@TheBreadmonkey
You asked for it:
Once upon a time, there was a boy who lived in a town. At one time, the circus came to town, and the boy persuaded his family to take him along with his friends. They obliged, and all had favoured front row seats.
The circus was very entertaining, except that at one point, a particular clown came up to the boy in the audience, and asked him:
"Are you the front end of an ass?"
"No" replied the boy.
"Are you the back end of an ass?" asked the clown.
"No" replied the boy again.
"Well then", said the clown, "You must be no end of an ass!"
The audience exploded into laughter, and the boy, unable to come up with a response, cried silent tears of humiliation on the way home.
His family and friends told him he should forget it and stop worrying, but he couldn't.
As he grew up, he spent a lot of his energies thinking up insults and possible insults, and devising responses to them. As a young adult, he became a renowned author, writing books on a variety of subjects, but mainly around language and its uses.