Week 27: Dodge Magnum

Today's diecast is from Matchbox, a model of a vehicle I don't recall: a big ole' roomy Dodge Magnum. I'm told this beast offered a 5.7-liter HEMI V8.

What could I possibly be hauling in such a roomy, powerful wagon?

Repetition.

I'm hauling a load of repetition, the salt, pepper AND ketchup of father/child bonding. Repetition goes on everything when talking with kids.

Particularly, I'm hauling the running gags that have spontaneously developed, the type of gags that probably have developed between kids and caretakers everywhere, gags that repeat day after day, hour after hour, week after week and that hold no meaning outside of the immediate family circle.

That is a big cargo, my friend.

I'll focus on three running gags in rotation, and while there are others, I've selected these because all four of us - ages almost two, four, almost 11, and 48 - all participate. Mom doesn't play, but trust me, I've heard her running kid jokes, and they're just as painful, if not quite as stupid.

Repetition One:
Anytime a Barbie or Barbie related products shows up on television or in a catalog, we all try to be the first one to yell BARBIE QUE! Even Baby G, who doesn't know a Barbie from a Bratz, shouts, "Baabie Cooo [tiny pause] ooo." There was never a formal agreement to do this -- this sophisticated humor developed organically.

Repetition Two:
Only on cold days (began when being silly while changing a diaper).

Knock knock.

Who's there?

COLD HANDS!!!!! (place freezing hands on person's back).

Baby G can't fully pull this one off, but he does say "Knaa Knaaaa" and laugh, and he giggles like a fool in anticipation of cold hands.

Nonetheless, I've cursed this one catching on -- it took off after one time. One time! Sob.

Repetition Three:
From a Lego commercial where a Lego fireman yells "HEY!"

In the beginning we would all yell "HEY!" every time the commercial ran, much to the disapproval of four-year-old Racer A, who claims that is his line and we needed to find our own commercials. Within days the gag expanded to random outbursts, each of us trying to better mimic the voice on the commercial. You can easily run this gag upwards of 800 times a day. We do.

I had a running gag when my oldest son, now 21, was young that since jumped the age gap to follow not only Racer Z when he was tiny, but also Racer A. Every time somebody would say, "Dad, put on my sweatpants (or socks, gloves)", I  would reply, "I can't - they don't fit me!"  Part One of running gag. Gag only works if they word it correctly.

Part Two is I would immediately follow with, "I love that joke!" The gag didn't work without that second part.

After a while, I would say "They don't fit me!" and somebody, either the kid who originally asked for the snowpants or a brother in the room, would say, "You love that joke, don't you?"

See, the repetition of mentioned loving the joke was every bit as important to the gag. It is just the law.


So I need a big HEMI to haul my cargo load of repetitive kid humor.

HEY!!!!



Have some ridiculous kid repetitions/running gags to share? Bring 'em on over to the DaddysTinyCars Facebook page at ww.facebook.com/DaddysTinyCars - the more painful, the better.



Photo courtesy of Phil Pekarcik, with map representing my neck of the woods.


Matchbox 9 of 15 of the 2010 Sports Cars series.