DaytonDailyNews.com

Kids are funny, but not the way they think they are. You'd think these short people who love to read joke books and watch cartoons all the live-long day would provide more intentional comedy, but it doesn't quite work out that way.

Have you ever seen a 5-year-old tell a joke? — "Knock knock." (Big smile.) "Who's there?"

"Nobody!" (Fitful laughter ensues.)

The humor is definitely found more in the journey than the destination, since the road to the punch line is often punctuated by timing-killing stammers and peppered with unintelligible giggle-speak.

It gets a little better as they get older, but even when they can get the joke out and you understand every word, you often still find yourself scratching your head, trying to figure out the joke like it was a New York Times crossword puzzle.

Like my 8-year-old niece told her mother the other day: "OK. Did you hear the one about the vampire whose car broke down on the way to the blood bank? He had to take a taxi ... I mean a cab!"

That was the joke. Even my niece looked puzzled.

My older son, who is also 8, has moved on to the joys of physical humor. At first he would make falling down part of his punch line. Now he just falls down and makes a noise ... and that's the joke.

His brother laughs, something little brothers are very good for, and I'm sure it gets a few chuckles among his third-grade friends — or at least I hope so; there has to be a reason why he continues to do it.

And it is funny how many jokes from my childhood I see my sons and their friends telling, even though some of them should have been retired years ago. Why does the joke about the garbage truck having four wheels and flies endure?

But regardless of kids' intentions, there is no doubt that children provide humor — it is just most often served up when they are trying to be serious.

Like when my husband and I heard our sons taking turns shooting the basketball in the other room and we yelled to them: "What game are you playing?"

"Seal!" they yelled back.

"Seal? What's seal?"

"You know, like H-O-R-S-E or

P-I-G!"

And then, ironically, there are conversations in which you want to laugh, but really shouldn't.

I was talking to my first-grader early one morning recently and he asked, "Did Lance Armstrong really go to the moon?"

It was early enough that I had to think for a second. Then I said, "Oh, no. Neil Armstrong went to the moon; Lance Armstrong is a cyclist — he won the Tour de France, remember?"

"Oh yeah," he said.

"Actually," I added educationally, "Neil Armstrong was the first man to step on the moon."

"Did he fall down?" he asked, making me think he was channeling his brother for a second.

"No, I don't think so. Why?"

"Because I read that if you fall down on the moon you have a lot of trouble getting up."

"Hmm," I said, "I guess that makes sense."

"Well," he went on, "he was the first on the moon, but Jerry was first to step on Mars."

"Jerry who?" I asked, thinking maybe I missed something else in the "don't fall down on the moon" seminar in grade school.

"You know, Jerry of 'Tom and Jerry'!"

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