Son's eleven year old friend sat at the dinner table with us tonight. Small talk turned to his interest and aptitude with speakers. He takes them apart, re-wires them and builds them bigger and better. Mr Doris was able to take a great interest as being a child nerd he did similar and knows all about woofers and watts per channel and the rest. Conversation continued with Mr Doris expressing suitable awe about vibrations from the volume.Young friend continued. He said, "you can really hear it at number 5".
Knowing that his house was near the top of a road I said jokingly, "and you live at number 48?" He looked at me blankly whilst daughter remarked that I was surprisingly fast tonight. I thanked her for her compliment and then proceeded to seriously ask him which number he did live at. "158" he replied quizzically. I was left stumped until the penny dropped and realised he had been referring to number 5 on the volume dial and not the house next door.
There was me thinking the volume was so loud that you could hear it next door at number 5! "You can really hear it at number 5" kept repeating in my brain and then me mistaking it for the house number instead of the volume, I couldn't stop laughing for most of the dinner. I was like the laughing man in the funfair in which you put a penny to make him laugh. My daughter laughed at my laughing, we both had tears coming down our faces and I had to keep checking with young friend that he really understood I wasn't laughing at him but at my own misunderstanding.
I'm still chuckling :-D
Original Comments:
:D
Doh!
(tagged you for a meme, for once 100% opinion and suitably anonymous)
Saturday, January 28, 2006 9:54:00 AM
That is so funny. I love it when folk misunderstand stuff like that. Actually, that is probably one of the things that makes me laugh the most - innocent misunderstandings :-)
Saturday, January 28, 2006 11:40:00 AM
:-) And yet it worked as witticism.
That would be one super sub-woofer.
Saturday, January 28, 2006 2:46:00 PM
It's so funny when we perceive something other than how it was meant. I can just picture you rethinking it throughout dinner. :)
Saturday, January 28, 2006 10:07:00 PM
Its great to be tipsy with humour in good company.
Of course Spinal Tap's amplifiers went all the way up to 11 and that was really loud, so living at a high address must have its consolations.
rashbre
Saturday, January 28, 2006 10:49:00 PM
Dinner time in your house sounds like such an adventure. Your children are going to have some precious memories to carry with them forever.
Sunday, January 29, 2006 1:42:00 AM
I have moments like that: They put me into another room.
Sunday, January 29, 2006 3:27:00 PM
Like Rashbre, I immediately thought of Spinal Tap's amps going up 'to number 11'...
:-)
Sunday, January 29, 2006 4:06:00 PM
This made me think of Marty McFly in one of the Back to the Future movies where he turned the knob of the amp all the way up then the sound broke the glass of the windows in the garage.
It's so nice that your daughter caught on and that the laughter took a life of its own.
Having 11 year old boys at the dinner table is a guarantee for miscommunication and grins.
Nowadays, I miss those times. Be glad you wrote and captured the moment.
Monday, January 30, 2006 2:25:00 PM
I love that sort of misunderstanding. One time The Man was talking about some item of clothing he didn't like the colour of (it had faded, or something) and he was holding it up in front of himself and I told him, "Maybe you should dye it."
He was REALLY INDIGNANT, and it took me a while to figure out why.
Sunday, February 05, 2006 3:59:00 PM