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Sunday, 11 August 2013

Knowing When Not To Turn The Other Cheek

The other side

We’ve all heard the joke, “Why did the chicken cross the road?” Usually, what crosses the minds of people hearing the joke for the first time is that this is a trick question which requires a clever answer. They are often dumbfounded when their thought processes are interrupted and they are told that the simple answer is “TO GET TO THE OTHER SIDE”.

Usually at this point, people go into overdrive and come up with several variations of the same answer or invent new ones – from risible to funny to absurd. And of course there will always be the mischievous individuals with dark, macabre sense of humour who will insist “the other side” refers to “the afterlife” thus, suggesting that the chicken crossed the road because it wanted to be crushed by a car!

We’ve all heard the question: “Why did the Lagos state government deposit 14 vagrants of Anambra origin in the State’s border, Onitsha?” Usually, what crosses the minds of people hearing the question for the first time is that this is a trick question which requires a clever answer. They are often dumbfounded when their thought processes are interrupted and they are told that the simple answer is “TO GET THE ANAMBRA GOVERNMENT TO TAKE THEM TO THE OTHER SIDE”.

Usually at this point, people go into overdrive and………. (FILL IN THE BLANKS or DRAW your own conclusions.)


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