The Humor of Melvin Durai
THREE STEPS TO GET RID OF BED BUGS
Bed bugs are showing up everywhere—in homes, hotels and even planes—and if you don’t watch out, you may find yourself as angry as the single middle-aged Toronto woman who thought she was hearing good news when a fortune teller told her, “You’ll never be alone in bed again.”
The bed bug population in North America is rising as fast as the unemployment rate, which means that if you don’t have a job, you can’t just lie in bed. And if you think bed bugs are a pain, wait until you meet sofa bugs.
Wherever you encounter them, they’re likely to give you itchy restless nights.
“I woke up to find a dozen bite marks on my back,” said a 20-year-old New York woman. “My doctor says it’s either bed bugs or Marv Albert.”
“They’re all over my bed!” said a college student in Pennsylvania. “I wish I hadn’t gotten a tattoo that says, ‘Bite me.’”
“I hate all the bed bugs in hotel rooms!” tweeted a professional basketball player. “How’s a guy supposed to have an affair?”
“Too much scratching going on,” he later tweeted. “Not the bed bugs—my wife just scratched out my eyes.”
Once you have bed bugs, it can be really tough to get rid of them. The first step, of course, is to make sure you have bed bugs and not some other critters. Just examine the bite marks on your body. Bed bugs like to leave small red dots close to each other and if you connect the dots, you will see a picture of Muammar Gaddafi. (If you see a picture of Barack Obama, you do not have bed bugs. You have democ rats.)
The next step is a drastic one. Take all your furniture outdoors, spread it around and put up a large sign that says “Yard Sale.” Make sure you warn potential buyers about the bed bug infestation by displaying messages such as “All sales final” and “All items sold as is.”
If you don’t attract enough buyers, you might want to put up a more enticing sign: “Moving Sale.” (Just don’t tell them who’s moving.)
The final step is to deal with any bed bugs that are still hiding in your house. The best way to do this, most experts agree, is to blast them ruthlessly with one or two Justin Bieber songs. The bed bugs will rush out of their hiding places—and so will any teen-aged girls. Smack them with an old magazine (the bugs, not the girls).
If you’re unable to get rid of all your bed bugs, try to look on the bright side. Strangers will be reluctant to enter your home, so you won’t have to worry about crime. Just ask the 40-year-old accountant in Seattle. “I got rid of my lazy, good-for-nothing dog,” he said. “Instead, I put up a sign that says ‘Beware of the Bed Bugs.’ Everyone has been staying away, even my mother-in-law.”
In some cases, bed bugs can even invigorate your love life. Just ask the 80-year-old man in the Atlanta retirement home. “Nothing was happening between my wife, Mildred, and I until last Saturday,” he said. “Then, in the middle of the night, I heard her say, ‘Oh Harold, it’s been so long since you nibbled my ear.’”
Compiled and partly written by Indian humorist MELVIN DURAI, author of the novel Bala Takes the Plunge.
[Comments? Contributions? We would love to hear from you about Chai Time. If you have contributions, please email us at melvin@melvindurai.com. We welcome jokes, quotes, online clips and more]
Enjoyed reading Khabar magazine? Subscribe to Khabar and get a full digital copy of this Indian-American community magazine.
