Annabelle's Joke

It all began as a harmless family trip to the mall.  We enjoyed a delicious, healthy, mall dinner, carefully prepared for us (no we didn't supersize it).  I got my usual $26 mall haircut by perhaps the one last straight "stylist" in the profession.  Then we ended our evening out by browsing the book store.  There, in the "kids" section, was a joke book to which our 7 year old daughter, Annabelle, took a liking.  As we were browsing the other books, Annabelle would read us several selections from her soon-to-be newest book (thanks to Dad).  They were all Dixie cup quality knock-knock jokes, amusing to her, and our 6 year-old son, but pretty darn lame for a humor connoisseur such as myself -- those jokes were at least 3 years behind my kind of humor.

As we are driving home from the mall, Annabelle breaks out this new joke book to provide us all with a dash of in-car entertainment.  With her sweet, innocent, 7 year-old voice, she reads, "What.... did the ... ffffirst mmmate... see in the toilet?"  "What?", Kim and I asked with curiosity... "The captain's log."  What came next, was uncontrollable laughter of epic proportions... from me.

Perhaps the key element of humor is surprise.  I was not expecting that joke book we found in the kids section to have a "gross jokes" section.  I was not expecting my 7 year-old to tell a joke meant for 13 year-olds, and I was not expecting to find a joke meant for 13 year-olds so darn funny.

So parent's of kids friends with Annabelle -- be forewarned.  If your child tells you a joke having to do with poop, pee, barf, or some combination of all three, you now know who to blame.  Sorry!