The Discovery of Elton John and Arugula

What makes a joke actually funny?

For example, if I say “analogue” and “and a log” sound similar. That’s not funny.

However

“So I went to buy a watch, and the man in the shop said “Analogue?” I said “No, just a watch.”

Tim Vine

is funny.

The joke format is:

1. Premise: Puts us in a particular context and state of mind. Priming us.
2. Setup: Use a word with a double meaning, or in the case of the joke above, a word or phrase that sounds similar to another, that is often used in that particular context to only mean one of the meanings.
3. Punchline: Respond with a phrase implying that actually the non-contextual meaning was the one we meant.

This enables the listener to discover the double meaning of the setup, leading to a surprise and then, laughter, to release the tension of that surprise.

We’re not here to talk about the structure of such jokes though. We’re here to explore this particular element of discovery.

Discovery In Jokes

Jokes aren’t funny when explained. Why? There’s no discovery to be made. A “joke” that doesn’t allow for discovery isn’t a joke. It’s a statement. That’s why saying “analogue” and “and a log” sound the same isn’t funny.

However, it’s possible to go too far the other way. Maybe you left something there to be discovered. But it actually has to be *discoverable*. If it’s too hard to discover, we “don’t get it”.

Example:

I went to see an Elton John show. Wasn’t expecting so much arugula.

Kyle Zsembery

Now, maybe you got this joke, maybe you even thought it was funny. It takes two jumps to get there. You have to see that I’m referring to the fact that Elton John’s nickname is The Rocket Man and that “arugula” is also known as “rocket”.

Know your audience

Discovery is a spectrum. We don’t want it to be too easy, nor too hard. And what is easy or hard really depends on your audience.

The greater the leaps of discovery which can be made in an instant, the greater the laugh.

It’s important that it happens instantly. Any longer, and people feel frustrated (though perhaps not consciously), and they’ll blame *you* for telling a bad joke. Which is true. It’s on the joker to read the audience and present the joke in a way that will achieve the right amount of discovery.

Note that you can keep the essence of a joke, but and reword it to change the amount of discovery. I could’ve phrased the joke above as “Went to see Rocket Man live, the salad was great.”. The key pun of the joke is unchanged, but the context surrounding it removes one of the leaps you need to make. You can tweak this, depending on the audience, or how easy it is to make the leap based on the raw wordplay (i.e. without the flesh of the surrounding joke, the raw double-meaning).

Cleverness

There’s a subtle third category where the leap is just a bit beyond the funny sweet spot. It’s what I will describe as “clever”. These jokes don’t make you laugh out loud, but they might make you smile a cheeky grin as if to say “yeah, that’s clever, well done, well played”.

They’re clever because, well, it took some effort for you to discover it, but you did it fairly quickly. Give yourself a pat on the back. Now remember, the comic must have discovered it without the rest of the joke that you had the help of. And they’ve designed the joke such that you do “get it”. And that’s why we applaud.