Terry O'Quinn with Faith Fay, the first and second season extra known as "sexy blue striped shirt girl". The title "I may be crazy, but I'm not stupid" was the punchline to a joke my sixth grade teacher told us at the start of the year and then quoted regularly for the rest of the year.
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Bob Trevan was one of the 3 or 4 coolest teachers I ever had. He told us this joke and the punchline became our class catch phrase for the rest of the year. The punchline should be accompanied by tapping the temple with a bent forefinger.
Here's the joke:
A man driving past a mental institution gets a flat tire. He removes the flat, carefully placing the lugnuts in the hubcap. But when he goes to get the spare he steps on the hubcap, flipping the lugnuts into a muddy ditch.
He starts to curse a blue streak when a man on the other side of the fence asks "Why don't you take one lugnut off of each of the other wheels and use it on that one? That should hold until you can get to a service station."
"That's pretty smart," says the man. "How'd a bright fella like you end up in a place like that?"
The patient replied "I may be crazy, but I'm not stupid."
The punchline in....I'm NUTS...I'm not stupid. Get it Nap? NUTS. Lugnuts. Makes quite a bit more sense that way. Sorry if I pissed on a memory.
That's the 1st joke I remember dad telling me.
The Context at the blog was a photo of Terry O'Quinn clutching Faith Fay, the extra known as "sexy blue striped shirt girl" in a close embrace.
The caption was "I may be crazy but I'm not stupid", a reference to some of John Locke's recent behavior.
In the comments section I posted the source of the quote. Early in the year my 6th grade teacher told the class a joke, the punchline of which served as the classes catch phrase for the rest of the year. here's how the joke went:
A man driving past a mental institution gets a flat tire. He removes the flat, carefully placing the lugnuts in the hubcap. But when he goes to get the spare he steps on the hubcap, flipping the lugnuts into a muddy ditch.
He starts to curse a blue streak when a man on the other side of the fence asks "Why don't you take one lugnut off of each of the other wheels and use it on that one? That should hold until you can get to a service station."
"That's pretty smart," says the man. "How'd a bright fella like you end up in a place like that?"
The patient replied "I may be crazy, but I'm not stupid."
The word "crazy' may be one the psychiatic profession no longer uses, but then I was in 6th grade in the less enlightened mid-60s.
Edshrinker replied to this joke thusly: "That's the 1st joke I remember dad telling me. The punchline in....I'm NUTS...I'm not stupid. Get it Nap? NUTS. Lugnuts. Makes quite a bit more sense that way. Sorry if I pissed on a memory."
I saw the reply and considered responding but chose to ignore it instead. And, Ed, by quoting it here, I'm not trying to point out that you can't spell the word "is" - typos happen.
As I said, it was the class catch phrase, so I'm pretty sure that's how he told it. Ed's dad's version conveys the same idea and is just as good.
As a joke for children, perhaps better. It contains a surprise repetition of a word with more than one meaning used in different ways, which is funny. And it contains a mild double entendre. If you tell the joke to adolescent boys they will have that Beavis and Butthead reaction of "heh heh, he said nuts".
That's not really the point of the joke or what it hinges on. the mental institution inmate does not actually think he's a lugnut. He isn't saying "I may be testicles...".
While the "nuts" version works as well or better as a gag, it does not make as good a catch phrase. A catchy slogan has a rhythm. "Power to the People" is symmetrical - a 2-syllable word starting with P at each end sandwiching two one syllable words starting with T. "Make Love, Not War" hits with four single syllable words. No one wears a "make sexual intimacy, not military agression" button.
In terms of rhythm, "I may be crazy, but I'm not stupid" has a pattern. Three single syllable hard beats followed by a two syllable word, then repeated. "I may be nuts but I'm not dumb" with all single syllables miight also work. "I may be a patient in a mental institution but I don't lack common sense" is the point of the joke, but wouldn't catch on as a catch phrase. It's not catchy.
So, no, Edshrinker, I don't really feel that the fact that your dad told the joke differently than my teacher or that you needed to use the word pissing to comment on a photo-caption or spelled "is" with an "n" really "took me down a notch".
I also don't consider the word "crazy" to be as offensive as the N or R or F words or suit and ties favoite C-word. I've been calling John Locke crazy here for months and no ones called me on it or requested a retraction, so I think it's okay. Call me crazy that way. And, yes, I have gone through periods of being emotionally disturbed and depressed, along with the usual pot-induced paranoia, so the term is applicable. Not that I'm crazy about it.
glad we could handle this little slap fight here instead of AICN
If you want to call a little play on words I did dumb humor, that is fine. I find Grey's Lobotomy to be cute funny. I hate the show and it conveys that without ripping on anyone. My point is, before you get on your high horse on how intellectually superior you are, you might want to remember imperfection may grace the words of your text occasionally. You told the joke WRONG. Period. I've heard the same joke many times over. but - it is fine. I've told more jokes wrong than I can remember. But then - I don't often refer to people as beneath my level of intellect when it comes to what is funny - as you did. You come off like a snot somedays Napoleon. If you don't like me or my humor and don't find it funny that is cool. But get off your damn high horse once and a while. The weather is ok down here.
And we still use nuts crazy and loony in my profession. You just can't bill anyone until you use bigger more confusing terminology.
"Bring you down a notch" meant - you made a mistake. Which we all do. And you did. Maybe your teach told it wrong too. Maybe you misremember it. Who knows. When you re-tell it, now you know the how. Or can't you take correction? Point is - before you talk about humor that is beneath you - see if you can tell a joke right 1st.
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