How to Tell a Silly Joke
Some people can say anything and make people laugh. These people are naturally funny. If you don’t think you’re one of those people, don’t fret. This blog is here to help.
Jokes are a very important part of life and they help in various situations such as these below:
• Your party has gone quiet.
• You want to make your date smile.
• You've made a child cry.
• You’ve accidentally tripped/stumbled and everyone’s looking at you.
All these situations can easily be fixed by a silly joke.
So what is the recipe for a good joke?
• Make sure everyone is paying attention and that they can hear you.
• Make sure everyone is in the mood for a joke or that your joke is appropriate for the situation. Funerals are generally not good places to tell a joke.
• Jokes need to be age appropriate.
• Good silly jokes start with a question. Make sure you wait a few seconds for people to answer before you continue with the joke.
• Try to look like a natural joker. Build the tension up before you reveal the punchline.
If English is not your first language and you want to make your new Kaplan friends laugh, silly jokes are the way. They’re short, they’re easy to remember and sometimes they’re even funny.
Examples of silly jokes are:
• Knock-knock jokes: They originate in America and are very popular among children and people who have a more innocent sense of humor. They are always structured like this:
Person A: Knock-knock
Person B: Who’s there?
Person A: Isabel
Person B: Isabel who?
Person A: Is a bell(Isabel) necessary on a bicycle?
• Chicken jokes: Similar to knock- knock jokes, they start with a question:
‘Why did the chicken cross the road?’
The other person usually answers ‘I don’t know’
The first person then tells the second person the answer
For example:
Q: Why did the chicken cross the road?
A: The light turned green.
Q: Why did the chicken cross the road?
A: The other chickens dared it to.
• Puns: A pun is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings.
Who stole the soap from the bath? The 'robber' duck!
Here are a bunch of jokes collected from people at the Kaplan office:
Chase - What's Black and White and Hides in a Cave?
A zebra that owes money
Candida - What's it called when you lend money to a bison?
A buffa-loan.
Rob - What's black and white and has eight wheels?
A penguin on rollerskates.
Martin – How do you make Lady Gaga cry?
Poke her face.
Because it saw the salad dressing.
What do you do if your silly joke fails to make people laugh?
That’s a difficult situation to be in and, unfortunately, the only way to go about it, is to laugh it out.
Laughing at your own joke is generally frowned upon but desperate times call for desperate measures.
Vocabulary:
fret: worry
to frown upon: to disagree with something
to go about: to deal with something
punchline: the funniest bit of a joke (usually at the end)