With her mouth stretched into a forced smile and the skin around her eyelids perfectly crinkled, OBGYN Charlotte Davis let out a boisterous fake laugh in response to a joke about Labor Day for the 8,000th time this year. “It’s a reflex at this point,” stated Davis who had just been asked by her mailman how many babies she expects to deliver on Labor Day. In response to the joke, Davis let out a perfectly timed guffaw before slamming her front door shut and punching the wall of her house as hard as she could. “It gets worse every year.”
In the days leading up to Labor Day, thousands of OBGYNs across the country are inundated with hilarious jokes about women going into labor on labor day and how they must be really busy this time of year. “Oh I’ll be busy,” reported Davis, busy throwing back gallon-sized margaritas on a secluded beach in Mexico. It’s the only way to escape the jokes.”
Labor Day jokes for Davis usually begin the week prior to Labor Day with a smattering of tired puns and hackneyed observations from clinic patients and family members on Facebook. “We’re having a cookout, but I’m sure you’ll be laboring on Labor Day if you know what I mean,” wrote Davis’s Uncle Bill in a Facebook message sent at 2:30am Sunday morning.
Davis usually humors people at first when she hears one of these horrible jokes. She acknowledges the joke with a sharp exhalation through her nose and a sincere sounding “ha ha.” “Unfortunately, the jokes get worse, more frequent, and nonsensical the closer we get to the holiday,” said Davis. “This morning the cashier at my grocery store just screamed, LABOR DAY! BABIES!! at me as I inserted my credit card into the chip reader.”
Next year, Davis is planning on using all her vacation time surrounding Labor Day so she can get lost in the Amazon jungle and hopefully not see anybody for weeks.
