confusing reactions
Posted by:
Jazz_Sue (---.bb.sky.com)
Date: June 24, 2008 02:53PM
Ms Stoney Broke here is taking her kids for a 'Five go mad in Dorset' type camping holiday this year, but we've decided to splash out for a pitch with electric hook-up. I might not be an expert, but even I know the conventional £1.99 extension lead from the Thrift Shop wouldn't be suitable, so I called Maplins to ask if they had anything in stock. Here's the conversation:
'Um, this isn't Millet's. We're an electrical store.'
'Yes, I know. I want an electric cable - to go camping with.'
'Oh. Wait a minute.' Cue irritating music. Then: 'You mean, like, the kind of thing you'd use for outdoor activities and such?'
'Yep, that's the one.'
'Sorry, we don't stock them. But what you're looking for is a Commando plug.' And then she laughed like a drain.
I've since found what I'm looking for on ebay, but honestly, what was so funny? Ohhh, I get it - outdoor activities ... going commando. Ha bloody ha Ms Ibitha Drawers. Okay, so maybe calling the Electronics Superstore WAS a mistake, but their ad quotes they stock EVERYTHING electrical. It's not like we're even going to that kind of a campsite.
While I'm at it though, why DO we say 'laugh like a drain?' I don't see the connection. I mean, laugh like a hyena, yes - though Kookaburra is more accurate, in my opinion - and stink like a drain definitely. But the last thing you'd connect a drain to is laughter, even of the dirty joke kind. Who the hell thought that one up? More to the point, why does it become the automatic default in an otherwise sane conversation?