A string walked into a bar, hopped on the barstool, and said, “Bartender, gimme a beer.” The bartender said, “I’m sorry, sir, we don’t serve strings here.”
Disappointed, the string hopped down from the stool and went to the next bar. He hopped on the barstool and said, again, “Bartender, gimme a beer.” The bartender said, “I’m sorry sir, we don’t serve strings here.”
The string continued down the row of bars in this fashion. At every bar, he hopped on the barstool and said, “Bartender, gimme a beer.” The bartender at every bar in turn said, “I’m sorry sir, we don’t serve strings here.”
Finally he got to the last bar in the area. He was tired, he was sweaty, all he wanted was a beer. He trudged inside, climbed on the barstool, and said, “Bartender, gimme a beer.” This bartender, too, said, “I’m sorry, sir, we don’t serve strings here.”
Tired and angry, the string walked outside to think. He was a hard-working string. He deserved a beer. Finally, he came up with an idea. He had a passerby tie him up into a bow and frazzle his ends. Then he went back into the bar, and climbed up on the barstool. “Bartender, gimme a beer!” he said loudly.
The bartender looked him over critically, and finally yelled, “Hey, aren’t you that string that was in here a few minutes ago?”
The string replied coolly, “Nope, I’m a frayed knot.”
**********
An old punster made the king the butt of most of his jokes. Consequently, he was loved by the people, but hated by the king.
The king endured the ridicule for months. One day, after hearing people in the streets repeating some of their favorite quips, he had had enough. He had the following statement posted around the royal city:
“By royal decree, anyone who tells a pun will be hanged by the neck until he is dead.”
The old punster kept telling his jokes, including puns. He was arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to be hanged at dawn in a week’s time.
The king’s conscience was pricked. He didn’t want to execute a citizen for merely telling jokes. So the king sent a message to the hangman on the morning of the execution, telling him that the old man was to be given a pardon if he promised never to tell another pun.
The old man couldn’t imagine living in a world where he could not tell a pun. So he replied, “No noose is good news,” and died gladly.
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