It seems like I have heard about every knock knock joke that has ever been said, but it was a lot of fun when my grandson began to understand them. Every once in awhile I hear a new joke that is pretty funny, but most of them have been around forever! Most of these jokes are told by young people who are just learning to tell jokes and I find it fun to play along with them. I don't think we have ever had a trick or treat night without hearing several knock knock jokes. The times that I enjoy them the most is during Halloween. I have even been in audiences when you hear a groan spread across the room when someone starts a knock knock joke. I agree that knock knock jokes can seem pretty silly. When we were kids I think part of the fun was engaging in the routine of it and waiting for the pun. Many of us don't like waiting for the pun. I think it is just the sheer routine of it that gets old as you get older. Sometimes they can be very witty, and I like witty humor. Now I don't find knock-knock jokes as funny, but I still like them. We spent so much time laughing, I am sure some of them didn't even make sense and were repetition, but we didn't care! We would spend like a half hour going back and forth with different jokes we heard or made up ourselves. When I was younger, I remember having knock-knock joke wars with my friends. Not just some word! Check out Click and Clack on NPR on Saturday mornings for some of the best. Knock knock jokes have to use a real name. Language and literature, as well as music composition content for Sibelius Software. from the University of Vermont, and she has written books, study guides, and teacher materials on Music, Mary Elizabeth is a teacher, composer, and author. In addition to contributing articles to InfoBloom about art, literature, and Mary Elizabeth is passionate about reading, writing, and research, and has a penchant forĬorrecting misinformation on the Internet. Howie gonna get rid of all these Easter bunnies? (How're we gonna get rid of all these Easter bunnies?) One set goes like this: Knock-knock.Īnna other Easter bunny.
KNOCK KNOCK JOKE SERIES
Sometimes, the word "who" of the question is incorporated into the knock-knock's punchline, to create a variation like this: Knock-knock.Īnother variation is the series knock-knock, in which a set of jokes is told in sequence to create an effect. This type of joke works by breaking the formula, while still using the pun concept. Here, instead of using the word "banana" in a punning way in the punchline, the jokester uses the name of another fruit. Knock-knock jokes are popular with children. Orange you glad I didn't say "banana" again? (Aren't you glad. There are also self-reflective knock-knocks that make fun of the audience's expectations for how the joke will work, like this one: Knock-knock. Said quickly, the name of the couple is transformed aurally into the name of a song from the musical South Pacific: "Some Enchanted Evening." Some jokesters actually sing the last line, using the appropriate melody. The closing line to the knock-knock joke we're using as an example is: Jokester: Sam and Janet evening.
In the final line, the jokester almost always makes a pun on the answer in the third line by adding a subsequent word or phrase that transforms the meaning because it sounds like something else. In the fourth line, the audience repeats the answer of the third line and adds the question, "who?" like this: Jokester: Sam and Janet. In the third line, the jokester gives a partial answer which is a real English word and generally makes some sense. This exchange is followed by another pair of lines. The first two lines are always the same: Jokester: Knock-knock.Ī knock-knock joke requires a response from an audience. There are many different jokes of this type, but there are some shared characteristics.įormula.