I can’t read the comment threads on my weekly Bible Study posts without being reminded of the following old joke:
A man is sent to prison for the first time. At night, the lights in the cell block are turned off, and his cellmate goes over to the bars and yells, “Number twelve!” The whole cell block breaks out laughing. A few minutes later, somebody else in the cell block yells, “Number four!” Again, the whole cell bloock breaks out laughing.
The new guy asks his cellmate what’s going on. “Well,” says the older prisoner, “we’ve all been in this here prison for so long, we all know the same jokes. So we just yell out the number instead of saying the whole joke.”
So the new guy walks up to the bars and yells, “Number six!” There was dead silence in the cell block. He asks the older prisoner, “What’s wrong? Why didn’t I get any laughs?”
“Well,” said the older man, “sometimes it’s not the joke, but how you tell it.“
My grandpappy taught me that a man who has to bold his punch line doesn’t have the sense of humor he thinks he does. Taught me that in prison bible study.
The way I learned the joke, the punch line is: “What, the way YOU tell a joke?”
Prison-monger.
Also featured on the old Laugh-In show as taking place at a comedian retirement home.
My favorite version has the older man continue:
“Here, watch me. Number 75!” The inmates practically fall of their bunks laughing.
“What was so funny about that one?” asks the new guy.
“Oh, they hadn’t heard that one yet.”
@2
Or simply “You didn’t tell it right.”
And in the horrible “Sidehackers” via MST3k