Monday, May 4, 2009

Ben's First Joke

Okay, this one will take some explanation.

For quite some time now, Neil has periodically told Ben the following joke: A tomato and a beet were walking down the street. The tomato says to the beet, "Are you a tomato?" And the beet says, "No, I'm a beet!"

Yes. That's the joke. Okay, so it's not exactly Chris Rock, but it has a certain charm.

Occasionally the tomato and the beet change roles, but to more or less the same effect. Why a tomato and a beet, you ask? Well, there are framed pictures of a tomato and a beet in our dining room.

When Neil is really feeling restless, he'll make an even greater departure from the tried and true by describing an analogous exchange between, say, a potato and a yam. Those were the protagonists in tonight's episode.

So I decided to one-up him as follows: A turnip and a radish were walking down the street. The turnip says to the radish, "Are you a turnip?" And the radish says, ....

And here I paused and looked suggestively at Ben, who piped up, "No, I'm a radish!"

3 comments:

Madeline said...

Grampy would be so proud!! :)

rouchi6 said...

Good one. cracking jokes is a very good milestone..

leah said...

What a clever boy! He definitely understands the pattern of the joke!

We've been doing the "knock knock" joke format with Matt (Nolan isn't as innovative with his language yet- he is big into imitating ver batim) and it is great for understanding language patterns, practicing conversational back-and-forth, etc.