At the Christmas office party, CEO Schmaltzberger was asked to give a speech. After everyone was bored and trying to stay awake, he ended up his talk with a so called “joke” that went like this: “The office boy ran up the stairs not only because he needed the exercise, but because he wanted to impress his boss. Ha, ha, ha, ha. I must say that is a very funny joke. Ha, ha, ha, ha.”
The office temp said, “Where is the punch line? What’s so funny about that?
The office manager, one month before her retirement, thought to herself, “If I laugh at his joke, does that mean I’ll get a raise in my retirement benefits?”
The boss’s flirtatious secretary said, “Not only are you really handsome, but you have a keen sense of humor, too.”
The over ambitious accounting clerk said, as he was rolling on the floor with laughter, “That is by far the funniest joke I’ve ever heard before; ha, ha, ha, ha. After I become in charge of finances, I’ll have to tell it to my clerks so they can pass it down to their clerks, Ha, ha, ha.”
The vice president said, “I must say, George; is it O.K. if I call you George? You have a wonderful sense of humor. I really like people who can tell funny jokes.”
The president, trying to laugh, gave some sort of a forced chuckle and said, “He, he, he, he. That was sort of, I-I mean real funny. I’ll have to write that down to tell my grandchildren.”
The CPA said, “How many times he ran up the stairs, added by how many stairs he had to climb. He must have been exhausted by the time the day was over.”
The attorney said, “Was he careful running up the stairs? Did he trip and fall? The company that he worked for wouldn’t want any law suits looming over them. I know what that is like.”
All in all, the party was a lot of fun. Everybody heard all kinds of gossip. When they had a few drinks in them, every office secret flew out of their loose tongues.
After driving home from the party, Mrs. Schmalzberger had to drive George home because he was too drunk to drive. She was yelling at him to stop telling that stupid joke. “The only people that laughed were those who were trying to impress you. Why don’t you learn another one?” She kept telling him. “Can’t you tell when it’s not funny, you stupid idiot?” Poor George; his wife was the only one that could tell him how “not” funny he was.