The Mister loses 100 points

While I'm working on some other writing projects, The Mister has taken the reins today. Enjoy.


While sitting in my usual spot in the corner of the room at the teacher's desk the other day (while the actual English teacher proceeded with the lesson and did his best to forget that I was there), the two students sitting at the two desks opposite me asked me if I knew any jokes.  Apparently they were as bored as I was.

As it turned out, I had just heard a "real" Spanish joke on a Spanish-teaching podcast that I listen to.  So, puffed up with my recently acquired cultural savvy, I replied that indeed, I did know a joke.  Their eyes lit up and one of them yelled "cuenta!" (do tell!) so loudly that the English teacher interrupted his monologue and looked in our direction.  I gently reminded the student that this is a classroom and is no place for that sort of behavior, waited until the English teacher went back to his monologue, and then proceeded with telling my joke.  (As The Missus will confirm, I can't resist the opportunity to try and be funny, however doomed it is.)

The joke precedes as such:

Hay dos peces en el mar.
There are two fish in the sea.

Un pez dice al otro pez, "Que hace tu padre?"
One fish says to the other, "What does your father do?"

El otro pez dice, "Nada."
The other fish says, "Nothing/He swims."


The "funny" part of the joke comes from the double-meaning of the word "nada".  It can mean "nothing" or "he swims" in Spanish (from the verb nadar, for those who care).

I knew I wasn't bringing the house down like I'd hoped when the two students stared at me blankly for a few seconds upon my finishing.  I was afraid they weren't going to get it, and then I was a little excited at the prospect of having to explain the joke, being in teacher mode and all.  But then everything changed.

Their little noses both started to crinkle at the same time, and then came the boos.  Loud boos.

Loud enough that the English teacher started throwing quizzical looks in our direction.  I frantically tried to get them to hush, so they decided to express their disappointment through other means.  One student quickly drew a stick figure with my name and an arrow pointing to it, and the words "-100 puntos".  He held it up for me to see and loudly proclaimed in Spanglish, "YOU" (pointing at me then at the stick figure), "MENOS ONE HUNDRED PUNTOS".

I sat there, thoroughly chagrined, but not too chagrined to be sassy. "You mean minus one hundred points".

To which he vigorously nodded his head.

And I went back to being bored.