Bring on the laughs

This week we inherited this awesome joke book.

I told you my youngest brother came home after his two year mission in California for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  He was cleaning out his room (and wondering why in the world he held on to a bunch of this stuff) and decided to get rid of a bunch of his books from when he was younger.  Since my children are the only ones in the family that can read (for now) they were the obvious choice to pass the books to.  My kids were thrilled to get a bunch of Goosebumps tales and adventure books, but the big winner this week as been this book of jokes and riddles.

The favorite joke from the book (why is this the favorite, I have no idea) goes like this.

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A man walks into a diner carrying a dog under his arm.  He puts the dog on the counter and announces that the dog can talk.  The man says he has $100 he's willing to bet anyone who says he can't.  The head cook quickly takes the bet and the dog's owner looks at the dog and asks, 'What's that thing on top of this building that keeps the rain out?'

The dog answers, 'Roof.'  the cook says, 'Are you kidding?  I'm not paying!'

The dog's owner says, 'Double or nothing, and I'll ask him something else.'  The cook agrees and the owner turns to the dog and asks, 'Who was the greatest baseball player ever?'

The dog answers with a muffled, 'Ruth.'

With that, the cook picks them both up and tosses them out on the street.  As they bounce on the sidewalk in front of the diner, the dog looks at his owner and asks, 'DiMaggio?'

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I do have to admit that I did a bit of chuckling the first time one of the kids told this one to me.  However, I have now heard it over and over in varying forms from just about every child (Ellie pretty much just barks like a dog and expects me to clap for her) so it is a little bit less funny now (and by that I mean it's getting annoying and hard to pretend that I am still amused by this joke). 

Still, I do get a kick out of the fact that my kidlets are so entertained by this book and the jokes that are hiding inside.  It has been fun to watch (and listen) as they explore these pages and attempt to turn themselves into stand up comedians (they get that from their father).