Sunday, April 13, 2008

Punny you should say that...

Exactly fifty years ago, I learned an Italian joke based on a pun. It's a bit rude, so don't ask your Italian grandmother for a translation. Italianophiles will, of course, have no problem with it.
There's a whole series of jokes about a mischievous boy called Pierino. In this case, Pierino is down in the courtyard playing with some girls. His mother, returning from shopping, has gone up to the apartment to find that the door is locked and Pierino, she assumes, has put the keys in his pocket. So she leans over the balcony and calls down to him in the courtyard below:
"Pierino! Le chiavi! Le chiavi!"
He looks up and replies:
"Mamma, le ho appena conosciute!"

You can see that I am desperate: I went birding this morning and saw nothing apart from my first Yellow Wagtail of the year, and now, in the afternoon, I can't work outside because it's raining. Just be grateful I don't know any pun-based jokes in Russian or Turkish.

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