when parents text

     For this post, I've decided to do something different. Instead of TFLN, I have discovered the site "When Parents Text." It's another website of texting humor, just without the drunkenness.
     First of all, beneath the title, the subheading reads "small keypad, old hands." Personally, I find the concept of parents texting is inherently funny, especially when I see my friends' parents who put on reading glasses to text because the lettering on the keypad of their phones are so tiny. But here is my favorite entry:
     Dad: where u sleepin ovr?
     Me: I’m not sure yet.
     Dad: lettuce kno wen u kno fer sure.
     On top of my uncontrollable laughter when it comes to parents using instant message abbreviations, the fact that 'let us' became 'lettuce' and actually sounds the same when you read it out loud is hysterical. Just to clarify, when I'm laughing at parents texting, I really don't think it is the same as the 'sucker laughter' since they have to make an effort and sometimes struggles to keep up with the changing times. To me, the humor comes from a more basic source, which is simple incongruity. In a single text conversation, there are numerous incongruities, each contributing to the overall humor. Often times, it is the current generation of youths who are harshly criticized for our  use of instant message abbreviations. That and the invention of spell check have helped produce a generation of people who do not know how to spell or even write with proper grammer, or so many think. Yet in this text conversation, there is a complete reversal of rules. The dad is using instant-message-speak (improperly because the goal of those abbreviations is to shorten the text but 'fer' has the same amount of letters as 'for') while the offspring is the one who texts with impeccable spelling and even punctuation. This probably added a streak of triumph to my laughter, which reminds of the American inclination to stick up for the underdog. Now we've showed them! Though to give the dad his just due, even though he was very economical about his words, eliminating unnecessary and silent letters, he punctuates his texts properly, another amusing incongruity.
Lastly, the lettuce is just so funny.