A joke told by Bernie Mac shows a Twain-ish twist that illustrates the high art of communication. When you take it to this sort of level like Twain and Mac it pays.His joke was as follows:
My little nephew came to me and he said, ‘Uncle, what’s the difference between a hypothetical question and a realistic question? I said I don’t know … but I’ll tell you what you do. Go upstairs and ask your mother if she’d make love to the mailman for 
50,000 — and daughter hypothetically answering the question in the same way. Hypothetically speaking, we should have $100,000……….. But realistically speaking we live with two hos.
This joke is at its core very intellectual. His illustration of wishful thinking versus realistic thinking contains a clarity hard to explain to people in normal language. It shows the futility of acting out of motivation of magical thinking.
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