CSotD: Dead aunt, dead aunt, deadauntdeadauntdeadaunt …
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Morey Amsterdamused to say that you don't have to have a great sense of humor to be a comedian. You just have to have a great memory. Considering that he was called "The Human Joke Machine," I guess he'd know. He used to do challenges where somebody would throw out a random topic and he'd instantly come up with a joke about it.
I don't have his memory and, too often, when someone suggests a joke, my mind goes completely blank, which would be the opposite of Morey Amsterdam, except that I do seem to have a prodigious memory for wiseass comments, which are like jokes except that you end up with one fewer person laughing.
Like the time I was sitting waiting for a department head meeting (not being one myself at the time) and the ad manager was talking about her planned trip to the Carolinas. Someone mentioned news reports of shark attacks but she said she was going to swim anyway, and I piped up, "Well, I suppose there's such a thing as professional courtesy …"
Old joke, but, at that moment, the publisher walked into the room to find all but one department head rolling around on the floor laughing. And, speaking of heads rolling, it was a good thing for me that I didn't report to the ad manager.
Anyway, when I saw today's Pearls Before Swine, my inner Morey clicked and I went back to the files. Yup, we already knew she was dead. January 13, 2002, which is to say, within its first month of syndication.
I don't know whether to be impressed with Stephan Pastis for his consistency, or alarmed by it. Or should we assume he has an aunt somewhere who has now come across two of her nephew's strips that she doesn't think are funny?
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