Tiko

The first car I ever bought for myself was a 1991 Ford Festiva (that was back in 1994, I think). I loved that car. It was so light it only took a friend and me to lift the rear end off the ground.

I joked that though it looked like a pregnant roller-skate, it could go to Mars and back on a full tank of gas. Of course, had I ever been in an accident, it would offered as much protection as a tin can, but that car was great.

While Koreans export a lot of small cars, like Americans they gravitate toward the big ones. In fact, they have a bunch of jokes about the Tiko, the lightweight, underpowered car to the right.

My wife told me a couple of these jokes. Though I’ve embellished them a bit, I’m still not really happy with the final result. Still, for the sake of cross-cultural communication, I offer them here:

"One day a Tiko driver was zooming down the street when – all of a sudden – the car came to a screeching halt. The cause? A patch of gum on the street."

Another is, "Why is it short track skaters love the Tiko so much?"

"Because it corners the same way they skate: one hand out the window to hold it up."