"34"

I loved Soupy Sales. Soupy died on October 22, 2009 at the age of 83. His various shows were favorites of mine from childhood to adulthood. I still remember White Fang, Black Tooth and Pookie. Who can forget Soupy's quote to us kids: "Be true to your teeth, so they won't be false to you."?

My all-time favorite joke came from Soupy Sales. I will try to do it justice:

A convict was taken to his prison cell and as he was getting acquaiinted with his cell-mate, all of
a sudden he heard someone down the cell block yell out "17!" Everyone on the cell block erupted
in fits of laughter. A few minutes later, he heard another prisoner yell out, "22!" Again, the entire
cell block was roaring with laughter. The new convict turned to his cellmate and asked, "What's
this all about--someone yells out a number and everyone starts laughing." The old con explained that they had all been in prison so long that they had all the jokes memorized, so they had them numbered, so they just yelled out the number. The new con, wanting to fit in, summoned all of his courage, and yelled out, "34!" There was silence--not a giggle, not a chortle, not a guffaw--nothing. The new con turned to the old con and asked, "What happened?"

The old con said, "Some people just don't know how to tell a joke!"

In my family, if someone dares to repeat a joke, someone invariably will yell out, "34!"