Commentary of the State of Educational Administration in the US

All right, I told an Irish joke to a friend of mine, Education PhD, smart guy, Irish Catholic. Nothing dirty, nothing particularly offensive, but he didn’t get it. I may have thrown him off initially by telling the joke in my flawless Irish brogue, so I retold it in my flat, yet still melodious Midwestern Accent. He still didn’t get it. Now, mind you, I have told this joke in numerous other situations, in bars, during physical therapy, and it always gets a laugh, so I look at his inability to understand it as a massive personal failure on his part.

Finally, after 15 minutes of retelling the joke, analyzing each segment, with him enacting parts of it, then going away to his cubicle still puzzled, I hear a guffaw from his desk. “I get it now!” he yelled. And people wonder why the US Education system is broken, it is because we have dumb-ass Irishmen who are even more incapable of comprehending simple narratives while sober than they are when drunk. Although we all have to admit, you are more likely to encounter them drunk than sober, even at work.

Oh, here is the joke.

Walking into the bar, Mike said to Charlie the bartender, "Pour me a stiff
one - just had another fight with the little woman."

Oh yeah?"said Charlie "And how did this one end?"

"When it was over," Mike replied, "she came to me on her hands and knees.

"Really," said Charles, "now that's a switch! What did she say?"

She said, "Come out from under the bed, you little chicken shit"