“Damn! This manual is ridiculous!” Joe said. He said on the floor at the edge of the veranda, marking pages with his fingers while leafing further into the book.
“What are you looking for?” His neighbor Alex peered over at him
“My TIFU meter isn’t functioning. I’m trying to figure out how to reset it.” Joe replied without even an upward glance. “Damnation,” he muttered while continuing his search.
“Teefoo meter?” Alex puzzled. “What’s that?”
Joe’s head shot up. “What?! Don’t you have one? TIFU stands for This Is F….” His last words were drowned out by blaring car horn.
Alex blinked at him. Finally he said, “I’m sorry I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“This Is Fu…” A loud car drowned out the words this time.
Alex shook his head. “I still didn’t get that.”
“Damn,” muttered Joe. “When you wonder if the problem is you or the situation, you get the TIFU meter, turn it on, fit the wand in the upright holder so it can sense whatever, and the meter will read whether the situation is ….” More traffic noise. More car horns.
Alex asked, “Could you please say that one more time?”
“Fu–” Airplane. Bus horn. Fire whistle.
Alex watched Joe mouthing the words, probably shouting them, over and over, but there was too much noise.
Until there wasn’t.
“–CKED UP! THIS IS F–” Joe stopped his shouting. It was quiet momentarily.
Finally he said, “It’s situations like this that broke my meter.”
This is my response to the Unicorn Challenge. It’s a simple challenge: write no more that 250 words using the photo as a prompt.
One of my coworkers refered to his FU meter today. I looked at him, puzzled. He explained, without the niceties of street noise drowning him out.
“Damn thing is busted,” he said. “Either that or this situation is TOTALLY F–“
The front desk phone rang at that moment.
I was literally saved by the bell.
Hot Dogs and Marmalade 
Funny!
A very different take, Sally!
Love this, Sally! I know a few people that need to be bleeped, lol.
Love it, Sally.
(And your story of your prompt for the story is great too.)
I can feel the tension – and the voices – mounting until that inevitable sudden silence and KAPOW.
Your story is a really clever spoof of that situation.
very cool*
*a) as in: fun story to read and 2) technically, I thought (as I went back to analyze ‘the how’) ok, not difficult here to engage the Reader (surely the first and most critical hurdle we all face) but to keep them going while building ‘tension’ and then, of course end with a reasonable punchline (reasonableness imo necessary for it to be funny)
Funny stuff, Sally! We’re sort of along the same line in our stories. Great fun read!
Very clever. I enjoyed the gradual build-up to the explosive end. A TIFU meter sounds like a very useful device for our times. Thanks for the little endnote too – I love learning where other writers get ideas. Sometimes they’re very hard to find.
Laughing over here! And a perfect blend of picture prompt and real life. I imagine that for the amount of time one has to spend riffling through a hardcover manual, one WOULD turn into an ossified, wooden statue! 🤣