Jokes

Why is it that I can never remember jokes? Except a very few, all dirty? I know some people who can lob them back and forth across a dinner table like
playing volleyball. Is it my brain, which remembers generalities, not specifics? Or the fact that I don't try to remember them until later—after they’ve drained away from my short-term memory. I had to emcee an event. My boss remembered the joke I told last year—I didn’t!! I asked a group of women friends if they knew any good jokes. None of them could remember a single one. Is it a female brain thing? Men do seem to be better at remembering jokes, in my experience.

Women remember stories. Here’s one that one of my friends offered in lieu of a joke.

Her friend was volunteering to teach CCD to little Catholic children preparing for their first confession. The children were nervous about it, and the teacher promised them repeatedly that nobody would hear their sins except the priest and God. They were convinced, and stood obediently in line, heads bowed, hands folded, while their classmate at the head of the line went into the confessional and faced the priest. Their eyes grew big as saucers as they heard “Bless me Father for I have sinned. This is my first confession. I pulled the cat’s tail and made her scratch my brother, …” coming over the public address system in the church. Father had forgotten to turn off his wireless microphone.