the Buddhist sense of humor

I'm reading Jonathan Lethem's Motherless Brooklyn, a sort of off-beat crime mystery that takes place on the streets of my South Brooklyn neighborhood. the most endearing part of the story is the main character, Lionel Essrog who suffers from Tourette's Syndrome. his outbursts create some hilarious poetic riffs in mid sentence. for example, he can't say his name without following it with some verbal variation like "Unreliable Chessgrub," "Liable Guesscog," etc. it gets you to think about language and the juxtaposition of words and phrases.

Lionel's investigation leads him to a Buddhist zendo which spurs the memory of the following joke:

What did the Buddhist say to the hot-dog vendor?

"Make me one with everything."

i'm not a big joke fan but that one just works. interestingly, Zen Buddhism is full of koan, riddles that introduce simple yet paradoxical scenarios use in meditation. one learns how to solve them or learns they cannot be solved through enlightenment.

inspired by the bizarre juxtaposition of hot dogs and Buddhist practictioners, here's my contribution:

you are in the middle of a forest eating a hot dog. a monk appears before you holding a tray of condiments.
he asks you how you live your life. you say "relish."

and with that, all should now be clear.