Ham Tells Joke AGAIN

By WBØRUR, on the scene

PETALUMA, California – A Sonoma County amateur radio operator has told the same joke 1,742 times on the local VHF repeater.

As part of his daily ritual, Jonathon Cartwright announces his call sign during the morning commute roundtable on the 146.91 MHz repeater.  If there is no immediate response from others, he cracks “Guess I should have worn more deodorant!”

The side splitting humor is so frequent that many hams now silently mouth the joke to themselves while stuck in southern California rush hour traffic.

“It started as an absent-minded remark,” says the 52-year-old forklift operator. “I had no idea it would become such a big part of my daily life.”

A spokesman for the Guinness Book of World Records says Cartwright is closing in on a world record.

“At his current joke-telling rate, he’ll achieve the record within 2.6 years,” says Guinness’ Director of Notifications Oliver Newcastle-Ipswich.

Cartwright says he tried to change the joke a few times, but his comic forays into other subjects (80’s television or 70’s music) simply fell flat with the morning commuters.

He says he will continue to run the forklift at the Sonoma County Winery for a few more years, so listeners should expect to hear the deodorant joke until he breaks the record.

“Then maybe I’ll change it to ‘Guess I should have taken a bath.’” he quickly adds.

Reporters note:  Newcastle-Ipswich says the current record holder is Delbert Cole of Kissimmee, Florida, who told the same joke 3,272 times as net control of the “Swan Radio Collectors Net.” After each station check-in, Cole confirmed the station with the phrase “Well, I’ll swan!”

### hamhijinks.com

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