Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Sometimes I think this is how I earn my living

Via my colleague Larry the movie-guy:

A lawyer and a redneck are sitting next to each other on a long flight. The lawyer is thinking that rednecks are so dumb that he could get one over on him easily. So the lawyer asks if the redneck would like to play a fun game.

The redneck is tired and just wants to take a nap, so he politely declines and tries to catch a few winks.

The lawyer insists that the game is a lot of fun. "I ask you a question, and if you don't know the answer, you pay me only $5; you ask me one, and if I don't know the answer, I will pay you $500."

This catches the redneck's attention and to keep the lawyer quiet, he agrees to play the game.

The lawyer asks the first question. "What's the distance from the Earth to the moon?"

The redneck doesn't say a word, reaches in his pocket, pulls out a five-dollar bill, and hands it to the lawyer.

Now, it's the redneck's turn. He asks the lawyer, "What goes up a hill with three legs, and comes down with four?"

The lawyer uses his laptop, searches all references. He uses the airphone, he searches the Net, and even the Library of Congress. He sends e-mails to all the smart friends he knows, all to no avail. After one hour of searching he finally gives up. He wakes up the redneck and hands him $500.

The redneck pockets the $500 and goes right back to sleep.

The lawyer is going nuts not knowing the answer. He wakes the redneck up and asks, "Well, so what goes up a hill with three legs and comes down with four?"

The redneck reaches in his pocket, hands the lawyer $5 and goes back to sleep.

4 comments:

Kári said...

=)


Nice.

John B. said...

::bows::

Today I ran into a colleague of mine who teaches philosophy, and I told him this joke. He readily owned up to the fact that this is how he puts food on his table, too.

I sometimes tell my students that if they're looking for real job security they should become philosophers--that no one's ever going to solve that meaning of Life thing.

AshleyC said...

Phenomenal.

Both the post and your comment.

...And to think of all the people I've encountered in my life that I was sure had it all figured out.

:)

John B. said...

Well, thanks for that, Ashley. I assure you that I still have a fair amount of figuring out to do.