Brick Joke/Real Life

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Google had an inadvertent one during their 2010 developer's conference, Google I/O. (Full video of the conference here, for those who are interested.) They're demoing some upcoming features of their mobile OS, Android, one of them being voice commands. "Call Fifth Floor Restaurant," says the guy running the demo. The phone dials a restaurant called Fifth Floor Restaurant. People applaud. The demo's a success. They put the phone off to the side. Some more demos, and then they decide to show off streaming music from your computer to your phone. They grab one of the several phones they have around and plug in some speakers so that the audience can hear. What sound comes out of the conference room speakers? A robotic voice saying, "Thank you for calling the Fifth Floor Restaurant."
  • "I don't have a slowpoke slow enough for this. I'm going to mark your post number down, wait two years, then reply with slowpoke." And sure enough, two years later...
  • Bob Dylan is possibly responsible for the longest brick joke ever. In 1964, when asked by a reporter what what product might entice him to sell out, Dylan replied, Ladies' undergarments. Forty years later in 2004, he appeared in a Victoria's Secret ad.
  • On July 8, 1958, New York Yankees manager Casey Stengel gave testimony before the Senate Anti-Trust and Monopoly Subcommittee. During the mid-20th century, Stengel and Yogi Berra were both thought to be Baseball's premiere Cloudcuckoolanders. However, with his Stream of Consciousness Jabberwocky-like testimony, Stengel revealed that he was really the Bunny Ears Lawyer of baseball. And the brick joke? That would be Mickey Mantle's One-Liner at the very end.