\How do you recognize a male porn star at the gas station? Right before the gas stops pumping he pulls out the nozzle and sprays it all over the car.""
The whole table erupts in laughter and just as it dies down in walks a member of the club who exclaims ""Dude, I just got hit by a taxi cab!"" And that's not a joke.
Welcome to Madison's very own Joke Club. According the president, UW-Madison senior Rishi Shah, the club was formed because ""one day my mom was looking at my cell phone bill and she was like 'Wow, besides me and your sister you really don't call anyone. I think it's time you made some friends'.""
So Rishi took his mom's words to heart, and this past summer he gave birth to the Joke Club.
Every two to three weeks on Thursday nights, the club comes together to tell jokes and stories ranging from prostitutes to real life stories about mailing cut fingernails to try to impress a developing crush. There are currently approximately 50 members on the e-mailing list and about half of the members attend the meetings.
""The Joke Club is a great way to forget about bad grades, mean or dirty roommates, parents, boyfriend and girlfriend issues, next door neighbor stalking you, etc,"" Shah said, adding, ""Joke club is to meet people, laugh, and oh yeah ... pick up girls too.""
The atmosphere of the club is laid back and very relaxed.
""I mean come on, people come late because they think it's a joke,"" said UW-Madison senior Ross Mau, vice president of the club.
There is no pressure to be the funniest and have the best jokes either, Mau said.
""Bad jokes are good, and it's all right to just listen too. However, if you do come with a good joke or two, it's important to remember that we don't discriminate, we just make fun of everyone,"" he said.
It is also important to remember the only rule of the club: Do not be that guy who says, ""I heard that joke before"" or do not be the one to ruin the punch line.
Meetings are not the only proof of existence for this newly formed club. The Joke Club has T-shirts in the works and also is working on their mascot that cannot be described except by looking at it on the Joke Club's Web site, . Also, be sure to get your daily laugh by checking out the joke of the day on the site.
So the next time you check out TITU and see the Joke Club is meeting, bring some friends and gather around for an evening that makes you want to wet your pants from laughing so hard-no joke.
