Titular humor

Warning: immature humor that some might consider in poor taste to follow.

While washing dishes this evening, I had a flashback to something my sister Alyssa and I found hilarious back in the day. Way back in the day, to be clear.

Our family used to listen to Garrison Keilor tapes (see, told you it was back in the day - we had tapes!) when on long trips, One of his stories was about how he and his brothers (or were they cousins?) used to play a game with book and song titles, substituting the word "buggers" (or if you prefer a different spelling, "boogers") for one word in the title. We included movie titles when we played, being a bit more modern than Garrison.

Our house was packed with bookshelves, because this was pre-Kindle. Alyssa and I would slowly walk along the shelves, trying out "buggers" in the titles until we found a good one, then call it out to the other person. It was hilarious stuff to middle schoolers. Dad's theology books were the best - titles like "Transformational Christianity" lent themselves well to becoming "Transformational Buggers." Even mature readers like yourselves might find a little humor in it if you're lame enough. Try a few classics:

The Old Man and the Sea
The Sound of Music
Little Orphan Annie
The Scarlet Letter
A Tale of Two Cities
100 Years of Solitude
A Room of One's Own
Five Little Peppers and How They Grew
As I Lay Dying

See - simply irresistable.

As an adult, I found out about a similar game that a friend had played as a kid, one that would have sent Alyssa and me into eruptions of laughter if we'd known about it back in the day. That being said, I confess that as a mature missionary singing hymns with friends, occasionally it still popped into my mind and made me make a muffled snort at times. This friend's version (which, she told me, most of the kids at her Christian high school and Bible college also knew, so apparently it's popular in some circles) was to add the words "in the toilet" after the title of a hymn, as in, "Jesus Paid It All in the Toilet." See, I told you this post was ridiculously immature.

So, want to give that idea a go? (No pun intended...)

For the Beauty of the Earth
All Things Bright and Beautiful
Abide With Me
Fight the Good Fight
Jesus Christ is Risen Today
Nearer My God to Thee
There is a Fountain
Are You Washed in the Blood

Okay, so you may now forever think less of me. I have probably knocked whatever missionary pedestal you had right over, but that might be a good thing and high time it happened. But whatever the case, I hope you laughed at least once as you let your inner child out to enjoy some bodily function humor.