For reference, my actual favourite joke ever is probably "Why does an anteater eat ants? Trade Descriptions Act"
-
-
Show this thread
-
The joke is that rather than being called "anteater" because of its natural diet of ants, the anteater was so named for completely unrelated reasons and now has to eat ants to avoid breaking the law with its fraudulently misrepresentative name
Show this thread -
The setup for the joke creates an expectation that we'll be getting an explanation of the origin of the anteater's name, and the punchline defies that expectation. It also reverses the universally assumed causal link between the anteater's name and and its diet for comic effect
Show this thread -
The essence of comedy is something which is surprising (which often means defying or subverting expectations or assumptions), but harmless. As far as I can tell nearly all funny things can be broken down in this way
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
it took me twenty seconds of confusion but arrghh
-
I've been confused for a solid hour mate, do me a solid here?
- 1 more reply
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.