Real dragons, not ferocious women.

I just realized that the banquet scene of our adaptation of "The Reluctant Dragon" could use a little punching up. The play will be directed by teens and performed by 7- to 12-year-olds for their parents and siblings, so I'm not looking for anything very adult or even very sophisticated here.

The dragon is the guest of honor at this banquet, and charms one and all. It would be good to have him tell a couple of dragon jokes or riddles.

I have found "Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, because you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup." Also (which I won't use, because it's too grotesque for the rest of the play): "Mother Dragon, tired of hunting, swooped down on a couple of gravediggers and brought home the coffin. Baby Dragon whined, 'Aw, Mom, not that canned food again!'"

There's also a great cartoon featuring a listing tanker, an oil slick, and a black dragon shape on the beach along with assorted blackened birds. Caption: "A tragedy occurs off the coast of a land called Honah-Lee". But I don't know how to integrate a sight gag of that sort into the script, and I don't think half the cast would get it.

My one and only book of fairy tale jokes is on a holdshelf Somewhere Else waiting to be picked up. Drat and double drat.

A knock-knock joke would be a good, or a clean limerick. My brain is fried.

If you write an original joke and want a credit, I'll put you in the program. :)

Thanks for thinking about it, even if no one comes up with anything. But with this group's propensity for puns, I have great confidence.