Cherry-colored Jokes

The following is an old anecdote, but a good one. Sometime in the early 1900's,
P. T. Barnum, the owner of the Barnum & Bailey circus and originator of the
phrase "There's a sucker born every minute" offered $10,000 in cash to any person
who could thoroughly dupe, or sucker, him.
Barnum was always looking for interesting new acts or novel creatures to
exhibit, and one day he received a letter from a fellow in Maine who claimed
to possess a cherry-colored cat and asked if Barnum were interested in such
a thing for his circus. Barnum contacted the man and said yes, if the cat were
truly cherry-colored, he'd gladly put it on display. Well, a few days later
a crate marked "live animal" arrived for him. When Barnum opened it, he found
a somewhat frightened but otherwise perfectly ordinary-looking black housecat
inside, along with a note which read:
Maine cherries are black.
There's a sucker born every more...