Indian chief goes in Nevada by car (in 50-th years). Suddenly the car breaks down, and the Indian has no money for repairs . The chief collects branches, kindle a large fire and begins to signal to his tribe to the reservation, by the old Indian way - by the smoke of a fire:
"BRING 100$"
His tribesmen (miles per 50) saw this message and, in response, made a fire with this message:
"WHY DO YOU WANT MONEY, CHIEF? "
At this time, near that place, H-bomb was tested on the nuclear test site, there was a terrible explosion, and a huge nuclear mushroom is heaving in the sky. Reservation answer:
" ON IT'S WAY. ARE WE EVEN NOT ALLOWED TO ASK? "

Well,that's kinda funny.

quote:

Originally posted by NormanConquest:
Well,that's kinda funny.

I am glad you understand it Norm

to me the punch-line reads:

On it's way...sorry for asking!!

That helps. I live in Vegas and was still not getting the gist of it until CoyoteKiller82 'translated' it for me.

Thanks, CoyoteKiller82. Paetially corrected punch-line.
It's problem - the modern American language is not similar to the training course Bi-bi-si, on which are based the English textbooks around the world. And sustainable idioms are difficult to be translated. I sometimes ask a friend to help, he lives in England - he says that for the British, some American expressions incomprehensible. As he says, "they're there, beyond the river".

and as soon as everybody figures it out we change it again.