The Joke Book

I heard Joke #8190. It's pretty funny.

The book sure is long these days. I remember when there were only 84.

I was out on the road one evening as the sky was growing darker, the clouds rolling in. I was really hungry and didn't have a decent coat or hat to keep the rain off. So I checked in at the Federal Pen for the night.

There weren't many rooms available so they put me up in the block reserved for lifers.

After lights out the block was quiet, then I heard "27!", a short pause then laughter. A few minutes later "42!" with a pause followed by laughter. Of course I had no idea what that was about so I asked my room mate.

He explained, "It gets so boring here on the block, nothing to do but tell jokes to one another."

"What jokes?" I asked, "I only heard 27 and 42."

"We have a book that we write the jokes in. Some times when a new guy gets in he might know a new one, we add it. To make things simpler after lights out we just call out the number. The book's over there, you can read through it tomorrow so you know which are the funniest."

Just then "15!" followed by immediate uproars of laughter throughout the whole block. Even my room mate was chuckling, "That's a really good one."

I really only intended to stay the one night, but one thing and another, I was there long enough to read and memorize all 84 jokes.

One night I finally worked up the nerve to tell a joke myself. Number 15 really was a good one and it hadn't been told in quite a while, so I called out "15" and waited. Silence.

About 10 minutes later one of the old-timers called out "15" followed by immediate uproars of laughter throughout the whole block.

"What the?" I asked "That's the same joke I told and nobody laughed."

"Well" my room mate explained, "Telling a good joke takes skill. Some have got it and others don't."

a reply to: pthena

I don't get it...

I don't know, maybe it's funny, maybe I'm depressed or something, normally i would look but I'm tired...to the point that life or death don't mean nothing
God bless

a reply to: pthena

Hah! Nice

a reply to: CrazyBlueCat

It got late. I overthought the punch line.

"Well some people know how to tell them and others don't"
probably would have worked better.

I'll just keep practicing like my room mate suggested.

a reply to: pthena

Hahah! I got it but I do agree the bold may have helped
Practice makes perfect right .. nah, practice makes us more confident
Keep practicing!

I went back on your old threads I like your poems