What's FUNNY about that?
Now for something completely different....
O western wind, when will you blow?
So the small rain down can rain.
O that my love were in my arms,
And I in my bed again…
The poem above is an anonymous 16th c. quatrain I memorized as a boy; I had a good English teacher in the 7th grade—though almost all the other kids made fun of her & complained about her class—she was good because she cared about language, she insisted on our learning grammar, & she taught poetry…
Years later I realized the poems I learned in her class were not great: were not sophisticated or intellectual; but, like all good teachers, she started me in a new direction…
(The actual meaning of “education” is “to set on a new path”)
One of the things I learned was synecdoche [sin-ek-do-shay]: the act of using one part of a thing to represent the whole
In the “Western Wind” poem above, for example, “bed” can also mean “home”
You probably got that without thinking about it (or knowing the technical term for it!)
Another thing about meaning is that it can shift: the same word can mean one thing in the sentence & then mean another later in the same context
In the 16th c. poem, “wind” first means “a change in the weather,” but it also means “the power for sailing (my) ship to home port” (in England)
Nothing funny yet, though, right?
How about “dad jokes?” (This is the current term for puns.) Puns also depend upon the same sort of shift of meaning…
For example: Despite the high cost of living it remains popular.
I’ll explain this one, in case you don’t get the pun/joke immediately, but I won’t explain any of the others I’m going to write below…
OK: “living” first (as the object of “cost”) means “expense”—then the same instance of “living” when followed by “popular,” means “staying alive”
Now try these:
There’s no menu at the Karma Restaurant. You get what you deserve.
Two guys walked into a bar. The third one ducked.
A dyslexic walked into a bra.
When I asked her whether I was the only one she’d been with she said, '“Yes. The others were nines and tens.”
To be frank I’d have to change my name.
My ex still misses me, but her aim is improving.
You can think the unthinkable, with an itheberg.
If you can’t laugh at yourself, I’d be glad to.
There are no jokes about the unemployed because they don’t work.
She asked him whether he’d slept with any others and he said, “No. The others were awake.”
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but you’re still on the list.
When you cross a penis and a potato you get a dictator.
I’ll stop now…
Enjoy whatever comes your way; but if everything’s coming your way, you’re probably in the wrong lane…
Oh, oh; I promised to stop. Keep your mind open…

Made me laugh out loud.