STUCK ON YOU JUST AFTER THIMBLES WERE INVENTED THERE WAS A SHORTAGE, SO MANY PEOPLE GOT STUCK WITHOUT ONE What’s so funny about this? This little joke hinges on the double meaning of “stuck.” Of course it assumes you know what a thimble is. No, thimbles aren’t the big round flat metal things you crash together in an orchestra. That word is “cymbal.” And it’s not a pictorial representation of something else. That word is “symbol.” A thimble is the cylindrical shaped object about an inch high that fits over any of your fingers. One end is closed, the other is open. The close end has tiny little indentations. The purpose of a thimble is to protect your finger when you are sewing. It helps you push the needle through the cloth. The metal part of the thimble pushes against the needle, so your skin doesn’t need to. It’s a very handy invention, especially if you do a lot of sewing. If you do your fingers would really be hurting all the time. But let’s look at the word “stuck.” It’s the past tense of the verb “stick,” which can mean to either jab someone with a needle or to adhere, to affix with glue. Two very different meanings and lucky for us because that’s what the joke is. It there’s a shortage of thimbles people will get stuck by the pins and needles they are using because they have no protection. An idiomatic use of the gluing definition adds the prepositions “with” or “without.” Either way it’s metaphoric in that you are either stuck with something you don’t want or stuck without something you do want. In the joke more people wanted thimbles than were available. That’s how they got stuck waiting. If you’re stuck ON somebody, it means you are strongly attracted to them, not that you are attached to them like flies on flypaper. And THAT’s what’s so funny! This joke was submitted to punoftheday by RB - Norfolk, VA https://audioboo.fm/boos/1624977-stuck-on-you
Posted on: Fri, 27 Sep 2013 04:22:06 +0000