“How is a sewer like a woman?”

– They both have “manholes”

My informant first heard this joke when at the age of seventeen (circa 1972) he was hanging out with his friend Ernie Murphy and he told my informant the joke.  The joke was told when both were living in New York City, a few years before they went their separate ways.  The informant learned the joke at the house of Ernie Murphy.  The two were playing some video games and my informant told Murphy a joke, so Murphy told my informant the joke.

This joke is a sexual one that is meant to compare a sewer to a woman’s private area.  This joke is not really told until someone reaches the age of 16 or 17 when he or she knows about sex and all that it encompasses.  The joke is told between two men for the sole reason that it would be extremely rude and awkward to make the above comparison.

The reason why this joke is important in my informant’s life is because of one reason: my informant is a CPA and gets really stressed, so a simple joke helps get rid of a little stress that my informant has.  This is why my informant is so jovial.  He has an extremely tough job so in order to live a life without anger, he decides to get rid of stress by telling jokes and laughing at them.  One little joke can go a long way in helping one’s health.

When asked his reaction to the joke, my informant states that he thinks the joke “has gotten old, but I keep telling it because young ‘whipper snappers’ like you have never heard it.”  It is very interesting to note the situation in which the joke was told.  My informant and I were on the couch, so he was relaxed which truly shows that jokes help my informant ease some stress.

My first reaction to this joke was laughing because I believe the joke is really funny.  Being 19 years old, I am old enough to understand the sexual jokes and I know that this isn’t the way you talk about a woman; however, this doesn’t take away from the fact that the joke is very funny.