Every Once in a While You Read Something Serious …

…that makes you laugh at loud at work and almost gets you fired.

During the naughty half hour after lunch before the boss arrives when everyone else is at the coffee machine gossiping, I usually employ the time to catch up on my favourite internet flotsam. This time I was reading a fascinating article about the life of that famous Irish/Australian bush bandit Ned Kelly.

It had to happen. One of those events with near perfect timing. Just as the boss was entering the premises, I read the following paragraph and guffawed so hard that coffee came out of my nose. I tried to pass it off as a gargantuan hiccup but it was obvious he wasn’t having any of it and thought I was laughing at him.

Aw well, just have to be on my best behaviour over the next week or so.

Anyway, here is the offending text. What makes it funny is that it was written as a completely serious piece of biographic journalism. See if you can spot why I laughed:


“It was just two years after John Kelly's death that Ned had his first significant scrapes with the law. His first encounter with the local authorities was not particularly distinguished. At the tender age of 14, he was accused of attacking an itinerant Chinese merchant named Ah Fook. He was charged with assault and was held in jail for ten days, according to documents from the time.”


Now putting yourself in the arresting constable’s shoes and using your keenest powers of deduction, how would you imagine the conversation went between an Irish brigand and a guy named 'Ah Fook' that lead to a fight between them?

Hysterical.