I Felt the Earth Move

According to reliable sources, we had an earthquake here in Southern Ontario this past Wednesday - as documented in the photo above. At the time, I remember lying in bed with Mavis - when all of a sudden the bed started shaking. And apparently, about half an hour later there was an earthquake.

HAH!

I love that joke. I use it every time there's an earthquake up here. Which isn't often. I think this was about the first in over thirty years. But whenever there's one in California, presented with the right opportunity to slip that story into conversation, I don't mind bringing it out. After all, it's the only earthquake joke I know. Some people don't even know that many.

It's the perfect joke because it works on two levels. For the intelligensia, it's very dry and subtle. The sort of thing you might have read in the New Yorker a few decades ago. For the rest of us, it's a cute little sex joke. So inoffensive you can tell in mixed company. And so subtle that you can even say it in front of children because it'll go right over their heads.

The problem is that it's maybe a little *too* subtle. That's why it often also goes right over the heads of dumb people. When that happens, and I don't get any reaction after the carefully built-up punchline, I retell it. "Yeah, there we were in bed and the bed started shaking and the headboard was banging against the wall - and apparently half an hour later an earthquake struck." And then I start braying like a jackass.

I don't really like to be someone who laughs too hard at their own jokes, but with some people there's no choice. It's just too good a joke not to share.