My late mother's husband quotes this at regular intervals in conversation about anything technical. When I asked, he said it came from an April 1951 issue of Model Railroader, but I can't find it in any issue around that date, so far. It goes like this:
The Sonic Diablola A/C Double Filter Half-Wave Twin Mastoid System of Power Distribution. Now in order to keep that humming well, you have to keep the X-leg of ZY circuit non-conductive at less than 48 micro-farads, otherwise you have to tune the facilitate tuning coil to one of about 3-ohms less resistance. That is of course, after allowing for the cross-voltage tuning variation. Now, if that's done properly, a UHF parabolic type transmitter kicks in.Now what this does it to keep the bull-gear from jumping the heifer gear, and that's how you keep things running.
Likely from at April 1960 issue of Mad Magazine and reprinted by The Onion in 2001.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!