Heard Any Good Numbers Lately?

Have you been there before? Sitting on the same bar stool, talking and listening to the same tired stories over and over, night after night. You'd all laugh together, thinking you're the only one depressed and miserable.

Then a new fellow enters the bar. He orders a bourbon, of course, because this is  Kentucky. A young man off in the corner shouts, "15!" Everyone laughs and goes on drinking. So do you, until a tired looking old man at the bar, in a slurred voice, cries out, "94!" Do you laugh? Sure you do, because everyone else does. You've been here with them often.

The stranger looks perplexed. "47!" Comes a voice from somewhere. Everyone roared with laughter, then sipped another sip.

"Why do these people shout numbers, and why do people laugh?" he asked.

The poor woman next to you lifts her head off the bar. "We all have heard the same stories and the same jokes so many times that the man in that booth over there assigned numbers. Now we just say the numbers. We all know what we mean. These are some really funny jokes."

She lays her head back on the bar. The newcomer orders another bourbon, and then with a grin calls, "61!" No one laughs. The woman drowsily lifts up her head again.

"Is 61 a bad joke?"

"No," said the lady. "You didn't tell it right."