"The Incoherents"

On my last post about Nate, I had a couple of family members comment, agreeing that Nate comes by his wit the old fashioned way -- he inherited it from his dad (a.k.a, my big brother Roy). Now I won't dispute that. I grew up with Roy and, though he rarely sought out opportunities to socialize with his weird little brother, I was under-foot enough to have picked up on most of his jokes, which were usually so subtle that the intended target of ridicule was unaware of the insult.

A case in point was brought to mind just today in an email exchange I had with Roy. I was encouraging Roy to get a Facebook account so he could revive old high-school friendships, and (as inducement) I sent him a link to the Facebook page of the creepiest guy to haunt our teenage years. I lied and told Roy that this drugged-out kook had an opening for him in his Rock band. (Surely you remember that era when "El Paso Rock" swept the nation! ... No?)

So Roy then emailed back, accusing me of being the lead singer for the Rock band formed by the guys who lived in the Carranza's house. (No silly, they weren't the Carranza brothers. They lived in the Carranza's house after the Carranza's moved out.) Anyway, the brothers were named Alfred and Bobby. Bobby (who was my age) was a regular guy, but his older brother Alfred (Roy's age) was special, which is probably why he was in that "special" education class. I believe Alfred's IQ was a very comfortable room temperature. Anyway, I happened to be in the front yard and overheard Alfred asking Roy, "Hey man, can ju play ah instrument?"

Roy (who was well on his way to becoming an all-state orchestra french hornist) admitted he could, so Alfred ask, "Hey man, ju wanna join our band?"

Rather than pointing out the Rock and Roll doesn't typically lend itself to french horns, Roy diverted the conversation, "D'ya know what you ought to name your band?"

"No man, what?"

"The Incoherents!"

Alfred demurred, "Well man, jeah, Ees a perdy good name, but ... I think we'll jus' stick with 'The Kings'."

So Roy declined, "Well, in that case -- nah, I don't don't wanna join any band named 'The Kings'."

Thus, after nigh fifty years, Roy has delivered his crowning insult -- accusing me of joining the band that he himself wouldn't join unless it was named "The Incoherents". The only difference is, on me the joke isn't lost.