Regarding that message from an old friend that I posted yesterday?
At first I wasn’t sure what to make of it. I read it with increasing incredulity, and when I got to the end I laughed out loud. It was a slightly uncomfortable laugh, the kind viewers utter while watching early episodes of The Office.
Surely, this was a joke — or was it?
I read it to Xy, and her jaw also hit the floor.
“It’s gotta be a joke, right?”
“I sure hope so,” she said.
We just couldn’t figure it out. It was so over-the-top, but just on the verge of believability. After all, I hadn’t talked to Kathy in over two decades, and people can be pretty strange sometimes. I puzzled over how to reply, since I wasn’t completely sure.
Then came the follow-up message from Kathy. Yes, it was all a joke. Here’s how she explained it:
Seriously, you’re in a situation where it’s an old friend, you have no idea who they now are, you will probably never see them in person, and even better they have no idea who you now are. It’s just too good to resist. And as I get older, when it comes to my jokes, I realize, so long as I’m amused, that’s really all that’s important. Tell me, did I get you even for an instant.
Yeah, she got me all right. She got me good. And judging by the bulk of comments yesterday, she got most of y’all too. I read this to a number of co-workers and they all cracked up, big time, but few of them spotted it as a ruse.
What sheer genius. What a killer sense of humor.
As my friend Tall Steve said, “For her to pop up out of nowhere to send you that after 20 years, I’m thinking: awesome. A potentially fearsome comedic talent. Or should I say fearless?”
But also: “She writes too well,” and that is ultimately the giveaway, isn’t it? Having read the message out loud a bunch of times over the last few days, I have to say it is very well constructed, and there’s something almost Nabakovian about the way she reveals the emptiness of her narrator’s life.
I say narrator because it’s now clear that the character portrayed in that message bears only the most superficial resemblance to the person who wrote it. (The real Kathy does have a mess of kids, but she seems to hate wearing shoes.) Via e-mail Kathy has now brought me up to speed on her real life, which seems to be a very rich and rewarding one.
Now it’s incumbent on me to bring her up to speed on my life, and I’m wondering… what can I get away with? Probably nothing, but it’s fun to contemplate.
In any event, a big thanks to Kathy for making a lot of people laugh pretty damn hard.
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Awesome. That stands up there with your old TCBY prank. Have you ever put that up online?
Do tell!
Phew! What a relief that we’ve all just been punk’d.
Oh, and what a great gaggle of kids she and her hubby have!
*sniff* Amateurs. It’s easy to get quality shoes in NoCal, dead giveaway.
That’s great. Maybe you should have taken her up on it, in retrospect.
Too cool. Great Joke AND a sinsiter, almost David Lynch-like morality tale of what happens when you don’t keep up with old friends. Sounds like one for the books.
Does this mean I can’t have her? Please refer her to my advice about your prostate exam!
The whole time I read the original post I was waiting for the punchline. I knew it had to be a joke. When there was no punchline I just figured you went to school with a really strange chick.
That is an awesome joke. I may have to try it myself.
Knew it was too good to be true. That’s why I didn’t ask you for her email address. ho hum … guess I’ll have to keep looking.
It was brilliant! I knew she was being funny. I read it outloud to Benn it was so funny!
I knew immediately that it was a joke. I thought it was a brilliant piece of writing.
Did you notice that most of the people who realized it was a joke were women? Hmmm, what could it mean.
OOOhh Kathy S. You are inspirational. A real woman after my own heart. I have written my own perverse letter using your catchy closing line…