Sometime in February of 2013, my German wife and I spent a weekend with her parents in their charming little house. My wife’s father — who shall henceforth be known as ‘Papa Thunderchops,’ due to his epic silver sideburns — was sitting at the kitchen table peeling carrots. Except for when he is outside tending to his garden, Papa Thunderchops is always in the kitchen peeling something: apples, carrots, potatoes… the man just loves to peel shit. So I sat down next to him and started helping, and that’s when my wife came into the room to find the two of us hunched over a rapidly filling bowl of carrot skins.
THE WIFE: “Want to hear a joke my family likes to tell each other?”
ME: “Absolutely.”
THE WIFE: “Carrots are good for your eyes. Do you know why?”
ME: “Why?”
THE WIFE: “Have you ever seen a rabbit wearing glasses?”
*The joke was so bad I actually started laughing. Hard. I was left to wonder, however, if it might be a common joke here in Germany. My wife insists only her family tells it, but that can’t be true. Have you ever heard it before?
Oh God, My Wife Is German. 
I’ve heard it before, it seems relatively common around here (my family is also from the Hannover area).
Carrots ARE actually good for your eyes because of Vitamin A, but I like your wife’s explanation better.
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Awesome! Thank you Kathi!
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In my family it is more a motivation to eat your carrots. Because you will never need glasses if you eat them all. You will get as good eyesight as a rabbit. Although carrots don’t even enhance your eyesight, I think. So not so much a joke but a parental method.
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Exactly. But had you heard it before?
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Told as a joke before ? Maybe once or twice but it’s not that good a joke so my family doesn’t tell it. It got more if a joke when I actually got glasses even though I did eat a lot of carrot.
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