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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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barik

Member
The other side is heaven.

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I really don't get the "<something> her? I just met her!" jokes. Not even sure I'm saying it right.

It works when the something ends with -er. "Baker? I just met her!"
 
The joke is the sign. No idea why anyone would present Wayne's line as though that's the joke of that scene. The line is just his reaction to the sign.
 

explodet

Member
The person is so fat that they take up the entire house, including what's around it.
I see, but a fat person taking all the space in a house plus some more would essentially destroy the house thus taking it out of the equation completely. And therefore the fat person would no longer be sitting around a house because they have disintegrated it with their corpulence.

So it's my fault for not getting it. I can accept that.
 
Per Giantbomb, the joke works if you saw it theatrically. The home video versions don't have rights to Stairway to Heaven so if you watch it that way, it makes no sense.
 

galv

Unconfirmed Member
I really don't get the "<something> her? I hardly knew her!" jokes. Not even sure I'm saying it right.



For example:

Person A: Something about Avengers

Person B: Avenger? I barely even know her!

The joke lies in the Avenger sounding like

Avenge Her.

So Person B doesn't want to Avenge Her because he barely even knows her.
 

Ray Wonder

Founder of the Wounded Tagless Children
Why does the passenger look out the window of the plane?

To see over the wing.
 
I see, but a fat person taking all the space in a house plus some more would essentially destroy the house thus taking it out of the equation completely. And therefore the fat person would no longer be sitting around a house because they have disintegrated it with their corpulence.

So it's my fault for not getting it. I can accept that.
Yeah, I've always seen that problem with the joke, too. It's not great.
 

aett

Member
"Where does a general keep his armies? His sleevies!"

That joke made no god damn sense to me for years and I still think it's stupid.
 

ZangBa

Member
There are some I only see posted on this website, like The Last of Us joke, that aren't funny but are in every other topic. The Straight Outta Compton meme is lame, too.
 
There are some I only see posted on this website, like The Last of Us joke, that aren't funny but are in every other topic. The Straight Outta Compton meme is lame, too.

They're gaf memes. The last of us joke came from a thread backfire where OP tried to play it off like that was said in the game then switched his story to mean "no this is a thread where we put the titles of games into dialogue" or something like that.
 

pompidu

Member
I see, but a fat person taking all the space in a house plus some more would essentially destroy the house thus taking it out of the equation completely. And therefore the fat person would no longer be sitting around a house because they have disintegrated it with their corpulence.

So it's my fault for not getting it. I can accept that.

Stop ruining fat jokes.
 
The problem with most of the jokes that you guys don't get why they're funny is that they aren't funny... at least by today's standards.

Most of them are well worn jokes from decades ago, when humor wasn't scrutinized as it is today.
 

aett

Member
Somebody please explain this joke to me. Heard it forever and I have no idea what they mean.

Neither one of them wants to wake up and deal with an annoying kid, so they're jokingly trying to pass off responsibility to the other parent.
 

JMDSO

Unconfirmed Member
Neither one of them wants to wake up and deal with an annoying kid, so they're jokingly trying to pass off responsibility to the other parent.

Right.

My wife and I constantly do this. One kid is "mine" when he's in trouble and so on.
 

LakeEarth

Member
Speaking of Wayne's World, I didn't get the "he blows goats" joke until I was older. It's mainly because of childhood innocence, but I probably watched it a few times after puberty and still didn't catch it.

Speaking of Led Zeppelin, there's a joke in the Simpson's where the oldies radio station says "we play from ABBA to Zeppelin! .... comma, Led". I didn't get that for a while too.

And to address the OP, Wayne and Garth don't talk like valley girls. They talk like headbangers... which is what they're supposed to be.
 

GovtPlates

Neo Member
'Lisa needs braces, Dental plan' wasn't funny to me and I've always been perplexed as to why that joke and Last Exit to Springfield are seen as the golden child of The Simpsons
 
Good lord, I just got this after 20 something years.

LOL. Jesus fuck me sideways. I always thought it was one of those "it's obvious and not funny, so it's funny" kind of deadpan jokes. Like, way ahead of its time kind of thing.

Why did I never consider the other side? I literally laughed out loud.
 
The chicken crossing the road joke is so misunderstood. In my mind, it is the classic joke. It's the joke that exemplifies what jokes are. It's not an "anti-joke." The other side isn't heaven. It's just a simple joke. I think people only look so much into it because it's been around for so long.

At it's core, a joke is just something surprising. All jokes have surprise in them. Even "anti-jokes" are really just jokes in which the surprise answer is that you've subverted the expectation of a cliche joke. In this case, the answer is surprising. It's surprising because, while it's technically right, but doesn't give you any new information. The chicken obviously crossed the road to get to the other side. Why else would you cross a road? But you still don't really know why. That's the joke. The joke has just become harder to see as a joke over time, because as you get familiar with a joke, it stops being surprising, then stops being funny. Then people have to make up new reasons as to why it's funny, because the obvious answer can't be right, because jokes don't work when they're obvious. But there are other jokes like the chicken joke, that work exactly the same, but are less cliche, so they've been picked apart less. Here's one of my favorite jokes, that follows the exact same structure as the chicken-road joke.

Q: Did you ever notice that when birds are flying in a V-formation, that one leg of the V is longer than the other? Do you know why that is?

A: Well, there are more birds on that side.
 
I always picture the person being so obese that they're sitting on top of the house like a chair, with their folds of lard draping the sides.
 
The chicken crossing the road joke is so misunderstood. In my mind, it is the classic joke. It's the joke that exemplifies what jokes are. It's not an "anti-joke." The other side isn't heaven. It's just a simple joke. I think people only look so much into it because it's been around for so long.

At it's core, a joke is just something surprising. All jokes have surprise in them. Even "anti-jokes" are really just jokes in which the surprise answer is that you've subverted the expectation of a cliche joke. In this case, the answer is surprising. It's surprising because, while it's technically right, but doesn't give you any new information. The chicken obviously crossed the road to get to the other side. Why else would you cross a road? But you still don't really know why. That's the joke. The joke has just become harder to see as a joke over time, because as you get familiar with a joke, it stops being surprising, then stops being funny. Then people have to make up new reasons as to why it's funny, because the obvious answer can't be right, because jokes don't work when they're obvious. But there are other jokes like the chicken joke, that work exactly the same, but are less cliche, so they've been picked apart less. Here's one of my favorite jokes, that follows the exact same structure as the chicken-road joke.

Q: Did you ever notice that when birds are flying in a V-formation, that one leg of the V is longer than the other? Do you know why that is?

A: Well, there are more birds on that side.
That's how I always took the chicken joke but this new revelation is blowing my mind.
 
I don't understand why this is so funny.

eWGuOmr.gif


For context, it's from Fast & Furious 6. Other guy says "you'd better hide the baby oil," and then the Rock improvised this line, and the actors' reactions to it are genuine (dude spits his drink).

But I don't get why it's so funny. Yeah, he's got a big forehead, I guess? So what? Is the Rock going to hit him in the forehead or something?
 

eXistor

Member
I genuinely don't think the other side of the road is supposed to mean heaven. It's just an anti-joke. You're supposed to expect some kind of big joke, but there isn't one. There's literally no deep meaning to it. That's the joke.
 
I don't understand why this is so funny.

eWGuOmr.gif


For context, it's from Fast & Furious 6. Other guy says "you'd better hide the baby oil," and then the Rock improvised this line, and the actors' reactions to it are genuine (dude spits his drink).

But I don't get why it's so funny. Yeah, he's got a big forehead, I guess? So what? Is the Rock going to hit him in the forehead or something?

It's just a silly retort that a screenwriter would never be able to think up. Also, Ludacris's genuine reaction makes it funnier. Scene in question:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlYCSz23G1M
 
I don't understand why this is so funny.

eWGuOmr.gif


For context, it's from Fast & Furious 6. Other guy says "you'd better hide the baby oil," and then the Rock improvised this line, and the actors' reactions to it are genuine (dude spits his drink).

But I don't get why it's so funny. Yeah, he's got a big forehead, I guess? So what? Is the Rock going to hit him in the forehead or something?

Haven't seen this movie, but to be honest this sounds like less of a joke than a typical Rock-style putdown from a promo or something. People laugh at those too but they aren't really jokes (nothing to 'get').
 

turtle553

Member
"Take my wife please"

Never got it.

It's from using "take my X" as an example for a joke setup.

Something like: I can't stand people who wear gym clothes without going to the gym. Take my wife, she wears yoga pants to watch TV.

Crappy joke, but that is the kind of setup.

"Take my wife, please" is saying I don't like my wife and want her gone.
 

aett

Member
"Take my wife please"

Never got it.

He begins the sentence as if he is going to say something like "Take my wife for example: etc. etc." but he surprises you by saying "Take my wife - please!" because he doesn't want her.

Edit: beaten!
 
"Take my wife please"

Never got it.

I'm not at all familiar with the joke or the setup, but I'm going to take a guess that it's playing on the fact that wives can become unbearable after many years of marriage so the comedian is begging someone to take her off his hands.

Edit: So beaten.
 
"Take my wife please"

Never got it.

Sometimes, when people want you to consider something, they say "Take ____..." as in "For example, take Democrats. They do blah blah blah..." So the joke starts up like he's going to tell a story about his wife as an example of some behavior. "Take my wife..." then, it suddenly changes when he says "please!" That new information makes you reconsider the beginning of the sentence and you realize he wasn't about to tell a story about his wife. He wants someone to take her away from him. It's what's known as a paraprosdokian.
 
He begins the sentence as if he is going to say something like "Take my wife for example: etc. etc." but he surprises you by saying "Take my wife - please!" because he doesn't want her.

Edit: beaten!

In linguistics this is called a "garden path sentence". It's a sentence that leads you to expect one meaning until you hear the final words which change the meaning entirely.
 

Ri'Orius

Member
Banger? I hardly know her!

And every other deviation. I "get" it, but it's never funny.

I really don't get the "<something> her? I hardly knew her!" jokes. Not even sure I'm saying it right.

They're a lot like "that's what she said!" jokes. The idea is somebody says something innocuous (like "I've made a huge mistake" or "Liquor in the front, poker in the rear" or whatever), and everyone knows what is meant in the context it was said, and then somebody replies "But I hardly know 'er!" and it requires you to re-evaluate what was just said in a new context. It's funny because of the surprise (plus the sexual innuendo, which always helps).

Same deal as the "Two men walk into a bar. The third ducked." You start of thinking we're talking about a drinking establishment, but now it's become about a pole.

Two fish are sitting in a tank. One says to the other "You drive, I'll man the guns."

Establish expectation, then subvert that expectation in a surprising but still sensible way. Comedy.
 
I see, but a fat person taking all the space in a house plus some more would essentially destroy the house thus taking it out of the equation completely. And therefore the fat person would no longer be sitting around a house because they have disintegrated it with their corpulence.

So it's my fault for not getting it. I can accept that.

I always understood it as: she sits outside and her fat envelops the house.

This is one that I never got until I read up on escape velocities after playing High Frontier. I just thought, "Oh, big science numbers are funny!"

1mpDV7e.jpg


That escape velocity means that your mother is so fat that she exerts more of a gravitational pull than a black hole.
 
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