Theme Week, Part Dangerfield

Jeremy’s Sametime Status Proudly Presents:
Joke Autopsy Week!

It’s funny because elephants can’t climb trees, so the green shoes don’t actually matter

Welcome to the Thursday edition of Theme Week!  All this week, we break down timeless bits of comedy gold so you, the loyal reader, can get a better glimpse into the world of humor.  As a result, none of these moments will ever be funny again.  

Today, we examine the world of uncomfortable and confusing humor with a classic animal joke.  This one takes a degree of storytelling ability and good comedy timing to tell properly, but when it's done correctly, it's pure comic genius.  The joke teller begins with a simple question, "Why do elephants wear green shoes?"  The audience, genuinely without an answer replies with the standard, "I don't know.  Why do elephants wear green shoes?"  The response comes, "So they can hide in trees!"  While most jokes following this call and response formula would end here, there is a general dissatisfaction with the line, as well as an air of confusion on the part of the audience.  

This is where the storytelling and timing come into play.  The joke teller must grant enough time for the response to circulate in the audience's mind, allowing them to try to piece together why it's a punchline.  The joke style is very familiar to the audience...this part of the joke should be funny, so why is it?  They don't get it.  The mood grows uncomfortable with each passing moment, and the joke teller must gauge the frustration with the impending punchline to determine the exact right moment to continue the joke.  This varies with every person, so it's remarkably difficult to achieve.  At the precise moment of maximum comedic effect, the joke teller follows up with the rhetorical question:

"Well, have you ever seen an elephant in a tree?"

This is comedy in a nutshell.  It's also a variation on the logical fallacy "Post hoc, ergo propter hoc."  This fallacy is translated as "After which, therefore because of which," meaning that a conclusion has been drawn based simply on a sequence of events, without due diligence paid to the true root cause of the events. 

See, of course the audience has never seen an elephant in a tree.  The joke teller is taking advantage of this fact to create a false reason by introducing the green shoes.  ie: You can't see the elephant hiding in the tree because it's wearing green shoes.  When in fact, the reason you've never seen an elephant in a tree is because elephants can't climb trees.  

So, now the audience is creating a mental image of an elephant wearing green shoes standing in a tree, which is at least fairly ridiculous, and entirely hilarious.