An Old Joke

We were at As You Like It, aka Shakespeare in the park this weekend.  A guy seated behind us said that he had a Shakespeare joke.  I've done some editing and put it in play form for the amusement of my readers.

Scene: A small town in Oklahoma.  The gentle folk are a mixture of urban and rustic. 

Players: We have Tommy, eight years old and his mother. 

Tommy and his mother are walking down the sidewalk.

Tommy: Hey, ma, look at 'dem cowboys with their funny legs!

Mother: Tommy, we do not talk of other people like that.  This is the last straw, you are going east to learn some manners and culture!

Two years later Tommy has returned a new, cultured, young man.  He and his mother are once again walking the side walk.  As this is a joke, we find the same cowboys at their same place, still bowlegged and not too much worse or better from the passage of the years.  Tommy sees them...

Tommy: Behold Mama, what manner of men be these that wear their legs in parentheses!

End

I think my dad told me this joke a long time ago.  The punch line was bit naughtier, but it was the same joke.

"So, how was the play?"  I hear you ask.

As Shakespeare goes, I liked this one a lot.  I've grown weary of most of his stuff that I see.  It seems too simple and a bit of "one joke" problem to solve.  And this play had some of those elements in it, characters switching genders for example.  But they company that put on the play added 5 songs to the original.  They used more modern language while maintaining ties to the original songs.  It made it more entertaining for me. 

We had a nice time, wine, sandwiches, some hummus and carrots.  Probably could have used some warmer clothes as it was a sub sixty degree evening.