Gagging For It*

Do you ever break out some first-class comedy stylings, only to have them completely fly over the heads of their intended audience?

I'll explain.

I was just on the phone chatting to my Dad, who was expressing concern about my health. You see, I woke up this morning with another bout of labyrinthitis, an inner-ear infection that affects your balance, and makes you dizzy (Big shout-out to Louise, my labyrinthitis sister sufferer over in Shanghai). I'm just chilling at home, and mainlining Stemzine, so I reckon I should be right soon.

But because I've had a couple of colds recently, my Dad was being very stern, advising me to go to a doctor, or at least take some vitamins. "You just make sure you look after yourself," he finished.

"I AM Dad," I replied. "I AM looking after myself!"

....Get it?

Now I know the old Lean Cuisine ads date back at least 10 years, but come on. Surely that catchphrase is ingrained into the Australian psyche? Apparently not, as my Dad pressed on with his "concerns for my welfare" (pfft!), and completely ignored the champagne freaking comedy.

Another example. I was at OfficeWorks last week buying some print cartridges, when I noticed a box of massive, neon-coloured plastic calculators. Goodness knows what kind of maths-brain needs a 30cm by 20cm calculator, but there they were, propped up next to a support beam near the cashier's counter.

So I plopped my cartridges on the counter and said to the guy, "Can you help me? I really, desperately need some giant plastic calculators!" He looked at me strangely, then spotted the calculators and pointed, looking somewhat confused, yet pleased he could solve my problem.

I realised it had completely gone over his head, and just waved my hands and tried to explain it was just a joke. He looked even more confused then. I just sighed inwardly to myself. Perhaps it's just the people I hang out with, but dammit, that would've scored major laughs. Hys-freaking-terical.

Has anyone else got good examples of great gags that failed?

*I've recently put Google Analytics on this site, just to see what the visitor stats are like. You can actually see what search terms people used that brought them to your site, so I'll be interested to see how many people who may have been looking for porn have inadvertently stumbled here instead.