A man lay dying from a snake bite in the desert. He said to me: “Do you have the snake bite antidote?” I said: “Better than that, I have the snake bite anecdote: A man lay dying from a snake bite in the desert. He said to me: ‘Do you have the snake bite antidote?’ I said: ‘...’”


(A word from the Reverend Hawker: The reader will notice that this is an example of a paradox of infinite regress. Since the narrator will never reach the end of his story, we can safely assume that the snakebite victim will never actually die from the bite. However, the anecdote cannot be said to be as effective as an antidote, since it will not cure the stricken man. Rather, the man will linger in a state of perpetual dying, to which (like to so many of the jokes in this collection) a swift death would be preferable.

A quick reply to the Reverend H: Although, perhaps, the narrator’s endless story may have nothing to do with the time the poison takes to run its course. We’ve all been there. Someone else talks, and we feel like we’re dying.)