A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Entry from June 22, 2018
“If you found $5 in every pocket of your coat, what would you have?”/“Someone else’s coat.”

This math joke was printed in 1936:
 
Teacher: If you had fifty cents in your right hand pocket, and seventy-five cents in your left hand pocket, what would you have?
Student: I’d have on somebody else’s pants.

 
The joke has been printed in many variations.
 
       
27 October 1932, The Star (Postville, IA), pg. 3, col. 2:
Kenneth E: Say, Bill, if you had five bucks in your pocket, what would you think?
Bill U.: I’d think I had somebody else’s pants!
   
16 July 1936, Bremen (IN) Enquirer, “Other Folks’ Money,” pg. 6, col. 3:
And it reminded us, as we walked by, of the little boy who was asked by the teacher: “If you had fifty cents in your right hand pocket, and seventy-five cents in your left hand pocket, what would you have?”
 
The little boy knew the answer. “I’d have on somebody else’s pants,” he declared.
   
15 October 1936, The Poudre Valley (Windsor, CO), “This and That” by E. G. Downs, pg. 6, col. 1:
Here’s an English one, from London Tit Bits: “Teacher: ‘If you have two shillings and sixpence in your left pocket and four shillings and sixpence in your right pocket, what would you have?’ Tommy: ‘Somebody else’s trousers on.’”
 
27 June 1939, Gallup (NM)

, “A Little of Everything,” pg. 2, col. 2:
Teacher: “If you had $10 in one pocket and $15 in the other, what would you have?”
Student: “Someone else’s pants.”
   
19 March 1939, Milwaukee (WI) Journal, “News Flashes,” pg. 6, col. 8:
Fuel Dealer Joseph Simpson was asked this riddle: “If you had $10 in one pocket and $15 in the other, what would you have?” Answered Joe: “Someone else’s pants.”
 
11 July 1948, Chicago (IL) Sunday Tribune, “Radio Gag Bag” bulled by Larry Wolters, Magazine, pg. 23, col. 2:
Aunt Aggie: If you put your hand in one coat pocket and found 50 cents and then put your hand in the other coat pocket and found 75 cents what would you have?
Judy Canova: I’d have someone else’s coat.
         
Google Books 
The Reader’s Digest
Volume 66  
1955
Pg. 152:
After numerous military questions, the chairman posed this mathematical query: “If you had $34.61 in one pocket and $15.73 in the other what would you have?”
 
“Sir,” the sergeant replied instantly, “I’d have someone else’s pants on!”
 
10 January 1965, The Sunday Sun (Baltimore, MD), “Sunday Punch,” Magazine, pg. 26, col. 2:
‘NOW, Eddie,” said the arithmetic teacher, “if you had $2 in one pocket, $3 in another pocket, and $4 more in still another pocket, what would you have?”
“Someone else’s pants,” answered Eddie.
   
Google Books
Biggest Riddle Book in the World
By Joseph Rosenbloom
Illustrations by Joyce Behr
New York, NY: Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.
1976
Pg. 247:
If you found a $10 bill in every pocket of your coat, what would you have?
Someone else’s coat.
 
Twitter
Official Haddie_HRH
@HaddieUK
If you found a five dollar bill in every pocket of your coat, what would you have ? Someone else’s coat.
9:37 PM - 22 Aug 2009
   
18 January 2010, The Sun (London, UK), pg. 25:
TEACHER: If you reached into your right pocket and found Pounds 2 and your left pocket and found Pounds 3, what would you have?
BOY: Someone else’s coat.
TRACY PARKER Faversham, Kent
   
Google Books
Best Ever Classroom Jokes:
Because some of us never grow up

By Mike Haskins
London, UK: Pavilion Books
2015
Pg. ?:
The teacher gave Kevin a maths problem.
‘If you had £15 in one pocket and £27 in the other pocket, what would you have?’
‘Somebody else’s trousers on,’ says Kevin.
 
Twitter
KellyReillyFANS
@KellyReillyFans
#BadJokeFriday Teacher to pupil: If your trousers had £10 in 1 pocket,  £5 in other, what would you have?
Pupil- someone else’s trousers!
4:24 PM - 22 Sep 2017
 
Twitter
lorraine Jo King
@LahLahBean
#badjokefriday
If you found a five pound note in every pocket of your coat, what would you have?Someone else’s coat.
11:07 AM - 22 Jun 2018

Posted by Barry Popik
Friday, June 22, 2018 • Permalink


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