This is not really a joke I guess, but I at least think it is funny. This is also partly in response to this thread (Should high school students have to read Shakespeare?) in which the merits of reading Shakespeare versus watching a film version came up. It is actually a brief scene from the American television series Cheers.

For those not familiar with the series it is set in a bar in Boston that is owned by the character Sam. Sam is a former baseball player whose normal reading does not extend beyond the sports pages. Sam carries on a love affair with one of the bar's waitresses Diane who is highly educated and something of an intellectual snob. After a falling out between the two several other of the main characters suggest that Sam impress Diane by reading War and Peace. Picking up the scene just after Sam has told Diane that he read War and Peace for her.

Diane: “The only thing sexier than you reading War and Peace for me would be you reading War and Peace to me.”

Sam (picking up book): “Well then.”

Diane (taking book away and getting affectionate): “Let's just watch the movie together later.”

Sam (jumping up in anger): “You mean they didn't tell me there was a movie!”


Sorry for the length.