Did You Hear the One About the Clean Joke?

The challenge had come over our office phone. One of my co-workers turned to a group of us in the data entry pool.

"Quick...I need a clean joke."

We all kind of sat there for a moment and looked at each other. We didn’t say anything for a moment. None of us even questioned WHY she needed a clean joke! However, the five of us had the same lines of thought.

Oh, the one about the monkey, the sailor, and the…mmm…nope.

Even better…that one about the 12-inch pianist! Ohhh…no good.

There once was a man from Nantucket…DAMMIT! That’s a limerick!

Do I even know a clean joke?

Turns out I did – but I was discouraged that it took me a couple of minutes to think about it!

Where does it say that all jokes should involved dirty words and sex bits? Can one be funny without resorting to expletives and innuendo? This is not to say I’m a puritan. If you’ve read the blog even for less than a couple weeks – you’ll find that we sometimes let a few ribald comments go.

But sometimes, I mourn the loss of a good, clean joke. There’s something satisfying about delivering a joke that everyone gets. Being able to avoid blushing saying the punchline in front of your grandparents, younger relatives, or clergy person is pretty nifty feat nowadays. Too bad a simple Knock-Knock joke doesn’t cut it anymore.

Does it have to be this way? Well…no. There is a place and time for potty humor, I promise. Sometimes you just need a good laugh gag. But I just can’t believe that we no longer have any good, clean fun!

So – in typical MGF fashion – I make a plea. Build up your own clean joke library. We need more of these jokes in the world, if only to prove to ourselves that we’re smarter than a poop joke. There is fun to be had without a cuss word or a stunning blond carrying a yard of salami into a bar with a poodle on a leash. But it gets kind of old after awhile, don’t you think?

I’ll even start you out with one. Coincidently, it was the joke I gave to my friend that day in the data entry pool. It was the only joke that would pass muster:

A lady is driving home from a business trip and she ends up having to drive through an Indian Reservation. She stops and goes shopping before heading out of town. Along the way, she picks up an old medicine woman who is headed home. The Navajo lady accepts the ride and thanks her. They chit chat for awhile and then the old lady notices a bottle of Navajo wine in a bag on the floor of the car.

The business lady notices her glance and says, "I got that for my husband."

The Navajo lady smiles and nods when she says, "Good trade."