A stand-up comic got booked to perform at an old age home.

It wasn’t exactly the glamorous Saturday-night crowd he had dreamed about, but a gig was a gig.

He stepped onto the little stage, adjusted the microphone and opened with one of his favorite jokes.

The room erupted in laughter.

“Great crowd,” he thought.

A few minutes later, he noticed that many of the residents seemed a little distracted. Some were staring out the window, one gentleman was asleep, and another was enthusiastically applauding the fire extinguisher.

So the comic decided to experiment.

He told the same joke again.

To his surprise, everyone laughed just as hard.

He waited a couple of minutes and told it a third time.

Another huge laugh.

Now he was having fun.

For the next half hour, he kept telling exactly the same joke, changing nothing except his facial expression.

Every single time, the audience laughed as though they had never heard it before.

The comic could barely keep a straight face.

“This is the easiest job I’ve ever had,” he thought.

But near the end of the show, he noticed one old man sitting in the front row staring intensely at him.

The man hadn’t taken his eyes off him for several minutes.

Suddenly the comic became nervous.

“He knows,” he thought. “He’s going to call me out.”

When the show ended, the old man slowly stood up and walked toward him.

The comic braced himself for an uncomfortable confrontation.

The old man stopped directly in front of him, shook his head in amazement and asked,

“How do you remember all those jokes?!”