I like to go to the flea market near my house once in a while. A friend of mine named Don was in the retirement home business ("gerontology") and was retiring early as a financial officer. I wanted to shop around for a gag gift for a party that was being thrown for him. I needed something to do with the business itself, but also something that would get a laugh or two at the roast that was planned. I was one of the presenters, so I could make sure he opened the gag gift in front of everybody.
It took me an hour to find what I wanted: an antique chamber pot. This puppy was really old, the ceramic was cracked, the previous owner had written "Mama Tuckett" on the top in some kind of magic marker, and then some other numnutz had added (presumably years later, in a different-colored magic marker), "doesn't wipe." I can't imagine why anyone would worry about someone accidentally pooping into their own personal chamber pot and so feel compelled to write their name on it. And I had no doubt that Mama Tuckett had sliced her last loaf back in the sixties. But it would get a laugh.
My wife wrapped up the chamber pot after placing it into a Tiffany's box she'd gotten in New York. She added a roll of toilet paper she'd gotten from some party store that said, "Recycled from theater popcorn." All in all, Don was going to see a beautiful, silver-paper-wrapped package, peel it off, discover the Tiffany's box, and think he was getting a fine piece of crystal to place on the mantle.
The big night arrived and I'd prepared all sorts of jokes related to the gerontology industry. Gerontologists are like cops: we tell cynical jokes related to pooping and dementia as a means of relieving stress. Any critical care nurse will know what I'm talking about. After I got through a few of my jokes, I got the big package out in front of everybody (probably ninety people) and said to Don, "This is from everybody. Open it now."
At first, Don must have thought it was going to be a joke because when he started peeling the paper off, some muffstud in the front row cracked, "Good thing we drilled air holes in the box." That got a much bigger laugh than any of my roasts, which peeved the parcheesi out of me. But when the white Tiffany's box emerged (which Don held up for everyone to see) there were a few gasps, and oohs and ahhhs, and suddenly those miserable lechers were happy. Since I'd said it was is "from everybody," the cheap tightwads thought they were getting credit for getting Don something decent.
When Don opened the box up, his face looked like he'd just run over a pumpkin pie with a moped. He held up the chamber pot and the toilet paper, everybody had a laugh, and that was that. So we thought. But Don couldn't let enough be enough. He got up to the microphone and insisted on reading the inscription: "Mama Tuckett … doesn't wipe."
A woman in the back, whom I will call Wilma, suddenly called out, "What did you say?!?"
Don re-read the inscription and Wilma said, "Oh my GOSH! LET ME SEE THAT!"
Wilma weighed in at around four hundred pounds and wasn't to be messed with in general, so Don obediently handed over the pot to the now-stomping forward Wilma. Wilma swiped the pot of Don's hands, looked at the inscription, and said loudly to me, "How DARE you make fun of my Gramma!"
Now flabbergasted, I thought she was joking or possibly under the influence of something. "You've gone way over the edge this time. I'm gonna get your _______ fired!"
Something about her tone made me realize that Wilma was serious. I asked her what she meant.
"This belonged to my Gramma, and I don't think its funny one bit to make a joke out of it!"
Long story short, it turns out she'd donated the chamber pot from her dead grandmother's estate to Goodwill. How in the Beewillikers it made its way from the Goodwill to that flea market I have no idea, but Wilma refused to believe that it wasn't some kind of inside conspiracy to spite her publicly.
And the blame fell squarely on my shoulders, even though Wilma eventually understood that the whole thing was some kind of freakish mix-up. Even so, Wilma hates me to this day, and insists that our little chamber pot joke wasn't funny, and that her Grandmother did indeed wipe.