Number sixty-two is a good one

Lord Fred went up to one of the more sensible looking men and touched his shoulder. "Excuse me..." he said.

The man turned and looked at him. "Oh, another one. My condolences, Sir."

"I beg your pardon?"

"That's okay, just don't do it again." The man smiled a wan smile and continued: "You probably wonder about this place. It's cursed."

"Cursed?"

"Cursed. You see, there is only one entrance - the one you came through - and no exits. Sure, there's a lot of tunnels, but they all lead back here. Eventually."

Fred frowned. "But surely there must be a way out somewhere?"

The man sighed. "Gee, I never heard that one before! You are welcome to explore, of course - there's about twenty other people out there that haven't given up yet. But trust me, sooner or later you'll end up with this gang, hanging around the big cave telling jokes to pass the time."

"Telling jokes? Is that what you are doing?"

"Yes, but we ran out of jokes and started over ages ago. By now we have told the jokes so many times everyone knows them by heart, and someone came up with the idea of numbering them. So now we can just say the number instead of telling the whole joke."

This is madness, Lord Fred thought. Oh well, when in Rome...

He waited for a moment of silence, then he stepped forward and said in a loud voice: "Eighty-four!"

There was a brief interval of stunned silence as everyone stared at him. Then the room exploded with laughter. People were doubled up with laughter, slapping their knees or even rolling around on the floor.

"That must have been a good one," Fred observed as the laughter finally died out. "You bet it was!" the man exclaimed, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes. "We only know eighty jokes, so that was a new one!"

1. Fred decides to try the tunnel he came in through. It's still there; surely it must lead somewhere...?
2. Fred tries another tunnel.
3. Fred shouts another high number.
4. Fred shouts an irrational number.
5. The next number spoken does not get any laughs. Fred's guide tells him the joke is good enough, it's just the way it was told.
6. This is boring, what is Josh Burbank up to?

Add New Option

Go Back

View Forward Story Tree
View Back Story Tree