I was thumbing through some old issues of the once famous Punch magazine when I came across this absolutely priceless late-Victorian cartoon: the young man is reclining against the trunk of a shady tree beside his lady love, and by way of making conversation he asks her 'Do you like Kipling?' to which she tartly replies 'I don't know, you naughty boy, I've never kippled'!
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5 comments:
I've got more to say about this one - but for now: it makes me chuckle, giggle, and chortle quite inspite of myself every time I read it. I don't even know why I find it funny, although Asimov says that it's all because of the 'naughty boy'.
Actually I'd thought you would find it all terribly non-funny and improper when I came across the joke.
Did you know what a young boy said when he overheard a conversation about Dickens though? - Hmm. It's not as blinding a howler as this one but still...
I was wondering though what exactly she thought 'Kipling' meant when I was on the bus today...
Take care.
Shilpi
As I think both of us can guess by now, Shilpi, this was one of those jokes that go clean over most readers' heads! Sigh...
I've been wondering why there have been no other comments apart from that ignorant one which you thankfully enough removed...But maybe that’s why Asimov actually explains the joke in his book!... but maybe some think that it's improper or unbecoming somehow...with Kipling being 'reduced' to a 'naughty-boy' verb.
I know nobody has to find it as outrageously funny as I do but it has to raise some chuckles surely even though it paints the lady-love in unbecoming colours. She was probably looking forward too to being kippled. Chortle-chortle!
Sir,
I loved this joke! In today's age when people like reading Chetan Bhagat's writing more than a Dickens, or Hemingway, your writings are a nice change.
Regards,
Purnata Ghosal.
Thank you, Purnata. Good to hear that you are a genuine reader. Try Vaishnavi's blog on books - it's on my blogroll. Also the one called People Reading, you might like both.
Don't be too disheartened by people around you, though. Reading was never a strong point with Indians (as I have discussed seriously time and again on my other blog), and on top of that this one-horse town called Durgapur we live in takes pride in being ignorant! Those who say they 'read' stuff like Chetan Bhagat are not readers at all - and Bhagat himself knows that, if you have read his interviews!
I hope you get to know more people who like reading. They are the best sort to know...
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