When I asked for copy editor jokes, I wasn't prepared for the reaction: an overwhelming silence as vast as the Internet itself.

Still, a few jokes have trickled in, such as this batch, from a co-worker's mother:

How many copy editors does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: I can't tell whether you mean "change a light bulb" or "have sex in a  light bulb." Could we remove the ambiguity?

Q: How many managing editors does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: You were supposed to have changed that light bulb last week.

Q: How many writers does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: But why do we have to CHANGE it?

Q: How many copy editors does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: The last time this question was asked, it involved writers. Is the  difference intentional? Should one or the other instance be changed? It seems inconsistent.

This did not come from an actual reader, but from the BONG Bull (see the links page). But it's possibly the best exchange between writer and editor ever recorded. (T.E.L. is T.E. Lawrence, a k a "Lawrence of Arabia." The hapless editor is some underpaid person trying to prepare a book called "Revolt in the Desert.")

Editor: "I attach a list of queries raised by F., who is reading the proofs. He finds these very clean, but full of inconsistencies in the spelling of proper names, a point which reviewers often take up. Will you annotate it in the margin, so that I can get the proofs straightened? "
Lawrence: "Annotated; not very helpfully perhaps. Arabic names won't go into English, exactly, for their consonants are not the same as ours, and their vowels, like ours, vary from district to district. There are some 'scientific systems' of transliteration, helpful to people who know enough Arabic not to need helping, but a wash-out for the world. I spell my names anyhow, to show what rot the systems are." 

Ed: "Slip 1: Jeddah and Jidda used impartially throughout. Intentional?"
T.E.L.: "Rather!"
Ed.: "Slip 16. Bir Waheida was Bir Waheidi."
T.E.L.: "Why not? All one place."
Ed.: "Slip 20. Nuri, Emir of the Ruwalla, belongs to the 'chief  family of the Rualla.' On Slip 33 "Rualla horse," and Slip 38, "killed  one Rueili.' In all later slips 'Rualla.'"
T.E.L.: "Should have also used Ruwala and Ruala."
Ed.: "Slip 28. The Bisaita is also spelt Biseita."
T.E.L.: "Good."
Ed.: "Slip 47. Jedha, the she-camel, was Jedhah on Slip 40."
T.E.L.: "She was a splendid beast."
Ed.: "Slip 53. 'Meleager, the immoral poet.' I have put 'immortal' poet. But the author may mean immoral after all."
T.E.L.: "Immorality I know. Immortality I cannot judge. As you please: Meleager will not sue us for libel."
Ed.: "Slip 65. Author is addressed 'Ya Auruns,' but on Slip 56 was 'Aurans.'"
T.E.L.: "Also Lurens and Runs: not to mention 'Shaw.' More to follow, if time permits."
Ed: Sherif Abd el Mayin of Slip 68 becomes el Main, el Mayein, el Muein, el Mayin and el Muyein."
T.E.L.: "Good egg. I call this really ingenious."

A publisher's note in the 1927 Doran edition closes with, "In the face of such replies to the publisher's well-intentioned questions, further expostulation was clearly impossible." 

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