Waiter, what's this fly doing in my soup?

Using silliness as a diversion from nonsense. No that is not the punchline. One of my cartoon writing techniques is to play with a cliche or very old joke. I've been having fun with the fly in the soup joke.

Standard joke:
Waiter, what's this fly doing in my soup?
The backstroke.

Variations:
Waiter, what's this fly doing on my soup bowl?
He's the lifeguard.

Waiter, what's this fly doing in my soup?
That's stew not soup.

Waiter, what's this fly doing in my soup?
Oh my, that's the wrong fly! Let me take your soup back to the kitchen and make sure you get the right fly.

Waiter, what's this fly doing in my soup?
A lousy remake of an old joke.

Waiter, what's this black fly doing in my chardonnay?
Being ironic.

Waiter, what's this fly doing in my soup?
Someone shrunk Michael Phelps!

Waiter, what's this fly doing in my soup?
That's no fly, that is my wife!

Waiter, what's this fly doing in my soup?
Recon.

Waiter, what's this fly doing in my soup?
That's a cockroach.

Waiter, what's this soup doing in my fly?

Anything to add?

Sophistication

I like to pretend that I'm a cultured, sophisticated person. Then I listen to some John Coltrane and come to the realization that I'm not so cultured and sophisticated. Sometimes his music sounds like gibberish to me. Sounds like some child just blowing random notes on the saxophone while other children bang on the drums and piano as back up.

I enjoy jazz (not an enthusiast and could only name one living jazz performer. I get my exposure via Pandora) but sometimes find the improvisations rather tedious. Right now, I'm listening to "Sportin' Crowd" by Art Blakely and the Jazz Messengers. Each instrumentalist is taking their turn at improvisation. Even the drummer.

I don't understand why improvisation in jazz is considered part of its richness while in other genres it's merely tedious (listen to all 20 minutes of Iron Butterfly's "In a Gadda-Da-Vida" for an example).

I hear people speak glowingly about this stuff and I wonder what defect I have that keeps me from getting it.

[Random thought]
What would be funny: Garrison Keillor accidentally ends up at a Larry the Cable Guy gig and vice-versa. If I had the power I would arrange that just to see what happens. I give Mr. Keillor 5 minutes and Mr. the Cable Guy 15.
[end of random thought]

I can walk among the worlds of the high brow and low brow but cannot bring myself to immerse myself completely in either world.

Assertivness is too much work

I hate being assertive. It's so much work.

Sure, people will walk all over me but I don't mind. Especially if those people are small, beautiful women and they walk barefooted on my back. It really works the kinks out of the muscles.

I'm figuring out a method to train Loki to walk on my back. It would be a neat trick and he is the right weight. If anyone has any ideas drop me a line.

What would it take to get those True ads on my site? Pictures of attractive scantily clad women would certainly increase my page views. Plus, if a cartoon really sucks at least there is something else to look at. It could increase my revenue from the things that, by agreement, I'm not allowed to mention or draw attention to.

It's time to turn on my assertiveness and find out what's the hold up on my new computer.

Mary Worth is being exceptionally pushy. I'm really starting to dislike her. Vera does not want to remain at your stupid party. Get it!