To miss seeing a joke is, in some
circumstances, far worse than to miss making the point of a joke
visible. If one were in the position of a Queen Victoria, one might,
of course, quench the professor by merely saying: "We are not amused."
But even Queen Victoria, when she said this, did not mean that she had
not seen the joke but that she had seen it and didn't like it. It is
not only the subtle and Scottish jokes, however, that are at times
difficult to see with the naked eye. There is also the joke that hits
you in the eye like a blow and blinds you. Captain Wedgwood Benn
referred to a joke of this kind in the House of Commons on the
authority of Mr Stephen Gwynn. A judge of the Irish High Court, he
related, was recently travelling on a tram which was held up by
Black-and-Tans. The Black-and-Tans, who, like the Most High, are no
respecters of persons, called on the judge to descend, using the
quaint colloquial formula: "Come down, you Irish bastard; put up your
hands." Captain Wedgwood Benn does not unfortunately possess a
twentieth-century sense of humour, and he did not see this particular
joke. The comedy of a judge's being addressed as an Irish bastard did
not strike him. I doubt if half-a-dozen members of the House of
Commons realised the beauty of the joke till Sir Hamar Greenwood got
up and explained it. "I happen to know the judge," said the twinkling
Chief Secretary. "He told the story himself with great glee, and here
it is.
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