The bassists take a break to grab a few drinks   
The Boston Symphony was performing Beethoven's Ninth

In the piece, there's a long passage about 20 minutes
during which the bass violinists have nothing to do.

Rather than sit around the whole time looking stupid,
some bassists decided to sneak offstage and go to the tavern next door for a quick one.
After slamming several beers in quick succession
(as bass violinists are prone to do), one of them looked at his watch. 
"Hey! We need to get back!"
     
"No need to panic," said a fellow bassist.
"I thought we might need some extra time,
so I tied the last few pages of the conductor's score
together with string.  It'll take him a few minutes to get
it untangled."
    
A few moments later they staggered back to the concert hall and took their places 
in the orchestra. 

About this time, a member of the audience noticed the conductor seemed a 
bit edgy and said as much to her companion.
  
"Well, of course," said her companion. "Don't you see? It's the bottom of the Ninth, 
the score is tied, and the bassists are loaded."

 
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