My eight year-old nephew insisted on sharing his elementary school yearbook with me, mostly to point out cool dudes, his girlfriends, and the kid who no one likes because he sometimes hits other kids due to he can’t control himself and his many emotional problems.
But my favorite part of the yearbook (besides laughing at kids with jug ears) was a poll published where members of the third grade class were each asked to nominate the “Funniest Thing That Happened This School Year.” As you can imagine, the answers were edgy. For example, Rachel submitted the following funny-because-it’s-true moment: “When we were in Miss Stern’s class and a phone rang and everyone cracked up like crazy.” Ethan disagreed, remembering his own classroom crack-up like it was yesterday: “This one time, when my friend Liam threw his pencil.” That does sound pretty funny, but can anyone concur, I wondered. Then, about eight more positions down the list, I found this nomination from known funnyman Liam:
“This one time, when I threw my pencil.”
It must have been an excellent day for the third grade. Either that, or Liam and Ethan were sitting side-by-side, eating Lunchables best-friends-forever style, when they were approached by the yearbook editor with that poll question.
