I’m a terrible joke teller. Spectacularly poor one, really. So much so I’ve always been convinced I don’t like jokes.

Knock knock jokes? Torture. Torture to tell, torture to hear, t-o-r-t-u-r-e. But do knock knock jokes even count really? They’re sort of the nursery rhyme of joke telling and while some do elicit a semi-good natured grumble/chortle they are generally underwhelming.

Also? The stress of someone turning to me with “tell me a joke!” is a next level. You know that scene in a movie where the profusely sweating bomb squad tech is trying to diffuse a bomb while the red countdown numbers tick away? It feels like that. Can’t think, can’t remember, can’t come up with something funny to save my freaking life. Just saying.

Turns out as I grew older and oh so sophisticated I came to understand that some stand up comics are more my jam. Not so much the quick patter of jokes ones. I lean hard into the observational and anecdotal comedy spaces. This year alone I’ve seen Josh Johnson and Jordan Klepper so if they ever declare The Daily Show a genre then I guess that’s the sort of humor I’m into.

I like to laugh, I do.

Just please don’t ask me to tell a joke. We’re all better off if I leave that to the experts.

Linda hosts Stream of Consciousness Saturday. This week’s prompt is “joke.” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!