Humor Maze (genie)
NEXT OLDEST THING IN STACK
Joke as told by Jaime Quinn
You know that joke about the three guys walking down the beach when
they find an old bottle? You know the kind, old arabic writing in the
wax seal around the cork... They want to open it up, so one guy uses
his swiss army knife on the cork while the second one holds his
lighter under the wax and the third guy holds the bottle. With only
minor burns, they get it open, and, wouldn't ya know it, out comes a
genie. He gives the standard spiel - "I have been trapped in that
bottle for three thousand years, and so I had resolved to give three
wishes to whosoever should finally release me. Yet since it took all 3
of you to get me out, I'll give you one wish each."
Yada yada yada, the first guy says "Well, I've heard that money is the
root of all evil... I'm pretty healthy, and I don't want to be immortal...
And how can you get any luckier than finding a magic bottle on the beach?
I guess the only thing I could wish for that could never let me down is
more brains... I wish I were twice as smart as I am."
"Done" says the genie, and the guy decides to get his masters in
engineering instead of physics, and goes off to star in that joke about
the physicists and the engineers and the train tickets and the bathroom.
The second guy says, "That was a good idea. I wish I were 5 times as smart
as I am."
"Done." And the guy laughs, because he finally gets what is *so funny*
about Microsoft-buys-X jokes.
The third guy (the lighter guy) predictably says "Hey, I can do better
than that. I wish I were 10 times smarter."
Genie: "You sure about that, buddy?"
Guy:"Yeah."
"Done", and he's a woman.
The reason I tell this old chestnut isn't for the joke, but to comment on
cross-cultural humor. I told it in Mexico to someone, and they didn't get
it at all. Eventually, they said, "So the third guy was gay?" Which, to
me, makes a great surrealist punchline to the whole blowfish.
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