Friday, February 17, 2006

A Little Poop Humor

As much as you try parents, you can’t avoid it. You might as well tell the Greenland icecaps to stop melting. Sooner or later you are going to find the key to that creaky old box that holds your childhood memories, blow off the dust, open it up and pull out a few of those old poop jokes that caused you to spit Cap’n Crunch all over your sister at the breakfast table.

Or maybe it’s just me. I read in the Pocket Parent, or rather it was read to me by my wife after interrupting my own reading of Terry Pratchet for the fifth time, that one technique parents have adopted is to take one night off from discipline and let the children reprimand them for bad behavior. The parents play with their food and belch, and probably make other bodily noises I imagine, and the kids run out of breath laughing so hard.

My wife resisted it for a couple years. It started when I came home with a volume of Captain Underpants books. My wife put her foot down, and the books went into the darkest recesses of the catch-all closet. We gave it to Jackson for his sixth birthday, and now, every night before bed, Jackson and I read them together.

If you can handle a little potty humor, these books push the silly button for a young boy. The author Dav Pilkey is like Tom Hanks in Big, who is a young boy in a man’s body. This guy remembers what it was like.

Some people won’t like these books because the heros are two young boys who cause trouble, always pranking. They get in trouble with their principal Mr. Krupp, so they hypnotize him with a hypno-ring. Now every time Mr. Krupp hears the snapping of fingers, he becomes Captain Underpants. Later he acquires actual super powers by drinking Super Power Juice found in the cockpit of the space ship of alien invaders. Sounds silly? You bet. That’s why the kids love it. My son laughs so hard that he falls into choked silence for long stretches and his mouth wide open.

Last night we read this joke:

Why did Tigger stick his head in the toilet?
Because he was looking for Pooh.

And:

Knock knock?
Who’s there?
I’m a pile-up.
I’m a pile-up who?
That’s not true; don’t be so hard on yourself.

Jackson is still laughing.

12 comments:

mr. schprock said...

I remember those books! I used to enjoy the Flip-O-Rama sections. I could just do them all day.

Oh, and then, when I was done with the books, I'd let the kids read them.

Toni Anderson said...

Something for DH and DD to look for :) I'm pooped out!!!

Have you read 'Walter the Farting dog'?

Trevor Record said...

What the hell is captain underpants and how is it they stole my idea? No, really, I had the idea for captain underpants in middle school. I told a lot of people about captain underpants. Only my captain underpants had only one superpower; lack of shame.

Jada's Gigi said...

Too funny...I mean the image of you reading this stuff with Jackson..:)
I'm sure my 8 yr old nephew would love those books and come to think of it, my own 25 yr old son would too most likely. :)

Scott said...

As usual Mr. Schprock, you crack me up!

Toni - No, but perhaps I will look into it...

Trevor - Yeah, and somebody stole my idea for a man in pajamas with the powers of a spider. Oh well. Seriously, you never know if your idea got through the grapevine. You have to read this guy though, he really is in tune with the kid's psyche.

Cheryl - We have a ball with it. And I just love to see him laugh.

Scott said...

Erin - Thanks for the joke. I'll pass that on to my son. By the way, I just got it what your name means. It's that old rhyming song, isn't it? Bananna-fanna-danna fee-fi-fo fanna. Something like that with more in between.

Anonymous said...

I remember telling one poop joke as a child - soap doesn't taste good. All children love poop jokes and the Captain Underpants series is VERY popular. I say a resounding YES to any books that encourages a child to read.

Shesawriter said...

OMG! Thank you, Scott for the laugh. It's been a tough day and I needed it.

Bless you,

Tanya

Moni said...

My daughter absolutely looooves Captain Underpants. And I find them funny myself, so I'm not much of a deterant. What the heck, she has plenty of time to become a proper little lady. :)

Sadie Lou said...

Poop
Poo
Fart
Those, indeed, are the funniest words in the English language to me. I don't try to hide it.

Anonymous said...

Oh Sco-ott - Tag you're it!

Kathleen said...

I don't have a poop joke, but I do have the joke that was my little brother's favorite when he was about 4.

What did the one hot dog say to the other hot dog?




Hi Frank!

That would send him into paroxysms of giggles like no other riddle.