Sadly, I think the joke was on her

After eating lunch with my mom's friend, the three of us sat around jibber-jabbering and ended up talking about politics in the US, of course making disparaging remarks about Bush. I recounted a funny story I'd heard on NPR about a fictional conversation during the meeting between the then-newly-Nobel-prize-awarded Gore and the prez. It was kind of funny in English, but somehow when my mom translated it for her friend, it simply became tedious and unfunny. I noted this, of course. He agreed.

Then she turned to me and said, "Do you know the joke?"

It was such a random, generic question. I really had no idea what she was talking about (with her it might be anything!), so of course I started laughing, and she said, "So, you do know it!" My continuing laughter made it evident that I, indeed, did not know the joke. I tried to indicate that I didn't even know what she might possibly be referring to, but that's a hard thing to do when you're rolling on the floor. I couldn't stop, even when she gave me that patented scowl of hers. I'm still laughing.