[ It is possible that everything about Rorschach would make Flagg laugh exactly like that. He stares back in a parody of thoughtfulness, tap-tapping his fingers on the podium. ]

Let me see. Well, why not another old saw. Man takes his wife to the hospital because she's so sick she collapsed. After she's been in surgery for hours, the doctor comes out and sits the man down and says, "I've got some good news and a lot of bad news. Which do you want to hear first?"

Man asks for the bad news, so the doctor tells him she's got a brain tumor. "But that's not all," the doctor says, "She's going to lose control of her body over time. You'll have to take care of her, feed her, turn her so she doesn't get bed sores, and change her diapers."

The man starts to cry. Doctor says, "Wait, I'm not finished. She'll also suffer dementia. She'll lose her memories and won't remember who you are, or who she is."

By now the man's sobbing his eyes out. Doctor says, "And unfortunately, she might linger on for years and years."

The man's completely desolate now, but he thinks to ask, "What's the good news, then?"

The doctor claps him on the shoulder and says, "I was just kidding, she's dead."