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Sleeping with the Fishes

When I was a child, my parents told me my uncle was 'sleeping with the fishes.' At first, I thought he bought a water bed, but I then discovered he was killed and buried at sea.

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    Explanation

    The humor comes from the misunderstanding of the phrase 'sleeping with the fishes.' The speaker, as a child, takes the phrase literally, imagining their uncle having a water bed. The punchline reveals that 'sleeping with the fishes' is a euphemism for being dead, specifically being killed and buried at sea, making the child's initial understanding both naive and darkly humorous.

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