She Who Laughs Last

A few years ago, I was watching TV with some family members and The Tonight Show was on. And this was around the time that Britney Spears was having problems with Kevin Federline. It was a rough time in my life since I cared so much about those two. (If they can't make it, who can?!) Anyway, Jay Leno made a joke that I thought was pretty funny. He said, "There's news that Britney kicked Kevin out of the house. Which was actually pretty dangerous, because it was going about 65 miles an hour at the time." I think that's a pretty solid joke.

So all of my family laughed and it went to commercial. And about two minutes later, my little sister started laughing really hard. So we all turned to see if she was reading a magazine or something. But she wasn't. She was just sitting on the couch. And when she saw us all turn around, she stopped laughing really quick.

When we asked her what was so funny, she claimed that she remembered an inside joke with a friend and it made her laugh. But I knew better. So I called her out on it.

As it turns out, she had just gotten the joke about Britney Spears. And although she laughed along with everyone else when Jay Leno said it, she definitely didn't get it. So she sat there for a few minutes trying to figure out what the joke was implying and why a house would be moving at 65 miles an hour. And it took her two full minutes to figure it out!

So now, every time she laughs, I like to ask her if she really got the joke and then explain the punchline just in case.