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medpundit |
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Wednesday, June 15, 2005This man is Ernest Scribbler... writer of jokes. In a few moments, he will have written the funniest joke in the world... and, as a consequence, he will die... laughing. [Ernest stops writing, pauses to look at what he has written... a smile slowly spreads across his face, turning very, very slowly to uncontrolled hysterical laughter... he staggers to his feet and reels across room helpless with mounting mirth and eventually collapses and dies on the floor.] Voice Over: It was obvious that this joke was lethal...no one could read it and live... ...All through the winter of '43 we had translators working, in joke-proof conditions, to try and produce a German version of the joke. They worked on one word each for greater safety. One of them saw two words of the joke and spent several weeks in hospital. From this week's Journal of the American Medical Association: At 4 PM on a March day, a 32-year-old, previously healthy barber was standing and cutting a client’s hair. The client related a funny story, upon which the barber broke out into a very strong, sustained, loud, and unrestrained laughing fit during which, according to observers, he "blacked out" and fell to the floor. Although he sustained interscapular bruising and minor trauma to the right shoulder, he exhibited no seizure activity and no bladder or bowel incontinence. He regained consciousness within a few seconds, was completely oriented, had no apparent neurological deficit, and immediately resumed his work. He had been working on his feet throughout the day, but this was customary for him and he had never had a syncopal or near-syncopal episode before. The temperature at the time had been mild. The timing of his most recent meal was not recorded. The patient did not reveal the content of the story. Wise man. posted by Sydney on 6/15/2005 08:47:00 PM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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