The Untold Joke

Like lots of other fans I have been scratching my head a bit over the announcement that Sebastian Faulks got the tap to write the new Bond book for next year's celebration of what would have been Ian Fleming's 100th birthday. Faulks can only be described as a literary writer and besides being a British man (one supposes 2 nonnegotiable, absolute requirements) would seem to be an unlikely choice. I really only like the Fleming Bond books and have pretty much ignored the rest (though like lots of other fans apparently I do vividly remember the uniboob Bond girl from one of the John Gardner Bond ones) so I'm not up in arms or anything. The Bond films are carrying the standard way more than any book at this point.

Supposably the new book, Devil May Care, features an older but "still sexually adventurous" Bond. So I've been saying, in person and in e-mail, 'great it's a Viagra Bond written by the Birdsong guy' with the idea that when the other person would pick up on the sex bit (and who wouldn't?) I could say 'you know what they say-the sun never sets on the British Empire.'

tee hee

But the thing is nobody picked up on the sex bit. So I've been waiting to say it and, of course, no joke is funnier than the untold one. So, here you go. Laugh away and marvel at my cleverness.