Saturday, July 18, 2009

I've been asked that question a million times.

Last night, I was talking to a guy at work and we were comparing our knowledge of bad jokes. He used to live outside Boston, and that reminded me of a very old and awful joke I couldn't wait to repeat.

A tourist grabs a burger kind of late one night, and after the meal he realizes he's been in Boston for three days and has only eaten burgers and pizza. So in the cab on the way back to his hotel he says to the driver "Hey, where can a guy get scrod around here?" The cab driver says "Buddy, I've been asked that question a million times, but never before in the pluperfect subjunctive."

Thank you. Thank you.

Incidentally, the Wikipedia article on "Scrod" dedicates an entire section to a form of that joke, noting:
Contrary to the joke, however, "scrod" is not the pluperfect of "screw." The "third-person pluperfect indicative", though a legitimate grammatical construction ("he had gone" is the corresponding part of the verb "to go"), is used in the joke for humorous effect only; the structure of the given sentence would not support its use.


So. Take that, old joke. You just got fact checked!

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