12/26/2020 from Daily Jokes
#14090
One day a man was walking through the forest when he encountered a goblin.
The goblin shouted at the man and said: “Foolish mortal, you trespass on sacred grounds! You know not the danger that hides within these hallowed woods!”
The man happened to be Neil deGrasse Tyson, famed astrophysicist and general man of science.
Neil responded simply, “This is a public park,” and to that the goblin let out an exasperated gasp and retorted, “Well, I have a magical patch of dirt. I swore on my life to protect it.”
Neil, bemused, responded, “This is public property, you can’t own any of it.”
“BUT IT’S MINE! THE PATCH OF DIRT IS MINE!” The goblin screeched back, his voice devolving into a hiss. “And I will protect my patch of dirt! Since you cannot be persuaded, I will lay defenses to protect my patch of dirt!”
“You, human, should not be able to pass these defenses, but, if you do… and you THREATEN MY PATCH OF DIRT, then… I will CURSE YOU!”
The goblin disappeared suddenly as Neil dwelled upon the goblin’s choice of words, musing the word “defenses” repeatedly as he continued his walk through the forest.
Eventually, Neil came across a wall, stretching for miles and spanning the entire woods.
The wall was made of burning bricks, unnaturally luminous and searing to the touch. Neil realized that the goblin was serious and this was the first defense he had laid.
The wall was designed to be impassible but Neil overcame the obstacle with ease, as the wall was impassible only to goblins and was short enough for an average sized human to step over.
Neil continued for another mile before reaching the next defense.
This time, it was a deep chasm stretching for miles, cursed so anything that dipped below ground level would freeze instantly, and so unthinkably deep that anything that fell in would surely shatter at the bottom.
The chasm was designed to be impassible but Neil overcame the obstacle with ease, as the chasm was impassible only to goblins and was narrow enough for an average sized human to step across.
Neil continued for another hour before reaching the final defense.
It was another wall, also spanning the length of the entire forest, but was this time merely invisible.
The wall was designed to be impassible but Neil overcame the obstacle with ease by tripping over it; like the other defenses, it was designed for goblins and was so short that Neil did not even realize there was a wall at all.
Neil continued for some time, wondering when he would find the next defense.
He became more wary as he started to notice changes in the scenery. The trees were alien, bearing strange fruit that resembled a cow’s udders. The leaves changed from shades of green to impossible shades of pink and blue and fantastic colors in between. Even the scent of the forest, the chill of the air, and the color of the late afternoon sky felt foreign.
This development troubled Neil, but he remembered that as a man of science, he had a commitment to human knowledge and understanding and decided to press on.
In minutes, Neil finally came to a clearing in the woods, which was dominated by a massive mound of dirt. Atop the mound was the goblin, thoroughly engrossed in eating one of the strange, succulent alien udder fruits.
Neil watched for some time before the goblin looked up and screamed, “YOU BREACHED MY DEFENSES! HOW DARE YOU?! YOU MUST NOT TRESPASS UPON MY PATCH OF DIRT! I PROMISE YOU WILL BE CURSED UNLESS YOU DARE RETURN TO THE FROM WHERE YOU CAME!”
Offended by the goblin’s threat, Neil pressed on and walked upon the patch of dirt for science.
The goblin immediately threw the udder fruit to the ground, leaped up, and perched in a tree, ripping off a branch and fashioning it into a wand to focus the magic of the forest. He struggled with the branch but was able to cast his curse upon Neil before he was able to finish his crossing.
Neil was gripped by a wave of energy and reeled from the pain, an overwhelming sensation, feeling as if his skin was evaporating from his body. The sensation was so exhausting that Neil blacked out.
He woke up hours later, the forest now devoid of color as the world was bathed in moonlight. He was still in the clearing and could make out the udder-shaped fruits in the trees, but the goblin and the mound of dirt were gone.
Neil had a dull pain throughout his entire body and knew that it was a result of the goblin’s curse. Seeing the moon’s reflection in a lake, he ran for the shore so that he may see his reflection.
He looked at the reflection of his face, then at his hands, and at his reflection again before realizing that he had undergone a metamorphosis: Neil deGrasse Tyson was now green.
His skin, eyes, hair, and even his internal organs had taken on a vibrant green color. When he returned home, he found that all of his clothes and furnishings had turned green as well.
Neil never saw the goblin again and resumed his life as normal. He continued to give lectures and host television programs, though was frustrated by a new compulsion to only buy and receive green things. Critics took to calling him a “little green man” while his fans called him the “green science guy.” His newfound color hardly had an effect on his career and he ultimately came to forget about his experience in the forest.
This story was first envisioned a few years ago and until now was only known to a few friends due to its length. It is called “The Greatest Joke in the World” because, like all great jokes, it has a moral. To justify the joke’s title, the moral of this particular story is the greatest moral of all, and is as follows:
deGrasse is always greener on de udder side of defense.