http://www.xkcd.com/519/

[Simon Wistow]

On Mon, Mar 09, 2009 at 09:16:48PM +0000, Nicholas Clark said:
> But we don't talk about http://xkcd.com/353/ ?

A guy is in a plane crash and wakes up on the beach of a desert island. 
Stumbling round the corner he runs into a group of castaways sitting 
round a camp fire.

They rush to meet him, tend his wounds and nurse him to health. When he 
rcovers he joins them at the camp fire and is bewildered by the 
conversation - each member will call out a number and the rest of the 
group will collapse into hysterics.

The next day he takes one of the castaways aside and asks "What was all 
the laughing about last night?"

"Well," replies the castway "We've been here for years and by now we 
know each other's jokes. So we gave them all numbers and now all we have 
to do is say that and every body knows what the joke is".

The plane crash survivor spends the next week learning all the jokes and 
one night sits down with the others and, when his turn in the circle 
comes blurts out "12!"

Silence. Nothing but the chirping of crickets. 

One of the original castaways clears his throat tactfully, looks round 
at the rest of the group and then turns to the newcome and says 

"Sorry mate, it's just the way you tell them"