Gags and grottiness appeal to young

By KATE FOREMAN

Do you want to hear a dirty joke? A white horse fell in the mud.

This irresistible posting at Edbydesign.com by a 12-year-old from America heralded my entry into the world of children's cyber-humour.

Edbydesign.com is a fabulous site that is both fun and educational. Not only may children post jokes and riddles but they can also submit stories, poetry and book reviews.

The site proves to be truly international, with contributions from places as varied as Kuwait, Egypt, London, Sydney and even humble old New Zealand.

It boasts about 6000 items and is constantly being updated to remain fresh.

Interestingly, the jokes told by Generation Z youngsters today are not much different from those I was giggling at in the schoolyard about 20 years ago.

Another worthwhile bookmark is Kidsjokes.co.uk, which contains 7876 jokes covering all categories from standard knock-knock humour to the latest internet jokes, such as: Q. How do you fix a broken website? A. With stick e-tape.

Parents will be reassured by a clean content guarantee that promises no unsuitable material here, but despite this kids should find plenty to laugh at.

A site that initially looked promising but turned out to be a disappointment was Kids-jokes.com. This gave you the chance to vote on two of today's jokes but they had not been changed a week later.

An intriguing A-Z menu offering other types of humour must have been still under construction. I could not get it to do anything.

It was a case of riddle me this, riddle me that at Just riddles and more website, with incredible riddles for all aptitudes.

The children's selection is excellent but the more advanced you go the more brain power is required, though some like, how many 9s between 1 and 100 (20) are just basic maths.

Moving below the belt, Farts.com has to be experienced to be believed. While the child in all of us will be unable to resist a quick snigger and indeed I cannot think of a child who would not be amused by this, it really seems to be aimed at university-age males.

Featuring explosive diet tips (you do not want me to go there) and an amazing "Britney Spears farts, too" video (I definitely did not go there) farts.com is tasteless but harmless.

Also riveting is www.yucky.kids.discovery.com, which lives up to its banner as the yuckiest site on the web. Here you can find out all you need to know about vomit, scabs, earwax and other such pleasant things. There is also a recipe page, where my favourite was Bugs Blood - just the thing for our next elegant soiree.

In the same genre, an entirely new level of grossness is achieved at Burps n' farts website with its rankings of user-supplied audio files of bodily functions. Unlike the previous site, burpsandfarts.com does not even pretend to offer educational enlightenment, and I would recommend this only for junior surfers and really sick puppies.

Returning to more tasteful topics, a brilliant locally researched site can be found at the Auckland City Libraries website. Young visitors can pretend to be studying at the Homework Machine page while they click on cool links like Cool Science, where Mother Nature's riddles - such as why are snakes like lizards and monkeys like moose - are answered.

The library site also links to www.suzy.co.nz, where TV presenter Suzy Cato (or St. Suzy as she is known in our house) manages to make even poo seem wholesome, but there is just enough grottiness to keep it interesting for kids.

The best feature of this site is that it gives children the chance to e-mail Suzy, but there is also a limited number of good-quality jokes, for example: Q. What is brown and sticky? A. A stick.

Links


Edbydesign.com

Kidsjokes.co.uk

Kids-jokes.com

Just riddles and more

Farts.com

www.yucky.kids.discovery.com

Burps n' Farts

Auckland City Libraries

Cool Science

www.suzy.co.nz