Welcome to Simple Joe. I’m glad you’re here.

Today’s Simple Joe episode for Tuesday, December 16, 2025 kicks off with a knuckle-cracking truth that made me laugh, because I am a master knuckle cracker and I have heard the arthritis warning my whole life. I also want to say thank you, because a bunch of you checked on me when yesterday’s episode came out late, and that meant more than you know. From there, we roll through the weather for Council Bluffs, Iowa and Cincinnati, then hit birthdays for Beethoven, Arthur C. Clarke, and Billy Gibbons, plus a couple standout moments from history including Bangladesh’s international recognition and the return of Apollo 17. We also celebrate National Chocolate-Covered Anything Day and National Ugly Sweater Day, which turned into me asking what weird thing you’ve tried dipped in chocolate and admitting I am about to join the ugly sweater crowd whether I am ready or not. Then we get into Tuesday’s random questions where I riff on laugh tracks, unnecessary purchases I weirdly love, the movie line I quote constantly, the small “rules” I break at work, and the minor inconveniences people overreact to, especially the post-landing airplane shuffle.

• If your life had a laugh track, what everyday moment would trigger it the most?
• What completely unnecessary purchase have you made that still makes you smile every time you use it?
• What movie scene do you quote far more often than you probably should, even if no one around you gets the reference?
• What small, harmless rule do you regularly break that feels way more rebellious than it should?
• What minor inconvenience do you think people dramatically overreact to, but you secretly find funny?

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