海角大神

What鈥檚 tan and white and red all over? The giraffe riddle on Facebook that has reawakened users鈥� primary school fascination with riddles and jokes that has lain dormant since age 10.

While many people sigh with frustration when sent yet another social media joke I tend to take the Milton Berle perspective that, 鈥淟aughter is an instant vacation.鈥�

The "giraffe riddle" that鈥檚 popular on Facebook is a viral social media game in which users change their Facebook profile pictures to giraffe pictures if they've incorrectly answered a riddle.

While many have wondered if this is some kind of Trojan horse virus or data collection scam, it鈥檚 just a joke.

The riddle:

鈥淚t鈥檚聽3 a.m., the doorbell rings and you wake up. Unexpected visitors! It鈥檚 your parents and they are here for breakfast. You have聽strawberry jam, honey, wine, bread, and cheese. What is the first thing you open?鈥�

I won鈥檛 spoil it for you, but suffice to say my 9-year-old, Quin, is deeply disappointed that my profile picture is still of me and not a giraffe.

Quinny is, however, thrilled that I shared the riddle with him because it gave him the perfect excuse to rattle off every riddle he has ever heard as I drove him to school this morning.

There is a phase of childhood I like to call 鈥済roaning pains鈥� that happens in elementary school when our kids suddenly develop a fixation for riddles and bad jokes, retelling their favorites until we think we can groan no more.

Because I posed the giraffe riddle I had to suffer Quin鈥檚 favorite riddle in return: 鈥淲hat鈥檚 brown and sticky?鈥�

After you鈥檝e gone through everything from molasses to poo, he informs you with great ceremony, 鈥淎 stick!鈥�

鈥淗a! Get it? A stick is brown and it鈥檚 a stick so it鈥檚 sticky? Get it,鈥� Quin will say that every single time he tells that joke.

Because Quin is 9 this is a current phenomenon, which his three older brothers got over years ago.

The giraffe riddle brings back good memories of my own childhood, when my Great-Uncle Charlie Sectish, would come to visit.

Charlie was one of those rare people who never exited the joke phase.

The man had a gift of both memory and delivery.

Part of the fun of Charlie鈥檚 delivery was that he always laughed so hard himself, a great rasping chuckle that came upon him so powerfully that he鈥檇 have to mop his balding pate and dab his eyes with a handkerchief.

If Uncle Charlie were alive today he鈥檇 skip answering the giraffe riddle in favor of answering it with a joke of his own. This is the one I recall him telling me:

A man and his pet giraffe walk into a bar. It's about聽5 p.m. As the night goes on they really tie one on. Finally, the bartender says: "Last call." So, the man says, "One more for me... and one more for my giraffe." The bartender sets them up and they knock them back. Suddenly, the giraffe falls over dead. The man throws some money on the bar, puts on his coat and starts to leave. The bartender, yells: "Hey buddy, you can't just leave that lyin' there."

To which the man replies: "That's not a lion, that's a giraffe."

OK it鈥檚 not a teen-appropriate joke, but that鈥檚 what made it even funnier back in the day.

This is my giraffe joke:

Q: What do you get when you cross a giraffe with a hedgehog?

A: A six-foot toothbrush.

I only recall a fraction of the jokes Charlie told me in my youth, but I remember he made me laugh long and hard.

That phase would have come and gone for me had Charlie not embedded in my spirit the value of a good laugh. He gave me a lifelong ticket for that 鈥渋nstant vacation鈥� and as the mother of four boys, my mental bags are always packed and ready to take that trip.