
And I never made bad jokes again.
Send an email to Alex Pareene, the author of this post, at alexp@gawker.com.
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