miriam_e: from my drawing MoonGirl (Default)
miriam_e ([personal profile] miriam_e) wrote2005-06-19 06:14 am

mother in-law jokes

You know, mother in-law jokes are strange things. I heard a rather neatly constructed mother in-law joke the other night:
"I've got a real soft spot for my mother in-law... the swamp."

It is funny because of the rather neat shift in perception in the joke, but I have to admit that I've always been bothered by mother in-law jokes. I love my mother. She is a truly wonderful person, smart, patient, gentle, talented. I suspect that many other people feel this way about their mothers too, but almost every one of those mothers is also a mother in-law. And that is the crux of the problem I have with mother in-law jokes.