短篇笑话：异想天开_大学英语阅读_大学英语-查字典英语网

短篇笑话：异想天开

曾几何时，我们所钟爱的笑话简单质朴，不带任何色彩，不针对任何人。这样的笑话才能真正带给我们精神上的愉悦。

One of my grandsons, when he was about seven, liked to tell a story about two cows in a field. One cow said “Moo,” to which the other irritably replied:[1] “Oh, I was just about to say that.” That is an example of the kind of innocent joke that one hardly ever hears nowadays. It is not “cutting edge”[2]. It does not “push at the boundaries[3]”. It is just pleasantly funny in a completely unchallenging kind of way.

Jokes of this kind were popular with my parents’ generation but are now rarely told by anyone except children. My father used to like one about two pigeons that had arranged to meet in Trafalgar Square[4]. One of them was late and, when asked what had happened, said: “It was such a lovely day that I thought I would walk.” And then there was his one about the frog saying when God created him: “Oh Lord, how you made me jump!”

My mother’s jokes were a little sharper, but still a great distance from the boundaries at which people nowadays are so keen[5] to push. She had one about a man who had gone for an audition[6] with a singing teacher. Given the thumbs-down, he turned sadly to the teacher and said: “Could I just ask you one thing? Am I a bass or a baritone?”[7] “No,” was the teacher’s simple reply.