Breaking down
Sarah from Belfast brings us a joke from the hard shoulder
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There were these two men driving down the motorway, and one of them broke down. So the other car pulled in behind him and asked the man could he help. And the man said 'I don't know, are you a mechanic?' And he said 'No I'm a chiropodist'. So, he said 'Well can you give us a toe then?'
Marie says
This joke is a pun and characteristic of the sheer pleasure and fun that so many of us have with the English language. People displayed a real love for language play. It is perhaps this wordplayfulness, more than anything else, that expresses a sense of Britishness.
Our language is, after all, what we all share, our most common currency. So often we hear how our language is being debased or spoilt. But our survey is a living testimony to human creativity and the comic imagination – and the comic imagination tackles taboos or forbidden boundaries.
Content last updated: 30/05/2007
