RHETORICAL RECYCLING
An Englishman, on a business trip to Paris, is having breakfast (coffee, croissants,
bread, butter and jam) when a pushy, gum-chewing Frenchman plonks himself
down beside him. The Englishman ignores the intruder who, nevertheless,
starts up a conversation: 'You English folk eat the whole bread?'
Englishman morosely: 'Of course.' The Frenchman, after blowing a huge bubble:
'We don't; we only eat what's inside. The crusts we collect in a container,
recycle, transform into croissants and sell them to England,' he declares smugly.
The Englishman listens in stony silence.
His uninvited guest persists: 'Do you eat jam?'
'Of course.'
The Frenchman (cracking bubble-gum between his teeth and chuckling):
'We don't. In France we eat fresh fruit for breakfast, then we put all the peels,
seeds and leftovers in containers, recycle them, turn them into jam and sell
them to England.'
After a moment of further silence, the Englishman counters:
'Do you have sex in France?'
'Of course; we are noted for our sexuality.'
'And what do you do with the used condoms?'
'We throw them away of course.'
The Englishman fixes him with an unwavering stare and asserts:
'We don't; in England we put them in a container, recycle them
into bubble-gum and sell them to France.'
