Here’s a way to test the character of a fellow human being:

Tell a joke to a group of comrades in the person’s presence. Make sure that the human being in question already knows the punchline. If the person blurts out the punchline and steals your thunder, he or she is a selfish jerk. If the person says, “I know this one” but allows you to continue, he or she is average. If the person says nothing, he or she is a gem. Finally, if the person says nothing until you deliver the punchline, at which time they laugh as if they never heard it, you are in the presence of a Saint.

This test’s margin of error greatly increases if the person has Alzheimer’s disease.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 9th, 2002 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.