We’ve Never Met a Poop Joke We Didn’t Like
It happens every time we host a playdate. All the kids are in one bedroom, laughing so hard they’re weak, snickering into their hands and gasping for breath.
Inevitably, someone has just dropped the “P-Bomb”.
As if living inside a Will Ferrell or Adam Sandler flick, children find the word Poop (or anything having to do with human bodily functions) hilarious. What, after all, could be funnier to six-year-old ears than the words “dirty diaper”?
Nothing, that’s what.
And I’m okay with it. I may be in the minority, but I get that kids aren’t going to find Stephen Colbert funny. Subtly isn’t their thing. Their lack of sophisticated senses of humor run along the same vein as their love for hot dogs, macaroni and cheese and gummy worms. They have to be hit over the head with things, so to speak, to react positively.
Just this week we were driving to the mall for new school shoes when Milo and Belle started in on a string of P-words. There was no clever twist, no attempt to tie the words into a joke of any sort. Milo and Belle were just reciting the worst terms they knew:
“Poop!”
“Pee!”
“Butt!”
You get the idea.
And they guffawed their heads off, their voices so bubbly with laughter that they could barely enunciate.
Of course, my mother-in-law happened to be riding shotgun (wouldn’t ya know.) She seemed amused—for about a minute. Then she gently suggested, “Let’s change the subject.”
“Oh, it’s just their idea of comedy right now,” I said. And frankly, hearing Milo and Belle giggling together—rather than pinching, hitting and yelling—was such a breath of fresh air that I probably would’ve let them get away with plotting to swipe their grandma’s purse, as long as they were having a good time doing it.
“Their senses of humor will evolve,” I added.
For now, though, they like their booger knock-knock jokes. And who am I to take that away from them? Go forth, kids, and make up some new, disgusting words for excrement. I, after all, have been known to indulge in the occasional Will Ferrell movie myself.
