This is still one of my favourite jokes everhttps://twitter.com/theTruMikeBrown/status/823651619287941123 …
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For reference, my actual favourite joke ever is probably "Why does an anteater eat ants? Trade Descriptions Act"
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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
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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
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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
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Explaining the joke made it better.
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It always does
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How many ants would an anteater eat if an anteater ate any ants?
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Forty-five board feet per minute
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