(for Joe)
At 16 my son left school.
On the day after the last day
I said, 'So how was it?'
He said, 'It was OK, but it wasn't funny.'
'Don't you mean it wasn't "fun"?' I said.
'No,' he said, 'I mean it wasn't funny.'
'Funny?' I said, 'it wasn't supposed to be funny.
Teachers aren't comedians.'
'Look,' he said, 'before I went to school,
there were loads of jokes. Loads of things
were funny. Then I went to school and
it wasn't funny. Then for years and years
there was school and I kept waiting for it
get funny and it never did. In the
end I realised that it wasn't ever going to
get funny and it didn't. It didn't ever get
funny.'
At 16 my son left school.
