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The one thing you have to love about our culture? We can find humor in anything. Our world may be crashing down around us, but we still likes us some good jokes.

(And let's face it, with the recession and our economy in shambles, at least jokes are free...for now).

And so, with Hurricane Ike's aftermath affecting people across the area, I thought I'd share with you some hurricane humor someone recently sent me. Since approximately 80 percent of people when faced with a hurricane (note: that number is totally made up) decide to deal with it by drinking away their sorrows, here are some cocktail recipes for the next storm in the Gulf.

MANDATORY EVACUATION
1 1/2 oz. Absolute Ruby Red vodka
1/2 oz. vermouth
Clamato
 Prune juice
Combine vodka and vermouth in cocktail glass. Fill
remainder of glass with equal parts Clamato and prune juice.
Stir. Drink. Ask next-door neighbor whose fichus tree blew
over and crashed onto your roof - even though you'd
warned him for months to uproot it - if you can use his
bathroom. Repeat.

CONE OF PROBABILITY
1 oz. cinnamon schnapps
1 sugar cone
Pour the schnapps into the sugar cone. Every time you hear
a TV weatherman say, 'cone of probability,' bite
off the end of the cone and down the shot. If you hear Jim
Cantore say it, drink two shots consecutively. (Have you ever noticed that, despite all the cone of probability talk, if Cantore is parked in front of your house, you're toast?)

BEACH EROSION
1 1/2 oz. Goldschläger
1 1/2 oz. apple brandy
1 pack Sugar in the Raw
Combine Goldschläger, apple brandy and sugar in cocktail
glass. As you drink, seriously contemplate moving your
Yankee behind back to New Jersey where it belongs.

FLOOD ZONE
2 oz. Kahlúa
2 oz. Baileys Irish cream
4 oz. rum
Serve in a 6-ounce glass and laugh-cry deliriously as the
mess spills all over the countertop.

 LOOTERS WILL BE SHOT
1 oz. Jack Daniel's
Splash of sarsaparilla
Rock salt
Load both barrels of a shotgun with rock salt. Climb to the
roof of your house with gun, bottle of Jack Daniel's and can of
sarsaparilla. Fill shot glass with Jack and splash of
sarsaparilla. Watch for looters. When you spot one, blast
him with rock salt. Drink shot. Repeat.

FEMA FIZZLE
1 oz. Southern Comfort
2 oz. sloe gin
Tonic water
One week after the storm has passed and your neighborhood
is still in ruins with no sign of help on the way, combine
Southern Comfort and gin in a cocktail glass. Fill remainder
with tonic and add a dash of Angostura bitters. Serve with a
nut brownie. Before drinking, raise the glass and say the
toast, 'Doing a helluva job, Brownie.'

(Side note: Jokes are great but in all seriousness, there are still many evacuees that need help, many here in Victoria. Please remember to give what you can).