Hold the line

[Erik_Kowal]

A teenage boy is preparing to take his girlfriend to the senior prom. So he sets out to rent a tuxedo for the following day; but there’s a long tux line at the store, and it seems to take forever.

Then he has to get some flowers. He heads over to the florist, where he discovers a huge flower line. He has to stand in it for a really long time, but he eventually gets hold of the flowers that he plans to give his girlfriend.

Next, he goes to rent a limo at the local rental office. Unfortunately, there’s also a massive limo line. But the boy is as patient as before; he waits his turn and gets the job done.

On the day of the prom, the boy and his date arrive at the venue. He helps her out of the limo, looking very smart in his tux, gives her the flowers, and they head inside. The band turns out to be fabulous, and the boy and his girlfriend really enjoy themselves on the dance floor.

When the third number finishes, she asks her boyfriend to get her some punch. So he heads over to the punch table, and much to his surprise there’s no punch line.

[Bobinwales]

I had to read that three times before I twigged the joke. I mentally translate Amglish, so I was "reading" 'line' as 'queue'.

[Erik_Kowal]

There's a joke?

[Edwin F Ashworth]

If one may segue to the fishing line.

The likeable and knowledgeable tour guide / driver on our recent coach tour of Ireland mentioned the 'salmon of knowledge' early on in the tour, and said that he would tell us the story later. After six days (I think he was waiting, hoping that someone would feed him the line 'What is the story surrounding the salmon of knowledge', when he could have come back with something finny funny) he recounted the myth.

At the end of the tour, I left him a note (with another note inside to soften the blow) complaining that he'd failed to inform us about the other well-known Irish mythical water-beasts:

The sole of discretion
The seal of approval
The little ray of sunshine (very few claim to have seen this)
The plaice of execution

but thanking him as we'd certainly had a whale of a time.

[Erik_Kowal]

And you'd apparently also witnessed cross porpoises.

Regarding the salmon of knowledge, I found a description of the story on Wikipedia. (Summary: knowledge is nuts.)