Bob and Flo tell a joke, by Don Taco

Bob and Flo tell a joke 

copyright 2025 by Don Taco

"Hi, honey, I'm home!"

"What's for dinner?"

"I heard a joke at work today."

"Is it funny?"

"Yeah. At least, I think so."

"Well, go ahead then. You haven't told it before."

"Ha ha. It seems there was this prince..."

" Is this the one about the polaroid and the polar bear?"

"No. I don't know that one."

"I don't either. But if we did, I bet it'd be really funny."

"I bet it would. As funny as how many naked Presbyterian bicyclists it takes to change a light bulb?"

"Probably. Possibly. We still don't know exactly how funny that one is."

"True. Anyway, this prince..."

"Polaroid prints or Kodak prints?"

"I didn't ask."

"Another lost opportunity."

"Perhaps Polar prints or Kodiak prints."

"Perhaps!"

"Anyway, this prince, from Nigeria..."

"Ah. Couldn't be clearia."

"Or drearier."

"True! Polar extremes."

"Oh, very good."

"Thanks. It was the least I could do."

"Noted. Now where was I?"

"Had you even started?"

"Don't get me started."

"I thought you were self-starting?"

"No, you're thinking of the Moped."

"Weren't you starting a joke?"

"No, you're still thinking of the Moped."

"Something about a prince. With hemorrhoids?"

"No, that was Polaroids."

"Oh, yes. Just as unpleasant but much colder."

"Maybe cold enough to kill him."

"What makes you say that?"

"He was found dead."

"Presumably in Nigeria."

"In his apartment."

"Which might or might not be in Nigeria."

"Yes."

"Very sloppy reporting."

"Sad but true."

"Did they say what killed him?"

"They did not."

"Very sloppy investigating, too."

"True."

"You'd think a prince would get better treatment."

"They did say that he'd been ostracized by the current government."

"Ostracized? Are you sure it wasn't ostrich-sized? Or perhaps Osterized?"

"Well, they didn't actually say ostracized. I upgraded the word."

"Presumably to protect the innocent."

"Of course."

"Go on."

"If he'd been Osterized, they wouldn't have found him dead. Just a puddle of goo."

"True."

"If he'd been ostrich-sized, it would have been easier to get him in the Osterizer."

"Also true."

"In any case, they said they found him dead in his apartment. And do you know what really surprised them?"

"That you eventually got to the point?"

"I haven't yet. Kind of you to point that out."

"My kind of point."

"Point for you. Who's winning?"

"Heh. Nobody."

"What really surprised them was that there was sixteen million dollars stashed in shoe boxes in his closet."

"That's a lot of shoe boxes!"

"And not only that, but on his computer they found tens of thousands of unanswered emails that he had been sending out for years, asking for help."

"Oh! I might have gotten one of those."

"I think everyone did."

"I feel sorry for that poor prince. But wait, wasn't this supposed to be a joke?"

"It was told as a joke. People laughed."

"But is it funny?"

"That's a good question."

"Maybe you shouldn't keep telling it, if it might not be a joke."

"It might even be true."

"For all we know."

"Right. What are we doing for dinner?"

"Nothing's planned."