Extemp attention getter

Don't remember exactly where I heard this but thought it could pretty easily be twisted to apply to a number of different situations and questions.

An old man is fishing one day when he catches a mermaid. The mermaid says that if he lets her go, she'll grant him three wishes. "Alright," he says, and thinks for a few minutes then says "I wish to be young and handsome. I wish to be married to a beautiful woman. Finally, I wish to be a very important man."

"done." Says the mermaid and with a flick of her tail she knocks the man unconscious. The next thing he knows he's being gently shaken awake by a beautiful woman who tells him "wake up Ferdinand, we have to go to Sarajevo today."

You could do something about "be careful what you wish for." It's appropriate to anything in the Balkans...

Of course it's only funny if you know WWI history and that killing Franz Ferdinand kicks off trench warfare, so maybe not for the mommy judges, but still, I found it amusing.