Comebacks On The Circle of Life

May 18, 2017
   Big day yesterday. Our grandson, Weston, got a new baby sister and her name is Frances. The streets of Seattle were wet with joy. Okay, they are always wet, but you get the idea.

Father Mike, Weston and his baby sis, Frances, at Overlake Medical Center, Seattle.

   So, grandma Goose and Grandpa Ha ha are babysitting the boy at his house while his parents hang out in the maternity ward for a day or two.

I just woke up Grandma and Grandpa! 

   Of course, it's my job—and duty—to joke around with him, and rough house and teach him bad words, like "Boogerhead", but guess who really makes the boy happy?

Look Grandpa Ha ha, I'm upside down!

   In our family, we put great value on the comeback, you know, the funny retort. Heaven help anyone who pauses in the middle of a sentence in our house, because there are six of us lobbing in bombshell non-sequiters to fill the void. Bottom line: we respect and admire the outrageous comeback. The ruder the better.

   So, in terms of the outrageous comeback, I think this is one of the best I have heard in a long, long time: The East Indian comedian Kumail Nanjiani gets his share of the usual boneheaded sniping on the streets of America, where the humor-challenged accuse him as being a "raghead" and a "terrorist." So when he started dating an American girl and she took him home for the first time, her father spit out this opening challenge: "So 9•11, what's your take on it?" Without missing a beat, he responded:

"It was tragic. We lost 19 of our best guys."

—Kumail Nanjiani