One of my work colleagues was having a bad day, so I decided to cheer him up. He’d sent me a cross text message, so I replied with a message saying “There were two old men sitting on a park bench.”

He replied, “And?”

So I sent the second bit, “One of them said to the other, ‘it’s nice out, isn’t it?'”

He replied “Yes. And?”

So I sent the third line, “And the other one said, ‘Yes, it is, but you’d better put it away – someone’s coming!'”

This time I got no reply. So I sent a fourth message, saying “Punchline arrived safely?”

Almost immediately the response came: “Yes, unfortunately.”