Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey (SNL)
The next time I have meat and mashed potatoes, I think I'll put a very large
blob of potatoes on my plate with just a little piece of meat. And if someone
asks me why I didn't get more meat, I'll just say, "Oh, you mean this?" and
pull out a big piece of meat from inside the blob of potatoes, where I've
hidden it. Good magic trick, huh?
...
Life, to me, is like a quiet forest pool, one that needs a direct hit from a
big rock half-buried in the ground. You pull and you pull, but you can't get
the rock out of the ground. So you give it a good kick, but you lose your
balance and go skidding down the hill toward the pool. Then out comes a big
Hawaiian man who was screwing his wife beside the pool because they thought it
was real pretty. He tells you to get out of there, but you start faking it,
like you're talking Hawaiian, and then he gets mad and chases you..
...
Sometimes, when I drive across the desert in the middle of the night, with no
other cars around, I start imagining: What if there were no civilization out
there? No cities, no factories, no people? And then I think: No people or
factories? Then who made this car? And this highway? And I get so confused I
have to stick my head out the window into the driving rain---unless there's
lightning, because I could get struck on the head by a bolt.
...
The whole town laughed at my great-grandfather, just because he worked hard and
saved his money. True, working at the hardware store didn't pay much, but he
felt it was better than what everybody else did, which was go up to the volcano
and collect the gold nuggets it shot out every day. It turned out he was
right. After forty years, the volcano petered out. Everybody left town, and
the hardware store went broke. Finally he decided to collect gold nuggets too,
but there weren't many left by then. Plus, he broke his leg and the doctor's
bills were real high.
...
Too bad when I was a kid there wasn't a guy in our class that everybody called
the "Cricket Boy", because I would have liked to stand up in class and tell
everybody, "You can make fun of the Cricket Boy if you want to, but to me he's
just like everybody else." Then everybody would leave the Cricket Boy alone,
and I'd invite him over to spend the night at my house, but after about five
minutes of that loud chirping I'd have to kick him out. Maybe later we could
get up a petition to get the Cricket Family run out of town. Bye, Cricket Boy.
...
I think a good product would be "Baby Duck Hat". It's a fake baby duck, which
you strap on top of your head. Then you go swimming underwater until you find
a mommy duck and her babies, and you join them. Then, all of a sudden, you
stand up out of the water and roar like Godzilla. Man, those ducks really take
off! Also, Baby Duck Hat is good for parties.
...
I wish I lived back in the old west days, because I'd save up my money for
about twenty years so I could buy a solid-gold pick. Then I'd go out West and
start digging for gold. When someone came up and asked what I was doing, I'd
say, "Looking for gold, ya durn fool." He'd say, "Your pick is gold," and I'd
say, "Well, that was easy." Good joke, huh?
...
A funny thing to do is, if you're out hiking and your friend gets bitten by a
poisonous snake, tell him you're going to go for help, then go about ten feet
and pretend that *you* got bit by a snake. Then start an argument with him
about who's going to go get help. A lot of guys will start crying. That's why
it makes you feel good when you tell them it was just a joke.
...
I guess I kinda lost control, because in the middle of the play I ran up and
lit the evil puppet villain on fire. No, I didn't. Just kidding. I just said
that to help illustrate one of the human emotions, which is freaking out.
Another emotion is greed, as when you kill someone for money, or something like
that. Another emotion is generosity, as when you pay someone double what he
paid for his stupid puppet.
...
Many people think that history is a dull subject. Dull? Is it "dull" that
Jesse James once got bitten on the forehead by an ant, and at first it didn't
seem like anything, but then the bite got worse and worse, so he went to a
doctor in town, and the secretary told him to wait, so he sat down and waited,
and waited, and waited, and waited, and then finally he got to see the doctor,
and the doctor put some salve on it? You call that dull?
...
The people in the village were real poor, so none of the children had any toys.
But this one little boy had gotten an old enema bag and filled it with rocks,
and he would go around and whap the other children across the face with it.
Man, I think my heart almost broke. Later the boy came up and offered to give
me the toy. This was too much! I reached out my hand, but then he ran away. I
chased him down and took the enema bag. He cried a little, but that's the way
of these people.
...
At first I thought, if I were Superman, a perfect secret identity would be
"Clark Kent, Dentist," because you could save money on tooth X-rays. But then
I thought, if a patient said, "How's my back tooth?" and you just looked at it
with your X-ray vision and said, "Oh it's okay," then the patient would
probably say, "Aren't you going to take an X-ray, stupid?" and you'd say, "Aw,
get outta here," and then he probably wouldn't even pay his bill.
...
If you're a Thanksgiving dinner, but you don't like the stuffing or the
cranberry sauce or anything else, just pretend like you're eating it, but
instead, put it all in your lap and form it into a big mushy ball. Then,
later, when you're out back having cigars with the boys, let out a big fake
cough and throw the ball to the ground. Then say, "Boy, these are good
cigars!"
...
I remember that one fateful day when Coach took me aside. I knew what was
coming. "You don't have to tell me," I said. "I'm off the team, aren't I?"
"Well," said Coach, "you never were really ON the team. You made that uniform
you're wearing out of rags and towels, and your helmet is a toy space helmet.
You show up at practice and then either steal the ball and make us chase you to
get it back, or you try to tackle people at inappropriate times." It was all
true what he was saying. And yet, I thought something is brewing inside the
head of this Coach. He sees something in me, some kind of raw talent that he
can mold. But that's when I felt the handcuffs go on.
Back to the living room