A school riddle is:
Q: What’s the longest piece of furniture in the school?
A: The multiplication table.
The joke has been cited in print since at least 1957.
Google Books
The Year-Round Party Book
By William Playford Young and Horace J Gardner
Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott
1957
Pg. 7:
What is the longest piece of furniture? The multiplication table.
Google Books
Jokes, Puns, and Riddles
By David Allen Clark
Illustrated by Lionel Kalish
Garden City, NY: Doubleday
1968
Pg. 160:
Question: What’s the longest piece of furniture in the world?
Answer: The multiplication table.
30 September 1974. Indianapolis (IN) News, “Mini Jokes,” The Mini Page, pg. 3, col. 1:
Q. What’s the longest piece of furniture in the world?
A. The multiplication table.
—James Wallace, Indianapolis
Google Books
July 1983, Boys’ Life, “Think & Grin,” pg. 74, col. 2:
Mabel: What is the longest piece of furniture in the world?
Abel: I don’t know. What?
Mabel: The multiplication table. — Francois Antebi, Greenwich, Conn.
Twitter
Daily Joker
@DailyJokePost
Whats the longest piece of furniture in the
school? The multiplication table. http://dailyjokepost.com/492
6:00 AM - 24 Aug 2009
Google Books
Best Ever Classroom Jokes:
Because some of us never grow up
By Mike Haskins
London, UK: Pavilion Books
2015
Pg. ?:
What’s the longest piece of furniture in the world?
The multiplication table.
Twitter
S.Rippetoe ⤵
@S_Rippetoe
What’s the longest piece of furniture in the school? The multiplication table.
7:00 PM - 27 Jun 2017
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.
Recent entries:
•“Welcome to growing older. Where all the foods and drinks you’ve loved for years suddenly seem determined to destroy you” (4/17)
•“Date someone who drinks with you instead of complaining that you drink” (4/17)
•“Definition of stupid: Knowing the truth, seeing evidence of the truth, but still believing the lie” (4/17)
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More new entries...
Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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