[Survey] Ziggy's Joke Book

“Alright! This is your new office!” A small, navy xero swings the door open and presents the room ahead to Ziggy. Ziggy gasps. They can’t help but get a bit emotional about this moment. After several years of hard work (and several more months of management saying that they needed time to clear space), he has finally gotten his own office. 

The room wasn’t much bigger than his old cubical. But everything was much higher quality. The desk was made of high-quality wood with a dark finish. There were two computer monitors instead of just one. The chair was cushioned in all the right places. And there was a gold and black name plaque captioned: “Ziggy- Lead Ambassador”.

Ziggy’s ears and antenna glowed brighter than usual. He tried to maintain his composure, but his face was beaming with pride. The younger xero couldn’t help but feel happy for them as well. She gives him a playful pat on the back. 

“You like it?” Ziggy takes a deep breath and regains his composure.

“Yeah. This is perfect! Thank you.” His voice is level and grateful. But they still couldn’t break their gaze from the name plaque. She chuckles.

“Alright, I’ll let you get all settled in!” Ziggy makes a small, affirmative sound in response before stepping into his new office. 

Ziggy sets their box of all his knick-knacks and papers on the edge of his desk and practically leaps into his new chair. The chair is comfy, but still firm enough for back support. He leans back and is surprised by how much the back can adjust. Ziggy sits back up and starts to rummage through their box. 

He first pulls out a disorganized stack of papers, which Ziggy promptly sets out of sight. Next, they pull out a photo frame with a picture of him on his first day of work. Ziggy smiles at the photo and sets it in between his two monitors. They stand up to get a better look at what’s in his box. He pulls out a few paperweights that they’ve collected over the years and sets each one out in an organized manner on his desk. Towards the bottom of the box, he finally finds the object he was looking for the most: a pocket-sized book of jokes.

It was orange, embossed, and fabric-bound with golden lettering. On the cover, it says, “Goofs and Gaffs to Giggle and Laugh to!” 

When Ziggy was just a teen, he was very shy. He wanted to make friends, but at the time, just leaving his home was a monumental task. When people would ask his questions, he’d stammer over their words and get flustered. 

One day, they got the courage to go to the library to pick up some books for school. As they were checking out, he noticed a small book cart labeled “Free”. Naturally, they perused the book selection and stumbled on the previously mentioned joke book. 

“Maybe if I learn a few jokes,” Ziggy thought, “people would want to hang out with me!” So he took the book home and practiced the jokes. The first time they tried a joke on someone, the attempt at telling the joke was funnier than the actual joke. However, it pushed them to keep trying. At a certain point, he got so used to talking to people, he didn’t need the book anymore. 

It’s been years now since they’ve even read the book. But there’s always a little worry in his head saying, “What if everyone hates me? What if I make a fool out of myself?” So he carries that little, orange book around; just in case. 

Ziggy smiled at the little joke and flipped to a random page. 

“Why did the boolew fail math class?”

“It was below C level!”