Welcome.
The other day I made up a joke. Or at least I think I did. There is a very real possibility that I have sub-consciously plagiarised it from elsewhere, much as the Rolling Stones have been accused of plagiarising their sound from black rhythm and blues artists without really knowing it.
As a result the set-up and punch line may seem familiar to some. Or perhaps not.
Let's see...
Q. What cheese isn't yours?
A. Nacho cheese (Not your cheese).
As you can see the set-up is very badly worded and doesn't present a very coherent opportunity for humour. "What cheese isn't yours", is also ambiguous, to wit, surely any cheese that you haven't already purchased or been given isn't yours. Already we're off to a bad start.
To dumbfound events further we have a punch line that doesn't really scan. This is made all the more obvious by the fact that I've felt the need to emphasise the punch-line by adding a clarification in brackets, to wit, "(Not your cheese)."
The only thing that could add insult to injury here would be to phonetically represent my themes thus: "Not Cho'cheese."
Plagiarised or not I think that you'll agree that I haven't done the joke any justice. At all.
My second stab at humour is a contemporary one insofar that it involves the popular brother\sister pop-combo The Corrs.
Let's see if I have any luck this time...
Q. Why are The Corrs called The Corrs?
A. Because every time you buy one of their records you give a bit of money towards "the cause".
So, this time the set-up was a lot smoother than before and an opportunity for humour was a reasonable presumption. However, I make the same mistake of adding a clarification which not only highlights the weakness of my material but also means that perhaps the joke can only be appreciated when written down and read as opposed to being yelled out in a pub.
Also, once the punch-line is delivered it may not be obvious to everyone what "the cause" actually is. In this context I would like to make clear that "the cause" is a reference to illegal funding of the I.R.A which was common-most from 1922 many years after the Irish first started to emigrate to America (from around 1816).
This may require some previous historical or political knowledge on behalf of your audience beforehand for the joke to work.
It is also unlikely that listeners of The Corrs' music will share this insight and may find the explanation of said punch-line to be a little bit upsetting.
Regardless, I hope that you have as much fun telling theses jokes to your friends as I have had sharing them with you.
Keep on smiling! :)
- sorbitol.
biskits
Not your cheese! Defo never heard that one before :)
sorbitol
Thanks! I think I made it up.