6 Ch6-Computers Can't Tell Jokes

Chapter 6 Computers Can't Tell Jokes We were still depressed about the junk food shortage when we got to computer class that afternoon. When we walked into the lab, Mrs. Yonkers was sitting on top of her desk, and her computer was on her chair. That was weird. You're supposed to sit on your chair with the computer on your desk. It was also weird that Mrs. Yonkers had no shoes on. She was typing with hertoes. "Why are you typing with your toes, Mrs. Yonkers?" asked Emily.

"I have so much work to do," she told us. "When I type with my feet, it leaves my hands free to do something else. So I get twice as much work done. It's a win-win!" "What are you typing, Mrs. Yonkers?" asked Andrea. "E-mails," she replied. "To who?" asked Ryan. "To myself," Mrs. Yonkers said. "I love getting e-mail." It seemed to me that Mrs. Yonkers would get twice as much work done if she didn't spend half her time writing e-mails to herself. Why are grown-ups so weird? "Did you find Speedy the turtle?" asked Neil the nude kid. "Not yet," said Mrs. Yonkers. "I've been too busy thinking about Mr. Klutz's problem." "What problem?" asked Emily. "The other day he said it was too bad there isn't a computer program that makes up jokes," Mrs. Yonkers said. "So I started working on one. It's called Giggle." "Oooh, can we try it?" I asked. "Please? Please? Please? Please?" "Well... okay." Mrs. Yonkers pulled a sheet off a computer in the corner and turned it on. The screen showed the word GIGGLE with an empty box under it. Mrs. Yonkers told us that if you type any word in the box, Giggle will make up a joke about that word. "Skateboarding!" I shouted.

"Flowers!" Andrea shouted. "Boogers!" Michael shouted. We called out all kinds of suggestions until Neil the nude kid said, "Pig!" We all agreed it would be cool to read jokes about pigs. Mrs. Yonkers typed PIG in the box and hit the ENTER key. The computer thought about it for a few seconds, and then it showed us a pig joke: Q: WHY DO PIGS GO OINK? A: BECAUSE FIREMEN BANANA STOMACH PITCHFORK! "I don't get it," said Andrea. "That doesn't make any sense," said Emily. "Computers aren't very good at understanding language," said Mrs. Yonkers. "I'm still ironing out some of the bugs." I didn't get the joke either, but I started laughing my head off anyway. If Andrea doesn't think something is funny, it must be. "Firemen banana stomach pitchfork!" I howled. "That's hilarious!" Ryan and Michael and Neil the nude kid joined in too. Soon the whole class was cracking up, except Andrea and Emily. "You're a bunch of dumbheads," Andrea said. I must admit, that pig joke was actually pretty lame. But it was just as funny as Mr. Klutz's jokes, if you ask me.