Patently Silly

A man went to the patent office with some of his new designs.

“I’d like to register my new invention. It’s a folding bottle,” he said to the clerk.

“OK,” said the clerk. “What do you call it?”

“A fottle,” replied the inventor.

“A fottle? That’s silly!” chided the clerk. “Can’t you think of something else?”

“I’ll think about it, but I’ve got something else though. It’s a folding carton.”

“And what do you call that?” asked the clerk.

“A farton”, replied the inventor.

“That’s rude. You can’t possibly call it that!”

“In that case,” said the inventor, “you’re really going to hate the name of my folding bucket.”