Ever since Charlie (Age 6) could talk, he's been known to use the phrase "guess what?", sometimes in prelude to revealed information and occasionally as an introduction to just yelling something that he heard in a cartoon ("Turtle power!")
But Jill and I have always been tempted, ever so very tempted, to reply to his "guess what?" with "chicken butt!" the classic humorous rejoinder from our own childhoods. But we knew that once he heard that, nothing would ever be the same. It's a way of tricking people, it's got a funny animal in it, and it has the word "butt". It would be exquisite comedy perfection to Charlie and would dominate all discourse in our home. Nothing would ever be the same. It was electricity. It was the automobile. It was the telephone. It was chicken butt.
Well, a parent can only control their child's experience for so long. He went to this day camp last week and was exposed to "Guess what? What? Chicken butt!" by one of the other kids. And it is ON. And we were actually wrong to dread it. Fortunately, it lets Jill and Kate and I finally cut loose too. We can't get enough of it. And of course it has spurred other spin-offs. Among the latest rejoinders to the "guess what?" inquiry are:
Turkey Butt
Rhino Butt
Pikachu Butt
Human Butt
Bamboo Butt (that one was Kate's, leading to Charlie yelling "bamboo doesn't have a butt, Kate!")
Dog Butt
Ladybug Butt
Voldemort Butt
3 comments:
Ah, a classic. We usually augment it with a quote from the old Linda Barry "Ernie Pook's Comeek" that goes something like "the butt...the butt hairs...hey, who cut one?" (these were annotations on a drawing of an ant by Pook. And let's face it, "Head...thorax...abdomen" just aren't funny).
Haha. We've been using that on our kids since they starting sayin "guess what?". It didn't take long for them to start rolling their eyes at us because, guess what? you're parents are annoying, that's what.
We also use monkey butt as a variation. Handy if you've got a monkey lying around - and who doesn't have monkeys in every room of the house?
Ladybug Butt. Is my favorite. Because you KNOW that the ladybugs have the junk in the trunk.
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