In keeping with the theme of Brown’s community being incredibly varied, quirky, and unique, one of my best friends that I’ve made this past year, Sofia, has a tendency to make jokes about topics HIGHLY disparate from the normal college-aged American millennial lingo (cue one of her infamous supply and demand jokes), as well as generally not understand the references of her peers. Her characteristic joke repertoire comes from the relatively distinct way she was raised: without much, if any, TV, specifically not American programming. While I interspersed playing outside, devouring books about insect species, and plopping on the couch to watch a good ol’ Reading Rainbow episode, she was likely reading an actual book, probably about the legitimate meteorological principles behind rainbows. (This is not to say that I didn’t read books, [@ Brown: I swear my admission wasn’t a flaw!!] but to say that she REALLY read books.) As well as her TV-less childhood may have prepared her brain for college and intellectual discussion, it inevitably deprived her of full conscious understanding of the wonderful jokes that her incredibly funny friends (me, obviously) make.
Approximately 75% of my jokes hinge upon another person’s familiarity with The Office (likely due to the fact that I’ve watched the entire show 5x). So, since Sofia is an Office-hater, despite my ceaseless pleas for her to love the show, a large majority of my jokes swoop right over her head. “That’s what she said?” “Did I stutter?” “Do you think that doing alcohol is cool?” Being a little stitious? Occasionally hitting someone with your car? CLARICE? Nope, completely unrecognized comedic genius from me. Somebody isn’t laughing at my jokes??
Not only does she lack understanding of my Dwight jokes, she also has very little knowledge of Family Guy jokes. Maybe this isn’t the most ‘couth’ or ‘worthwhile’ show, but it certainly provides a surplus of joke fodder. I’ll admit it, it “really grinds my gears” when she doesn’t catch my jokes. Some of you pick up on that one? Good for you guys. If you didn’t, do your sense of decency a disservice and watch some Family Guy episodes. When we eat anything with whipped cream I FIGHT back the urge to incessantly repeat cool whip in Stewie’s voice. When I stub my toe I overdramatically imitate Peter’s knee injury incident. And, whenever I make any sort of joke about how Brian went to Brown, she definitely thinks there’s some guy she doesn’t know.
Sofia does try her best to throw some TV lingo into her daily language and sometimes her efforts aren’t entirely fruitful, as evidenced by her referring to a cookie-monster mug as “the Elmo cup.” But, that’s what I’m here for! Sofia: I hope these extremely (in)significant skills I’m teaching you make this friendship worthwhile. If not?
