Karen's Joke File: An Experiment (#1 of about 5)

I told a joke last night in IM that a certain well-known journaler didn't care for much, or indeed at all. It's my favorite joke, but honestly, hardly anyone ever seems to like it.  Still, they usually react to it at least a bit better than the person last night did. I'm wondering whether the change of medium adversely affects the success of the joke.

So here's the plan.  As an experiment, I will post about five or six jokes, including the one that drew the negative reaction.  I will post only one joke a day, because I haven't finished typing the first one yet and it's already quite long. Your mission is to tell me which joke is the one people never "get" at first, and whether it works for you, and whether any of these work for you. 

Ready? By the way, I'm blowing my wad here.  These are pretty much the only jokes I know, so don't expect me to regale you with jokes ever again after this week.

Joke #1.  The Two Airline Passengers

Two passengers on a plane happen to be sitting near one of the plane's four engines. Half an hour into the flight, one of them says, "Did you hear that?"

"What?"

"I think one of the engines just died."

"How can you tell?"

"I can't hear it any more."

"You're crazy."

But sure enough, a minute later, the pilot comes on and says, "This is your captain speaking.  Some of you may have noticed that one of our engines has malfunctioned and isn't working. But don't worry: you're all perfectly safe.  This aircraft has four engines. It can fly safely to our destination with three working engines.  However, it will take longer to get there.  I estimate that we'll get in half an hour late."

Unfortunately, ten minutes later, the first passenger says,"It just happened again."

"What?"

"I don't hear the engine on the other side now."

The second passenger doesn't believe him, but then the pilot comes on. "Sorry, folks, but we lost another engine.  It's okay; we can still make it on justtwo engines, but we'll be an hour late now."

Twenty minutes after that, the first passenger says, "Uh-oh."

"You don't mean..."

"Yup."

The pilot comes on the P.A. again, and this time the first passenger can hear that the guy is nervous. He says, "I guess that third engine couldn't take the extra load, because it just quit on us. But I know for a fact that the fourth engine was recently overhauled and is in excellent condition. It should get us there, but now we're going to be two hours late."

The second passenger turns to the first one and says, "I hope we don't lose that fourth engine.  We'll be up here all night!"

Coming soon to a journal near you:

The Brick * The Prison Jokes * The Con and the Corn Flakes * The Monkey * and possibly one more.

Karen