Finally got the joke after all these years

[Sabby]

When South Park had just started showing, I was fairly young and naive, maybe 13 or 14. I was watching an episode where the joke was that Stans mother Sharon 'turns into a total bitch when her monthly visitor comes around" However, it was referring to her sister. Everyone else got the little joke behind this, but I was confused and asked why everyone was laughing, which only made it funnier to them.

A few days ago that same episode was on tv and now that it made sense I could not stop laughing at remembering how silly of a question that must of been when I asked what was so funny.

Talk about slow, huh?

[kongming]

*laughing* I never saw that episode, but yeah, that is pretty funny. And plenty of times I'll look back on something I saw when I was younger and go "Ooooh, now I get it!"

Heck, even things in The Sooty Show, just where some of the lines are phrases that kids probably don't use, or perhaps are more common in England.

[Sabby]

Theres this cereal, Cheerios, but we don't have it here, so whenever they said they wanted Cheerios for breakfast on tv, I thought of little red sausages.

[kongming]

We don't have Cheerios here either, however I have never heard of frankfurters (little red sausages) being called that either.

Don't get me started on fritz. That doesn't even change from country to country, different states of Australia have different names for it.

[Sabby]

It may just be a local thing, but Frankfurters here have always been cheerios

[Bliss]

Oh got, this sort of thing happens to me all the time... don't ask me about pipe cleaners. Or, uh, "Rhythm Method"....

[Cosmo_ac]

lol,oh, i think i'm going to have to Bliss ;)  tell us about pipe cleaners ;)

[Bliss]

Ok, so, pipe cleaners, right? Thos little fussy wire things? My association with them was always with crafts in summer camp. Nobody in my family smoked pipes at all, nobody I knew did... so when I thought pipes, I thought plumbing pipes.

And I tell you, I thought they were really cleaver! if you had a thin pipe all clogged, you would just twist them together end to end until you could reach it! And if the pipe was wider, well then you'd twist together a handful of them!

Fast forward to a few years ago, I went into a tobacconist with a friend and was looking around, and saw the display of pipes on the wall, and in front of it this huge glass mason jar of pipe cleaners for a nickel each.

I thought, "Gee, that's kind of weird, having pipe cleaners here in... front of... the pipes."

I could FEEL the understanding suddenly clicking over in my head.

And I was so excited, I made the mistake of telling my friend. I've never heard the end of it.

[Sabby]

Hahahahaha!

[Cosmo_ac]

awwww *huggles Bliss*  You are so cute hun!  lol, and here i thought it was going to be a sexual reference refering to guys having their pipes cleaned ;)

[Ignaddio]

I gotta be honest, until reading that I never knew what pipe cleaners were really for. But I can see how "Rhythm Method" birth control could be a bit confusing without context clues. >.>

[Bliss]

*sighs and smiles and explains more...*

So, Rhythm Method.

I grew up Catholic. As such, I heard the phrase Rhythm Method here and there... but as a good little girl, nobody ever specified really what it meant, just that it was a form of birth control. Me, being the perfectly logical child that I was and wanting the world to make sense, had to make up my own definition for Rhythm Method and fill in the huge blanks.

Knowing that there is a rhythm to the act... I came to the perfectly logical (I thought) conclusion that the Rhythm Method was a particular rhythm to the thrusting motion that, if one were able to do it throughout the act, would result in contraception.

Concurrent with this, I decided that this was also why people were always trying to find the Perfect Makeout Song - because of course it would be the song that had that mysterious rhythm somewhere in its beat.

Makes sense... right?

[kongming]

That makes perfect sense. Also, rhythm method does sort of sound like find the right rhythm so you know when to withdraw.

And I never knew what pipe cleaners were actually for until then.