Jokes: a cautionary tale.

[thebitterguy]

When you are presenting only a fragment of a joke (the setup or punchline) I must implore you, for the good of humanity, make sure it's a humdinger, a real 'knock 'em out of the park' slammer of a funny.

Because, if someone has to ask you what the rest of the joke is, and it isn't something that they'll remember for the rest of their lives, it may be disappointing.

Comments

[creativedv8tion.livejournal.com]

Yeah, definitely. Or if it's a joke that requires context to be funny, make sure to include the context.

[terheyt.livejournal.com]

Well, some are funnies that apply to certain situations, like the Tonto line "What do you mean 'we', White Man?" (If you don't know the full joke invoked, I'll repeat it), so you can repeat the one line, remind people of the joke, and the situation it applies to. My family use several jokes like that.

[creativedv8tion.livejournal.com]

Told properly, it's "paleface", not "White Man".

[thebitterguy]

Properly, perhaps, but it has greater resonance with "White man".

[creativedv8tion.livejournal.com]

I disagree; I think it gets the point across quite well and is in perfectly in (stereotypical) character.

[thebitterguy]

Right. And if someone wanted to know "what's the deal with the 'white man' joke", they'd be amused. It's an "oomph" joke that has gotten better.

'So I says to the guy, I says...

[umario.livejournal.com]

I don't care who the hell you are, get those damn reindeer off of my roof!'

Did someone do something like that?

Connotation not necessary there for most, I suspect.