Tiger Woods

[Laurence Horn]

>When I was a child, my father used to be fond of telling those very
>long and winding narrative jokes, and one I remember in particular
>punned on the Whittier poem with a detective story that focused on the
>"boyfoot bear with teaks of Chan." The gist was that a detective was
>hired to uncover the mystery of who had stolen the teakwood statues
>from the Chinaman's woodland shop. Turns out a young bear had been
>traumatized in a fire, in which he had lost his mother, hence the
>kleptomaniacal tendency. All the fur and the claws had been burned off
>the bottom of his feet in the fire so that he left footprints that
>resembled those of a small boy.
>
>What I marveled at then was that enough people were familiar with the
>poem to enable the joke, which required a sizeable investment in time
>and attention to reach the punch line, to carry any sort of currency.
>Apparently it did, though, because it seemed to be making the rounds at
>that time (early '60s).
>
>sally o. donlon

there was a whole slew of these, including one whose punchline hinged
on someone being arrested for violating of the Mann Act by crossing a
state lion for immortal porpoises.  And then there was the one whose
moral was "a Benny shaved is a Benny urned".  Of course I forget the
shaggy-dog lead-ups.

Larry