The Fishermen Two fathers and two sons go fishing. They each catch a fish, but upon returning home, they find that there are only three fish in the basket. How can this be?
Age before beauty The dog is older than the cat, the cat is younger than the parrot, which is, in turn, older than the dog. Which animal is the oldest?
"On this river there is great traffick in the skins of beavers, otters, foxes, bears, minks, wild cats, and the like. The land is excellent and agreeable, full of noble forest trees and grape wines, and nothing is wanting but the labor and industry of man to render it one of the finest and most fruitful lands in that part of the world." -Johan de Laet, New World. 1625-
A woman gets on a bus with her baby. The bus driver says: “that’s the ugliest baby that I’ve ever seen. Ugh!” The woman goes to the rear of the bus and sits down, fuming. She says to a man next to her: “The driver just insulted me!” The man says: “You go right up there and tell him off –go ahead, I’ll hold your monkey.”
It is hard to generalise about humour in the British Isles. Each area has it's own distinctive style, but one thing is almost always true: humour is hard to avoid. The American journalist Bill Bryson wrote: "Even after twenty years here, I remain constantly amazed by the quality of the humour you find in the most unlikely places." He goes on to say that one of it's distinctive components is "taking the piss". This term has no equivalent in American English. It refers to dry, ironic humour that ridicules a situation or person.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
