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What is a joke you've heard a million times, but never understood why it's funny?

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TwoDurans

TwoDurans

"Never said I wasn't a hypocrite."
I've seen the movie Wayne's World at least a hundred times in my life. It's one of my favorite comedies. There's a scene in the movie where Wayne is shopping for a new guitar and he begins playing "Stairway to Heaven." The store clerk quickly put a stop to his play and pointed out a sign that reads "No Stairway to Heaven."
tumblr_lxa7im1wLZ1qz6f4bo1_1280.jpg
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Wayne thus utters the classic line "No Stairway? Denied"
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Again, I've seen this movie a ton of times, and to this day have no idea why this is funny.

Do guitar shops not allow that song to be played?
Is it harmful to sample guitars?
Was it just a silly thing to include in the movie?
I truly do not know.

This got me thinking that maybe we could have a thread where people posted jokes they didn't get and the GAF community could help bring light to these conundrums.
 
V

Veritigo_X

Member
Because it's the go-to song to play for people picking up a guitar in a guitar shop. People working in these stores probably hear it multiple times a day.
 
K

Killer Queen

Banned
Stairway to Heaven and Sweet Child O Mine are probably the most literally overplayed guitar songs out there and pretty much no one wants to hear it at a guitar shop because its not even particularly impressive and has been done to death for the past 30 years.
 
R

riotous

Banned
Servbot24 said:
That's the reason the sign was put up, but I still don't get why Wayne's line is so funny.
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You are supposed to laugh because he talks like a stoner valley girl or something... There's a reason these movies were forgotten about along with most comedies of the 90s.
 
F

FyreWulff

Member
skylenorman said:
I've seen the movie Wayne's World at least a hundred times in my life. It's one of my favorite comedies. There's a scene in the movie where Wayne is shopping for a new guitar and he begins playing "Stairway to Heaven." The store clerk quickly put a stop to his play and pointed out a sign that reads "No Stairway to Heaven."


Again, I've seen this movie a ton of times, and to this day have no idea why this is funny.
Click to expand...

Stairway is the overplayed song people will try to play on guitars in a guitar store when trying them. The joke is that the store has banned Stairway because of that.

Servbot24 said:
That's the reason the sign was put up, but that doesn't explain why Wayne's line is so funny.
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The second joke is him doing the 'stereotypical surfer californian' way of talking.
 
P

Pillville

Member
"Stairway" used to be on one of those songs that EVERYBODY learned in order to try and sound cool. So when some schmuck went into a guitar store to try a guitar, that's what they would play (trying to sound cool). To the point that people would roll eyes, laugh and finally, put up signs.

EDIT: Beaten (while trying to word this correctly [and failing])
 
S

Servbot24

Banned
It wasn't intended to be a joke, but the lyric "You're beautiful, no matter what they say" is absolutely hilarious to me. It never gets old!

riotous said:
You are supposed to laugh because he talks like a stoner valley girl or something... There's a reason these movies were forgotten about along with most comedies of the 90s.
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That's not it. There are tons of lines in that type of speech that aren't as remembered.

Also Wayne's World is an icon of pop culture. I don't get how you can possibly say it's forgotten.
 
A

Archaix

Drunky McMurder
Wayne also started to play Stairway to Heaven before the clerk stopped him, but that part of the joke doesn't come across because they edited it out in later versions for another song. Or so Giant Bomb has told me.
 
D

Dusk Soldier

Member
The joke about a number 1 being taking a piss, and a number 2 being taking a shit.

And the punch line is that somebody just came from a bathroom and did a number 3.

What is a number 3? is it a fart? is it a shit + piss? is it a vomit? what is it and why is it funny?
 
P

Pillville

Member
John Kowalski said:
The other side is heaven.
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I really don't think that's the original meaning.

I think it just means that the chicken crossed the road for the same reason as everyone else, to get to the other side of it. Almost like an "anti-joke chicken", chicken joke before "anti-joke chicken" was a thing.
 
R

riotous

Banned
Servbot24 said:
That's not it. There are tons of lines in that type of speech that aren't as remembered.

Also Wayne's World is an icon of pop culture. I don't get how you can possibly say it's forgotten.
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lol, so what is it then?

Other than his accent half the lines in the movie have no other comedy to them.

And I think you are overvaluing how much that line and these films are remembered; obviously when I say "forgotten" I was being hyperbolic, but I can't remember the last time I saw anyone mention these movies, saw them on TV, etc.
 
S

Servbot24

Banned
Dusk Soldier said:
The joke about a number 1 being taking a piss, and a number 2 being taking a shit.

And the punch line is that somebody just came from a bathroom and did a number 3.

What is a number 3? is it a fart? is it a shit + piss? is it a vomit? what is it and why is it funny?
Click to expand...

I've never heard of this, but maybe they masturbated?
 
T

Tubobutts

Member
John Kowalski said:
That thing Brad said about Vinny's kid. I've heard it thousands of times trying to understand it but i still don't get it.



The other side is heaven.
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Vinny was saying that his penis is so large that some people would mistake it for his leg. Brad was attempting to say that Vinny didn't actually have a large penis, and the only person who would mistake it for a leg would have to be very small. Like Vinny's infant son Max. Which also implies stuff about Vinny and his son.
 
Z

Zubz

Banned
Veritigo_X said:
Because it's the go-to song to play for people picking up a guitar in a guitar shop. People working in these stores probably hear it multiple times a day.
Click to expand...

Nailed it. People probably found the way he said "Denied" amusing as well, but the joke is that the guitar shop has officially made a "No Stairway" policy. IIRC, a number of stores actually enforce a policy like that; it was the traditional "try-hard" guitar player song before Wonderwall started sweeping Campuses across the nation.

I love antihumor now, but I didn't get it as a kid, so the "Chicken" joke went over my head for years. Plus, there's that thing where people'll put up three fingers and go "READ BETWEEN THE LINES!," with the assumption being that the lines are the outer two fingers, and that the person's giving you the middle finger. The problem is that the middle finger, by that logic, should also be a line, and that between them is just a couple of gaps. I mean, I get what the gesture's supposed to mean, but I think it's more infuriating to get the "between the lines" variant because it just doesn't make any sense to me.
 
J

John Kowalski

Banned
Pinko Marx said:
What's the joke?
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Your momma's so fat when she sits around the house, she really sits arooouuuuund the house.

Pillville said:
I really don't think that's the original meaning.

I think it just means that the chicken crossed the road for the same reason as everyone else, to get to the other side of it. Almost like an "anti-joke chicken", chicken joke before "anti-joke chicken" was a thing.
Click to expand...

Frankly me too but revisionism is fun.
 
S

Sephzilla

Member
Isn't the Wayne's World Stairway joke kind of 2 jokes in one? First is the joke about everyone knowing Stairway, and couldn't they also not get the rights to play the song in the movie?
 
D

DeathoftheEndless

Crashing this plane... with no survivors!
"He runs like a Welshman... Doesn't he? Doesn't he run like a Welshman?"

Makes me laugh even though it doesn't make any sense. (Its from Family Guy)
 
L

Limited Edition

Banned
For years, I wonder what the hell people were talking about when they said 'No soup for you!'

After finally watching that episode of Seinfeld, I still don't find it funny.
 
Arkos

Arkos

Nose how to spell and rede to
Chicken crossing the road (to the "other side") is dark lol. I only got that after somebody pointed it out a few years ago (I'm 28)
 
G

Giant Robot

Member
Archaix said:
Wayne also started to play Stairway to Heaven before the clerk stopped him, but that part of the joke doesn't come across because they edited it out in later versions for another song. Or so Giant Bomb has told me.
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Yea, that was after Wayne's World was released. Led Zeppelin refused any resemblance of the song to be played on future releases. There are 2 versions of this scene. Original actually had like 4 notes correctly played. Alternate version has it completely fucked up intentionally. Regardless, the intended joke was what everyone has already mentioned (overplayed).
 
F

FriedConsole

Banned
Killer Queen said:
Stairway to Heaven and Sweet Child O Mine are probably the most literally overplayed guitar songs out there and pretty much no one wants to hear it at a guitar shop because its not even particularly impressive and has been done to death for the past 30 years.
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I think those songs are too hard for kids annoying everyone in the guitar store these days. It is usually some Metallica riff usually the opening of Welcome Home (Sanitarium) because that one is easy.
 
A

Archaix

Drunky McMurder
Giant Robot said:
Yea, that was after Wayne's World was released. Led Zeppelin refused any resemblance of the song to be played on future releases. There are 2 versions of this scene. Original actually had like 4 notes correctly played. Alternate version has it completely fucked up intentionally. Regardless, the intended joke was what everyone has already mentioned (overplayed).
Click to expand...

Right, that's the actual idea behind the joke. But it just sort of becomes nonsense if he's not playing that song (or if you don't recognize the first few notes that he played)
 
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