A hiker is walking through the woods when he realizes he is lost.  Deep within the forest primeval, he has no idea where he is or how to get back home.  Running down an old, overgrown path in a blind panic, he suddenly trips over something and crashes down in a tumble.  Shaken, but apparently unhurt, he gets up and turns to see what he fell over.  He looks down and sees an old grizzled figure in a white hooded robe.  The fellow removes his hood, and much to the hiker’s surprise, it’s the famous comedian, Buddy Hackett!

“But I thought you were dead!” says the hiker.  “That’s what we want the world to think”, says Buddy.  “We?” says the hiker.  “Absolutely.  All the great comedians come here to live forever.  We stay in a cave and sustain ourselves by sitting around the fire telling all the jokes in the world to each other.”

“I don’t believe that”, says the hiker.  “Can you show me?”  “Well, I’m not supposed to” says Buddy, “I only came out of the cave to pee, but come along and I’ll get you in”.  So they walk a short distance to the opening of the cave, and sure enough, sitting on stools around a fire and wearing white hooded robes like monks of some ancient secret order are all the great comedians of days gone by – Milton Berle, Jack Benny, Sam Kinison, Henny Youngman, Don Rickles, Phyllis Diller, George Burns, so many the hiker can’t count them all.  As he listens in, he hears George Carlin say, “7”.  The other comedians go, “Yeah, not bad” or “Pretty good”.  Lenny Bruce pipes in, “9!”, and the reaction from the others is the same bored response.  John Belushi looks down and mumbles, “2”, and the others throw stones at him, yelling, “That one sucks!”

“What are they doing? asks the hiker.  “Well”, says Buddy, “Over time, we’ve been able to distill all the jokes ever written down to just 12 actual jokes.  Every other joke is just a variation of one of these.  So to save time in telling them, we’ve assigned numbers to each of the jokes.  That way, we just need to call out the number and everyone hears the joke and we judge how funny it is. We sit here and call out the numbers all day long.”

At that moment, Rodney Dangerfield shouts out, “6!”, and once again, the comedians offer a lackluster, jaded approval, except for Richard Pryor who busts out laughing.  In fact, he’s laughing so hard, he falls off his stool, rolling on the ground convulsing in hysterical laughter.  “What’s with him?” asks the hiker.  “Oh”, says Buddy, “He never heard it before.”