Kids are naturally fun. Luckily, most adults are former children. Actually, we should probably acknowledge that adults are simply obsolete children.

Kids can make other kids and even some adults laugh—but that doesn’t make them prodigy comedians. They are cute youngsters who might grow up to become star comedians or insurance executives or boutique shop owners or auto mechanics. Humor starts early and is pretty basic. Usually the first amusement that a parent and child share is the toilet joke. It deals with “doodoo” or “peepee” or you can bet anything even remotely scatological that the kid discovered. It’s an innocent study of functions of the human anatomy and it’s kind of a shared secret. Of course, kids do say the darndest things. Sometimes shocking. Just roll with the punch; it’s the innocence and sparkle of children’s minds being verbalized.

What makes sense to a two-year-old can be a riot to an adult. An unsuspecting passerby, not even an adoring relative, will grin when a little person says that she “heared a lady who singed a pretty song.” There’s logic in adding the past tense suffix ed to a verb. What right do adults have to change speech so radically?