A gas station clerk graded my dad joke with a notepad

Last month I was at a gas station in Toledo paying for coffee and the cashier looked bored out of her mind. So I hit her with my classic: knock knock, who's there, orange, orange who, orange you glad I didn't say banana. She didn't laugh, just stared at me for a solid 5 seconds. Then she pulled out a little notepad and wrote down "4 out of 10, weak delivery" and slid it across the counter. I asked her what I could improve and she said the pacing was off, too much pause before the punchline. Ended up standing there for 20 minutes while she critiqued my whole routine, turns out she does open mic comedy on Thursdays. Has anyone else gotten judged by a stranger in the middle of telling a dad joke, or was this just my lucky day?

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noahchen23d ago

Consider that this gas station clerk might have been practicing her own material on you just as much as critiquing yours. She saw a live audience member who was already engaged, so she turned the tables and used you for her own reps. That notepad rating was probably part of her warm-up routine for the open mic later that week. You gave her a perfect straight man setup, and she nailed the comeback. Honestly, you should be flattered. She treated you like a fellow comic, not just a customer, and that's a rare compliment even if it stung a little.

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