Bob and Ted went to a local fair in a Somerset town in southwest England.
They came across a small crowd of people who were gathered around a stall, and went over to take a look.
“What’s going on?” Bob asked one of the crowd.
“We’re watching to see if some idiot can ride that bronco machine”, he said, nodding towards a fearsome looking machine. “Nobody has managed to stay on for the full three minutes yet, and there’s a prize of £100 for anybody who can”.
“I can do that,” Bob said confidently.
“You can’t,” said Ted, amazed that his friend Bob had even suggested it. “You haven’t even been to a rodeo in your life. Heck, you haven’t even been to the USA. You are going to get hurt on that thing!”
“I bloody well can do it”, said Bob.
“You’ll get yourself killed if you try and ride that bugger”, said Ted.
“Watch this”, said Bob and he climbed aboard the bronco machine.
The operator pressed the start button and the machine thrashed wildly, up and down, from side to side, around in circles, but still a grim-faced Bob clung to its back.
After two minutes, the bronco machine was bucking almost vertically and spinning until Bob was a blur.
But when the three minutes were up, Bob was still on the machine’s back, acknowledging the cheers and cries from what was now a rather large crowd.
Bob dismounted, collected his winnings and rejoined Ted.
“Where in hell did you learn to ride a bucking bronco like that?” Ted asked.
“Remember three months ago”, Bob said. “When my wife had whooping cough…?”
Image used under a Collective Commons License from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rodeo_in_a_sportclub.jpg
