We need more kids like him

I was the sort of kid who was fascinated by comedians. Anyone who could get up in front of a crowd and make people laugh and smile was a hero to me, so

I started ripping off their jokes to tell at Sunday dinner with my grandparents.  I still remember two good ones I "borrowed" from Jan Murray, a comic and game show host of the day:

* I just got back from a pleasure trip. I took my mother-in-law to the airport.

* I've been in love with the same woman for 49 years! If my wife ever finds out, she'll kill me!

You have to admit, those are two typical 1950s jokes. And I found out later that Jan (born Murray Janofsky, October 4, 1916 – July 2, 2006) always regretted having to drop out of high school at 13 when the Depression hit. He had to help his family eat and pay rent.  BUT he arranged to finish his classes later and was a proud high school graduate - in 1962!

And that allowed him to say, as he approached his 50s, "I can't be getting old! I just graduated from high school!"

Jan developed his comic styles early. His mother was ill throughout his youth, and he would go to vaudeville shows and come home to his mom and act out the skits and jokes he had seen to entertain her, and even though his first job after dropping out was putting heads on dolls in a factory, he knew where his talents lay, and followed that.

That was then. This is now:  Meet Callaghan McLaughlin, 6, of British Columbia. Callaghan has been working on his one-liners around the house, and now he moved to the big time...a joke booth at the end of his driveway, where he regales passersby with surefire material such as...


“What does a rain cloud wear under its coat?
Thunderwear!”

“What kind of bug is bad at football? A fumblebee!"

“What does a duck snack on? Cheese and quackers!"

Last fall, his mom gave him a joke book called “Laugh out Loud Jokes for Kids.” He memorized 16 of the knee-slappers and told them all, and told them again, and again, and again.

He's been on local TV and on the Canadian Broadcast Corp., and now the pint-sized punchliner is putting his town, the District of Saanich on Vancouver Island, on the map.

Callaghan's mom, Kelsea McLaughlin, says that in the year 2020, with all that's going in the world, people are happy to be entertained.

“He knows there is a pandemic and that people are getting sick and are scared,” she said. “He knows that many people don’t have jobs right now and he knows that means they don’t have money to spend on extras.”

Callaghan was considering setting up a lemonade stand with his extra time while school is closed, but he figured, “Even when you are scared or sad, a good joke makes you feel a little bit better.”

His mom said that he found it fun to tell his jokes to the family, and adds, "He can talk the hind legs off a donkey. He is outgoing and chatty, so this is his wheelhouse.”

I need to tell him what we call a cow with no legs at all.

Ground beef!