This past school year our family really got into jokes and riddles. Nora especially became a fan as her much beloved music teacher often read riddles aloud on the morning announcements, asking for kids to turn in solutions to him throughout the week.

She would come home and try to remember the riddles as she relayed them to us at dinner time. She would frequently leave out major details, leaving us all confused and very entertained in the process.

We stopped at the library several times to pick out some joke books, and the knock-knock ones quickly became family favorites. Even Rowan began to catch on and participate in his own special way.

His earliest knock-knock jokes all sounded like this:

Knock knock.

Who’s there?

Pencil.

Pencil who?

Pencil go on a airplane.

————

Knock knock.

Who’s there?

Cookie.

Cookie who?

Cookie go on a airplane.

He would repeat jokes using this formula, subbing in any object he happened to spy lying around for the thing that would be destined to go on the airplane. Although how the airplane came to be in the first place, I’m not sure I can recall. Eventually, potty talk won out, as it always does, and the same joke frequently turned out this way:

Knock knock.

Who’s there?

Poopy.

Poopy who?

Poopy go on a airplane.

Sometimes we would even cut him off and supply our own airplane punchline, stealing away his predictable thunder.

Later, the jokes varied slightly, seeming to make more sense, although still not in keeping with the true intention of the knock-knock joke. These were of the sporty variety:

Knock knock.

Who’s there?

Soccer ball.

Soccer ball who?

Soccer ball go in the net.

———–

Knock knock.

Who’s there?

Basketball.

Basketball who?

Basketball go in the hoop.

———–

Knock knock.

Who’s there?

Golf ball.

Golf ball who?

Golf ball go in the hole.

And on and on and on. Different sport. Different ball, or puck, or whatever, different goal. You get it.

I’m hoping this year, that if jokes become a running theme of our family dinners once again, we will get to experience further evolution of the Rowan knock-knock joke.