Preschool Humor

"What do you say to a swiper?" Noah asked us one day when he had the sniffles.
"No swiping!"

Get it? Nose wiping? OK, he maybe not ready for Leno, but we thought it was rather clever. Apparently, however, it's from a Dora the Explorer CD or book he's seen at school. Clever, but not original.

Likewise, what do you get when you cross a chili pepper and Clifford? A hot diggity dog.

More amusing, though perhaps not surprising, is that Noah often feels the need to explain jokes (my guess is that they had to be explained to him, and so he's internalized the explanation as part of the punch line). For example, what time is it when Clifford jumps on your bed?

"Time to get a new bed. Because Clifford is big, and when he jumps on your bed, he will break it."

Loses a bit in that particular retelling.

All that said, our favorite brand of preschool humor is the kind that is completely unscripted and unintentional.

The other day, Noah asked why Jonah was wearing a new pair of shoes.

"Because he's grown, and his old shoes no longer fit," we said.

"That is right. He grew and he grew and he grew, and his shoes are too small. All the parts of him grew. His feet grew and his hands grew. But not his vitreous humor."

What? we asked.

"His eyes are still the same size."

Indeed. You know, I'm guessing the vitreous humor isn't normally the stuff of preschool jokes, but it certainly made us laugh.