The British Government's policy of socialized
medicine has recently
been broadened to include a service called
"Proxy Fathers." Under the
government plan, any married woman who is unable
to become pregnant
through the first five years of her marriage
may request the service
of a proxy father--a government employee who
attempts to solve the
couple's problem by impregnating the wife.
The Smiths, a young couple,
have no children and a proxy father is
due to arrive. Leaving for
work, Mr. Smith says, "I'm off. The government
man should be here
soon."
Moments later a door-to-door baby photographer
rings the bell..
Mrs. Smith: "Good morning."
Salesman: "Good morning, madam. You don't know
me, but I've come to"
Mrs. Smith: "No need to explain, I've been
expecting you.
Salesman: "Really? Well, good. I've made a
specialty of babies,
especially twins."
Mrs. Smith: "That's what my husband and I had
hoped. Please come in and
have a seat."
Salesman: (Sitting) "Then you don't need to
be sold on the idea?"
Mrs. Smith: "Don't concern yourself. My husband
and I both agree this
is the right thing to do."
Salesman: "Well, perhaps we should get down
to it."
Mrs. Smith: (Blushing) "Just where do we start?"
Salesman: "Leave everything to me. I usually
try two in the bathtub,
one on the couch and perhaps a couple on the
bed. Sometimes the living
room floor allows the subject to really spread
out."
Mrs. Smith: "Bathtub, living room floor? No
wonder it hasn't worked for
Harry and me."
Salesman: "Well, madam, none of us can guarantee
a good one every
time, but if we try several locations and I
shoot from six or seven
angles, I'm sure you'll be pleased with the
results. In fact, as my
business card says, 'I aim to please.'"
Mrs. Smith: "Pardon me, but isn't this a little
informal?"
Salesman: "Madam, in my line of work, a man
must be at ease and take
his time. I'd love to be in and out in five
minutes, but you'd be
disappointed with that."
Mrs. Smith: "Don't I know! Have you had much
success at this?"
Salesman: (Opening his briefcase and finding
baby pictures) "Just look
at this picture. Believe it or not, it was
done on top of a bus in
downtown London."
Mrs. Smith: "Oh, my!!"
Salesman: "And here are pictures of the prettiest
twins in town. They
turned out exceptionally well when you consider
their mother was so
difficult to work with."
Mrs. Smith: "She was?"
Salesman: "Yes, I'm afraid so. I finally had
to take her down to Hyde
Park to get the job done right. I've never
worked under such
impossible conditions. People were crowding
around four and five deep,
pushing to get a good look."
Mrs. Smith: "Four and five deep?"
Salesman: "Yes and for more than three hours,
too. The mother got so
excited she started bouncing around, squealing
and yelling at the
crowd. I couldn't concentrate. I'm afraid I
had to ask a couple of men
to restrain her. By that time darkness was
approaching and I began to
rush my shots. When the squirrels began nibbling
on my
equipment I just packed it all in."
Mrs. Smith: "You mean they actually chewed
on your, eh, equipment?"
Salesman: "That's right, but it's all in a
day's work. I consider my
work a pleasure. I've spent years perfecting
my patented technique.
Now take this baby, I shot this one in the
front window of a big
department store."
Mrs. Smith: "I just can't believe it."
Salesman: "Well, madam, if you're ready, I'll
set up my tripod so that
we can get to work."
Mrs. Smith: "TRIPOD?!?"
Salesman: "Oh yes, I have to use a tripod to
rest my equipment on.
It's much too heavy and unwieldy for me to
hold while I'm shooting.
Ms. Smith?...Ms. Smith?...My word, she's fainted!"