Well, as this thread seems to have run its course, I thought I'd add this old favourite . . .
A team of sociologists have planned an experiment in isolation. They send an Englishman, a Frenchman and a Japanese man to a deserted island and arrange to come back and pick them up in exactly one year's time and see how they have adapted to life in the wild.
The sociologists leave, and the three men decide to split up the tasks amongst themselves. "I'm an engineer" says the Englishman, "So I'll set about building us a shelter". He turns to the Frenchman and says: "You French are pretty good cooks so why don't you handle the cooking?" The Frenchman agrees, and the Englishman turns to the Japanese and says "That leaves you to organise the supplies". The Japanese man agrees to this and each man sets about his tasks.
The year passes, and the sociologists return to see how the men have coped. They expect to find three desperate men, unhappy at having to live on an island with no home comforts, but instead they find a huge wooden house with verandas and porches and balconies. The Englishman comes to greet them,and when they express their surprise about the house he just shrugs and says "Well, I had a lot of raw materials, so I kind of went to town and did the place up".
The team are simply stunned and are led inside to the kitchen where they're greeted with the most amazing smell of delicious food. The Frenchman sees their wonderment and just shrugs. "I had lots to work with" he says, "This island has loads of small wildlife, edible plants and herbs." They all sit down to eat and are about to start, when one of the sociologists asks if they should wait for the Japanese man before starting their meal. "Oh we don't know what happened to him." explains the Englishman, "He ran off into the woods to sort out the supplies and hasn't been seen since".
They all agree that they should try to find the man, and a search party is organised. They make it about 100 yards into the woods, when the Japanese man jumps out from behind a tree, stark naked with half a coconut on his head, painted seven different colours, peacock feathers sticking out of his backside, and shouts...
"SUPPLIES!!!"
I'll get my coat!
