USER: Yes. Hugo Barneezles here.
SUPPORT: Oh yes, Hugo. You're the one who purchased the special software for writing humor articles.
USER: Oh, you remember me?
SUPPORT: No.
USER: Well, anyway, I'm having a little trouble with the program.
SUPPORT: Okay, what seems to be the problem?
USER: I'm having trouble with a joke.
SUPPORT: Ummhmm . . . What's the line?
USER: Well, I got as far as typing in "What has four wheels and flies," and then the rest of the joke wouldn't work.
SUPPORT: What happened, exactly?
USER: Nothing I typed in was funny.
SUPPORT: Sounds like it could be a bug of some sort. Try typing in "Why did the chicken cross the road?"
USER: Nothing. Oh -- wait a second, I typed "chickne" by mistake.
SUPPORT: No, the program's not designed for that.
USER: Okay, I typed it correctly. But it's still not processing. Could it be because the joke is old?
SUPPORT: No, this software is supposed to be backwards compatible with all antique jokeware.
© Jonathan Caws-Elwitt 1993, 2002.