“Ok, I don’t like to gear my material to the audience but I’d like to make an exception because I was told that there is a convention of plumbers in San Francisco this week – I understand about 30 of them came down to the show tonight – so before I came out I worked-up a joke especially for the plumbers. Those of you who aren’t plumbers probably won’t get this and won’t think it’s funny, but I think those of you who are plumbers will really enjoy this…
“This lawn supervisor was out on a sprinkler maintenance job and he started working on a Findlay sprinkler head with a Langstrom 7″ gangly wrench. Just then, this little apprentice leaned over and said, “You can’t work on a Findlay sprinkler head with a Langstrom 7″ wrench.” Well this infuriated the supervisor, so he went and got Volume 14 of the Kinsley manual, and he reads to him and says, “The Langstrom 7″ wrench can be used with the Findlay sprocket.” Just then, the little apprentice leaned over and said, “It says sprocket not socket!”
“Were these plumbers supposed to be here this show…?”
Mike Whitmore's Blog 
And then there was Gern Blansden…be kind and courteous and forgiving.Be oblong and have your knees removed.
By: 1timcurtis@gmail.com on April 3, 2011
at 3:56 pm
That is so funny! I’ve been reciting that joke since I was 13 years old. Steve Martin is a his genius. I gotta get a pair of cat handcuffs and I gotta get ’em right away.
By: Steve on October 29, 2011
at 11:18 pm
I grew up listening to Steve’s comedy, and my brother and I (we go to the crazy swinging singles bar, and we look for the girls with the dog poop on their shoes) can go word for word from “A Wild and Crazy Guy” to “Comedy Is Not Pretty”.
And, yes – I do believe that all rubberheads throw fish.
– Christoher Reitz
By: Chris Reitz on December 30, 2011
at 7:10 am
The real joke is that the joke makes absolutely no sense to a non-plumber, and makes even less sense to a plumber.
The real punch line is where he asks whether the plumbers were supposed to be there for that particular show.
At least one enterprising plumber welded together a bunch of broken tools into a useless contrivance he could pull out whenever anybody asked to see his “Langstrom 7-inch gangly wrench.”
By: James Lampert on February 20, 2013
at 4:27 pm
Excellent. Thanks for the reference point. I’m writing a post about the importance of blogging as a business person, and I wanted to use some of this terminology to discuss a generic business (yours was the first result in my Google search). Great bit, and thank you for having it on here!
By: Brian Dooley on May 2, 2013
at 9:35 am