Before knock-knock jokes swept the country in 1936, another silly parlor game called handies was all the rage. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Handies”
I was talking at the beginning about these newspaper articles that were talking about this knock-knock craze in 1936.
And in this article that’s titled, “Knock-Knock, Latest Nutsy Game for Parlor Amusement,” it talks about what was popular before knock-knock jokes.
And it says, before knock-knock, it was handies, in which players otherwise considered normal, look on a coyly, lunatic expression, made signs with their fingers, and then shouted triumphantly, “What’s this?”
A favorite one was wiggling all five fingers of the right hand under the downturned fingers of the left.
The answer was, “Quintuplets taking a shower.”
Wish I could have been a fly on the wall.
What?
It just makes me want to be a fly on the wall in those parlors where these young people are having just wild fun playing handies and then telling knock-knock jokes.
It must have been really great back in those days.
That sounds like a rip-roaring good time.
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