Hi everybody. This is a very funny joke. I will incrementally tell the very funny joke in this thread.
This is the story of two men: Nathan and Jimmy. Neither is – or was – particularly special. As far as normality can extend to humankind, both Nathan and Jimmy could be considered “normal”. Yet, they shared a journey that will be told for generations, and this is that story.
To fully appreciate the events that will be told, one really needs to appreciate the background stories of each of the protagonists.
Here is Nathan's story.
Nathan is thirty-two. A professional in the field of accounting, he studied Commerce and Business at university before embarking on his professional career. With 500+ LinkedIn connections and a gift for small-talk, Nathan is charismatic and the epitome of a good workmate.
Nathan’s professional career pleased his parents, Beth and Jeremy, who had to work hard to make a living after arriving from Ireland several decades earlier. Whilst each had a relatively happy childhood, the pair fell on hard times after Jeremy was diagnosed with several illnesses, requiring more money to treat than they had available. The move to Australia was planned with a promise of greener pastures; Beth, who had struggled to find steady work in Ireland, was promised a well-paying full-time position in the sunny community of Townsville. Her pen pal, Lizzy, with whom she had connected some years earlier through popular website
http://www.penpalsforyou.com, knew of an opening in the catering field.
Beth had little catering experience. In fact, she didn’t have much professional experience at all. Growing up with six brothers, each of whom seemed less mature in temperament than the last, Beth’s parents tasked her with the unenviable role of caring for her siblings. Whilst Beth’s parents, Simone and Jackson-Mike, were on paper the parents of the family, it was always Beth who steadied the ship. And so, naturally, she had little time to extend her professional career.
Selfless as she was, this meant Beth was in a difficult position when it came time to find a job, making the move to Australia more than tempting. She and Jeremy made the move in the late 1960s. After a (perhaps unavoidable) rocky beginning, Beth developed into a masterful caterer. In fact, after a time honing her skills in the position pen pal Lizzy had first suggested, Beth wanted to spread her wings, and started her own catering business: Caters Gonna Cater.
It was a horrible name – it didn’t even make sense, and certainly wasn’t catchy – and the business suffered as a result. After a mere matter of months that saw Beth invest thousands of dollars into initial start-up fees, Beth and her business were struggling. The decline continued before Beth eventually had to cut her losses; she sold Caters Gonna Cater for $21.60 and a small skinny flat white to an opportunist Mexican man wearing a funny hat. His name was – ostensibly still is – Rick. He was, in all honesty, a bit of a rickhead.
Now, this was not a good time for Jeremy (remember: the father of Nathan), who had worked mostly as a postman to this point (with a brief foray into landscape gardening). He started declining in a physical health sense. A routine check-up at the local general practitioner (Dr. Fiddledums – truly a wonderful man) came with poor news and, for the next several years, Beth and Jeremy were left scrounging their pennies to pay for Jeremy’s medical treatment – not listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, which may or may not have existed at the time depending on how stringently you’re following the timeline of this story.
Jeremy’s spirits remained high, but he had days where he couldn’t help but wonder what he had done to deserve such cruel treatment. With each day he became less mobile – a tragic ailment for a man who had built a career on physical dexterity. Around the local community, he was well known as the “Party Postie”; when delivering mail, he would do cartwheels and other tricks to brighten the mood of any local members peering out their windows at the time.
We interviewed local townsperson Sue Bartleton about Jeremy’s impact on the community. “He was wonderful,” she said. “On Mondays – mail usually came on Mondays at the time – I would delay making my cup of tea until I was sure that the mail had come. I didn’t want to miss out on any of the Party Postie’s tricks.” He was, truly, a respected member of the community.
So Beth was trying to deal with an unsuccessful business venture, and Jeremy’s Party Postie days were well and truly behind him. Nathan knew he had to make a decent career to ensure his parents could be appropriately cared for. And this, coupled with a strong liking for his Year 10 Commerce teacher, Ms. Dollarydoos, was why he decided to study a double degree in Commerce and Business.
Until next time.