Uncle Slappy tells me the famous Moth Joke.

This is Uncle Slappy’s famous “Moth Joke.” For the last thirty years or so he has said to me about every two weeks “are you ready to hear the Moth Joke?” I’ve always said “Yes,” but until yesterday, he never told it to me.

He finally spilled the beans yesterday. I’m not sure why he decided yesterday was right, but he did. Here is the joke transcribed verbatim:

A moth flies into a podiatrist’s office and the podiatrist says to him, “What’s wrong?”

The moth says, “What’s wrong? What’s wrong? Better I should tell you what’s right! At work, I’m not sure my boss knows who I am, much less what I do. Frankly, after all the time I spent on the job, I’m not sure what I do.

“The when I get home, it’s even worse. I see my wife, but there’s nothing there. It’s like there’s no connection whatsoever. We hardly talk. We hardly relate to each other at all.

“And then there’s my daughter. I don’t know what’s up with her any more. She says hardly a word, locking herself in her room. There’s no love, no togetherness. I don’t understand her at all.

“Worst is my son. A loser. A sad, flabby, directionless man overwhelmed by the callousness and indifference in the world. A man with no future. What makes that even more painful is what I see when I look at him. I see me.”

The podiatrist takes this all in and finally says “You don’t need a podiatrist. You need a psychiatrist. Why did you fly in here?”

And the moth says, “Your light was on.”