I love banter and over the years I fancy I’ve become quite
good at it. I offer the following in the belief it is classic.
Many years ago I had the occasion of being behind bars in a
military stockade. There were roughly about fifteen of us,
four of whom were black, housed in one large common cell.
One day an argument errupted between one of the Blacks and
a white fellow from New Orleans named Leon.
It was the first and only time I had seen tension among us, indeed
I learned how to play Whist thanks to that foursome.
The black fellow eventually called Leon a “motherfucker”.
All eyes were on prisoner Leon as we waited for his response.
This was his retort, “well, if you’d keep your mother off the
streets I wouldn’t be a motherfucker”.
Silence, then just like that all four black men exploded into
a bout of tremendous laughter which the rest of us joined.
So much in fact that the guards came running.
Brilliant, absolutely brilliant!
Islander