Yesterday my friend Paul was driving me home. His wife was in front of me. I was in the back. Paul was really tired, having driven to London, Ontario and back home again, twice. We were on the highway, just before the exit towards my house.
Paul says, "Are we giving you a lift or are you walking?"
His wife collapsed in a giggle fit. It was only funny though, because I was already in the car and he was already driving me home. If he'd asked at a different time, it might not have been funny. Well it would have been funny if he'd asked me that back in London but then it would have been a different kind of funny.
It just illustrates how humour is so dependant on timing. My friend Jay, who I saw yesterday has an almost perfect sense of comic timing. Listening to him tell a funny story is like listening to someone playing Paganini on a Stradivarius.
We were sitting in Tim Horton's one time. Myself, Paul, Jay and Derek were at the table. Derek was the only blonde at the table. Keep that in mind. Someone we knew came over and told us a joke. I don't remember who it was, just one of the guys we knew from another table. The joke went like this.
"So a blind man walks into a bar and after ordering, he says the the bartender, 'Hey, you want to hear a blonde joke?' The bartender replies, 'Well, before you tell your joke you should know that I'm a blonde. The guy sitting next to you at the bar is a blonde. The two guys at the table behind you are blondes and the bouncer at the door is a blonde. You still want to tell your blonde joke?' The blind guys makes a disgusted face and say to the bartender...
'Nah. I wouldn't want to have to explain it five times.'"
We chuckled politely and then Jay turned to Derek (who was smiling but not laughing) and begins to explain,
"You see Derek, they're all blondes..."
We lost it. The joke wasn't that funny, but Jay's perfectly timed sucker punch turned it into something great. We still talk about to this day.
Timing is everything.
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