The Origin of Laughing Dog

One day up at Bemidji State University in the fall of 2004, the cafeteria was given a rather large amount of Cracker Jack brand cracker-jacks to hand out to all of the starving little college kids when they came to visit. All day long you could hear the crunching of the little snacks echo in unison around the classrooms. Later that day when I stumbled upon my cohort's room he engaged me excitedly about some amazing thing that he just couldn't wait to unveil. Buried inside his box of Cracker Jacks was something profound... it wasn't a toy, or a sticker, or a flashy plastic ring... it was a joke. And not just any joke, this was the most subtley clever and confounding thing we'd seen all year. It was a picture of a sailor with his arm around his dog, and he's asking his dog a question, "Why was the math book sad?" Obviously a set up for a cheesy popsicle stick joke, right? But then the dog actually speaks out in plain English and answers the joke, "Because it had a lot of problems!" The dog is laughing hysterically at his own corny response and the sailor is laughing so hard his eyes are squinty and he points at the dog with his other hand as if to say "This guy here, this is the guy." ...like they're drinking buddies or something! It was so funny I quickly made a blown-up picture of it in photoshop and framed it. I left out the words even, because the picture says it all. Then, later I drew up a characature of Laughing Dog and we used it to make fun of some of the posted rules around the dorm, letting Laughing Dog say what he wanted to about the matter. Soon it became an epidemic. Laughing Dog already has freinds in Rochester and Massachussettes. So, when this whole "I agree with Suzanne" thing started up around here and put up a website, I found it only fair that Laughing Dog should have the oppertunity to mock this as well and to have his very own website too. (If you're curious about the Suzanne thing, go ahead and log on to www.iagreewithsuzanne.com and leave your thoughts, or do as Laughing Dog would and leave some poo.) On behalf of Laughing Dog and all his affilliates, enjoy the site we've made for him here, read the essays, share the experience!