Once upon a time, in a bright pink anemone on the reef, there lived a clownfish named Finley.
Finley was funny.
Very, very funny.
He could cross his eyes. Do a spinning somersault. Make his cheeks puff out like a balloon.
Even the grumpy moray eel laughed. And the moray eel laughed at nothing.
Everyone loved Finley.
And Finley hated it. 🤡
🌊 The Day the Jokes Stopped
“I’m tired of being funny,” Finley told his anemone one morning.
He had ideas. Important ones. He had noticed the current was changing. He had seen jellyfish gathering in unusual places. Something was shifting in the reef and nobody was paying attention.
But every time he tried to talk, the other fish just waited for the punchline.
“Good one, Finley!” they said.
“I’m not joking,” said Finley.
“Ha!” they said.
So he stopped making jokes altogether.
The reef went very quiet.
😶 What Laughter Does
Without Finley’s jokes, things felt heavy.
A little puffer fish was scared of the dark water near the trench. He sat alone and trembled.
Two angelfish had stopped speaking after a quarrel. They floated on opposite sides of a rock and sulked.
A baby turtle cried because she couldn’t find her family.
Finley watched them all.
Serious.
Important.
Completely useless.
He felt worse than before.
😄 William Gets the Joke
William was floating above the reef in a snorkel mask when they spotted Finley.
Just sitting there. Not wiggling. Not crossing his eyes. Not doing anything funny at all.
“Why does that clownfish look so sad?” William wondered.
William watched as Finley finally swam over to the baby turtle.
And made the most ridiculous face ever seen in any ocean.
The turtle laughed so hard she hiccupped — and the hiccups changed her colour back, and she recognised herself in the reef glass, and she found her family three minutes later.
Then Finley turned to the two sulky angelfish and, in a calm and serious voice, explained very clearly how they had both been right and both been a bit wrong.
They listened.
Because they trusted Finley.
Because Finley made them laugh.
And that’s what jokes do. They make you trust people. 🐠