The Bowen Family

I can be a little long winded and was recently accused of telling a “shaggy dog story.” That got me to thinking about shaggy dog stories in general. For the uninitiated, a shaggy dog story is one where the joke lies in the time that is wasted in telling the story. The foundation for the classic shaggy dog story goes a little something like this…

A boy owned a dog that was uncommonly shaggy. Many people remarked upon its considerable shagginess. When the boy learned that there are contests for shaggy dogs, he entered his dog. The dog won first prize for shagginess in both the local and the regional competitions. The boy entered the dog in ever-larger contests, until finally he entered it in the world championship for shaggy dogs. When the judges had inspected all of the competing dogs, they remarked about the boy’s dog: “He’s not so shaggy.”

This made me think of my favorite “shaggy dog story” about Molly the Moth. Of course Molly the Moth is even better because the telling is more funny than the conclusion. I’m chuckling to myself thinking about it because the telling is so good natured that the teller often has trouble getting to the punch line.

I did a quick Google search to see if there are other Molly jokes around, and I found a ton of puns with the same punch line, and one shaggy dog story about a moth running contest but not the same joke. I did find a number of Molly the Moth references, but I couldn’t figure out if they were mnemonic devices like Tony the Tiger or if the joke is making the rounds.

In any case, be sure to corner Uncle Bob for your own personal performance of “Molly the Moth.”