thanks, my friend

Standing in the lunch line at "American Table" cafe:

Me: "There are a lot of funny stories I want to share, but they fall into the 'you had to be there' category."

Dan: [nodding]

Me: "Perhaps it's just about context. If a great writer described all the context, effectively transporting the reader there, the story should be just as funny."

Dan: "No. Let's say a cocky guy is strutting down the street, and slips on a banana peel. If you were watching it, that would be really funny. But if I tell it to you afterwards, it's not."

Me: "Then it's about managing expectations. If you're not expecting anything to happen, the surprise makes it funny."

Dan: "Right."

Me: "So I just need to lower expectations first, by telling a lot of pointless stories."

Dan: "Well, you've got that part down!"

---

As an example of one such story...

Standing on a street corner in San Francisco, at 10pm. A taxi drives by with a huge ad on top of it, with "ORACLE" in red letters on a white background.

Tom: "Do these Oracle ads actually work?"

LG: "I could sure use some enterprise databases right about now."