Chapter 21: Jokes

I forgot to mention something that happened in Mexico City. As Kike tells it, here goes this story:

No bro, you won’t believe it but we were in Mexico City with my cousin, in her car. We went to go fill up the tank at the gas station. So we roll in, pull up to the pump. Some kid is selling candy, and comes over to see if we want any. We buy a pack of gum and off he goes to the other cars. Of course the nerd pumping gas takes forever but finally comes over and asks us how many and we are like “you think we are rich or what? Just because we have a Gabacho? 50 pesos.” As he is filling it up we see this motorcycle drive up. This huge guy with a leather coat and everything. The beard and whatever. We see the kid with the candy go over and offer the motorcyclist some. We see him smile a big grease smile and tell the kid that if he drinks a liter of gas, he’ll buy all his candy and give him 200 pesos on top of that. A little macabre, but we all watch in horror as the kid drinks the liter. The man is laughing but pays the kid what he owes him, and the kid takes off running. He runs down the street and around the corner. We all look at each other and, you know, ayyy. We pay the man and take off, deciding to follow the kid to see if he’s ok. As we turn the corner and see him lying face down in the middle of the street. We got out and turned him over and you know what had happened to him? He had run out of gas.

When we were in Acapulco, as we were walking down the beach in front of million dollar hotels, Adalid looks out at the ocean she had seen for the first time just the day before and asks contemplatively, “do you know why the ocean is blue?” I begin to slowly explain the reflection of the sky and what causes the hue of the water to look different colors. I am struggling greatly without all the words I need, but I am pretty sure I am getting the point across. We walk in silence a few minutes and she says, “…no.” I look at her and think maybe I didn’t explain it well, or didn’t have the right words to express myself. “Yes, it’s like… it’s like…” and she cuts me off “no. It’s because the fishes say ‘blue blue blue.’” It took me a minute to get but I guessed that in Spanish the fishes say “blue” like the roosters cry “kee kiree kee!” I guess it was pretty funny.

Here is another joke (I was told this one at church):

There is an American and a Mexican on either sides of the Rio Bravo (Rio Grande) hunting ducks. A duck flies between them and BOOM both hunters shoot. The duck falls into the water and the Mexican hurries down and picks it out of the river. The American, quite adamant, tells the Mexican that he shot the bird and it is rightfully his (although the joke was told to me making the American guy as stereotypical as possible, you can imagine the Mexican as a blatant stereotype, because I am telling the joke and I can tell it like I want to). The Mexican says that he is sure he shot it, but if the American would like, they can make a deal. “Here is the deal” the Mexican says. “I am going to kick you in family jewels as hard as I can and for as long as I want to, and then you can, and then I can, and so on, until one person gives up. The person who doesn’t give up gets the duck.” “Fine,” the American says. So the Mexican kicks him and kicks him and kicks him until he is tired from kicking him so much. “Great” the American says, “now it’s my turn.” “Aaagh,” the Mexican says, “go ahead and take duck.”

Everybody else is laughing but you don’t get it, do you? I don’t either. It makes no sense! Why is it funny?