Jokes and the 4 (almost 5) year old

Celeste needed me to sit with her a little bit before she fell asleep tonight. While we were talking about various things, the subject of humor and jokes came up.

Celeste told me about her favorite way to play knock-knock jokes. "You say 'knock-knock.' Then I say 'Nothing!'"

I decided to reach back in my memory to my old first-grade joke book and asked her, "What's red and goes up and down?"

Celeste wasn't sure, but she giggled at the answer: "A tomato in an elevator." She also wanted to know if it got stepped on and was squishy.

I then tried, "What's black and white and red all over?"

She thought long and hard before asking me for the answer, "A newspaper," and then we talked about the differences and similarities between r-e-d and r-e-a-d.

Then Celeste said she had a joke, "Why do kitties stay away from poodles in the rain?"

I tried to think of an answer and finally said something about fizzy hair.

Celeste just smiled and got all zen about it, "There is no answer."

Then she cracked up laughing.

Comedy Stylings

Quinn and Celeste both have pretty good senses of humor, but they haven't really reached the joke-telling stage of childhood yet. Except, this afternoon, Celeste came up with one that I think is pretty good, all things considered.

The girls often discuss what sort of dog they are at the moment, and Quinn was in the midst of running through a list of what color Labrador retriever she was.

Quinn: "I'm a black lab, no a white lab, no a brown lab ..."
Celeste: "chocolate lab!"
Quinn: "..., no a yellow lab, no a green lab, no a teal lab, no an orange lab, no a purple lab, ..."
Celeste: "No, no, no! You're a lavender retriever!"

Who's There?

So after work, I headed to meet Evelin and the girls for the first iteration of Family Fun Night at Rhode Island Reds. We were the first ones there, and the girls had eaten before going, so Evelin had coffee, I had an Anchor Porter and the girls had a nice applely dessert.

While we were sitting around and talking, Quinn burst out with her comedy stylings.

Quinn: "Knock knock! Who dere?"
Me: "Who's there?"
Quinn: "Uhm, strawberry!"
Me: "Strawberry Who?"
Quinn: "Hahahahahahaha [pause] Can I come in?"

Evelin later told me that K---, Quinn and Celeste's cousin who was visiting earlier in the week was doing the classic banana, banana, banana, orange knock-knock routine, which is probably why Quinn picked a strawberry for the setup to her punch line.