Hey guys, I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on learning English...
with jokes! For many advanced speakers, understanding English jokes is the last barrier they have
to break through, before they can really master the language, and really capture its full meaning.
So today what we're going to do is look at five English jokes, and they're funny because
of the double meaning of the words in each joke, okay? So let's look at the first two.
First we have, "Why didn't the shark swallow the clownfish?"
Now first we have to understand the verb "swallow". This means [makes swallowing sound]. When
you eat something, you swallow it, okay? So why didn't the shark swallow the clownfish?
To understand this joke, we have to understand the double meaning of "funny". So the setup
of the joke is, "Why didn't the shark swallow the clownfish?" So you think of a clownfish.
You see the word clown, clown, you think of ha, ha, ha, somebody who makes people laugh.
So we have one version of the word "funny", one definition -- ha-ha funny. "Funny" can
also mean strange, not normal. Food can taste funny. Imagine that you're eating at a restaurant,
you're trying something new, and you go, "Hmm, this doesn't taste right. This tastes funny."
So the reason this joke is funny is because of the double meaning of the word "funny"
in it. The clownfish tasted funny. It tasted "ha ha", it's a clownfish, and hmm strange,
right? Like food that is not really normal-tasting funny.
Next joke: "Why was six afraid of seven?" Why was the number six afraid of the number
seven? Don't know why? I'll tell you why. Because...
"7 8 9." A little better, right? It's getting better.
So you're wondering, "Well, why is this funny?" Why was six, the number six, afraid of the
number seven? Because 7 8 9. Let's see if we have any double meanings in the
answer to this joke. So we have the number seven, okay? There's no double meaning. We
just have the number, the number seven. We have eight. We have the number eight. Okay,
we also have the past tense of the verb "eat", so because seven "ate" the number nine. It's
funny now, right? Because seven ate the number nine, so six was afraid of number seven, because
six doesn't want to get eaten by number seven either.
Okay guys, let's look at the next joke.
Okay so "Why didn't the skeleton go to the party?"
So, again, skeleton, right? Just bones, no skin, just bones. So why didn't the skeleton
"He had no body to go with." Okay!
So here we have to understand a double meaning of which word? Hmm, we actually have two words
here. We have "no body" and this obviously also sounds like "nobody", right? So "nobody"
and "no body". Again, a skeleton only has bones. It doesn't have any skin. It has no
body, right? So it can also mean that he has "nobody". "Nobody", no person can go with
him, so he has "no body" to go with, and he has "nobody" to go with. It's pretty good.
This is one of my favorites. And if you tell this to your kids they'll like it if they
speak English, which they might, okay?
Next one, "Why did the teacher wear sunglasses to class?"
Okay, so we have to understand the double meaning of the word "bright". So you think
of the sun and the sun is very bright, right? Now "bright" in English can also mean that
a person is very intelligent. So if I say Einstein was a very bright person, it means
that Einstein was a very intelligent, a very smart person. So "bright" means like the sun,
the sun is bright, it can also mean that somebody is very intelligent. So in this joke, the
teacher wore sunglasses, because her students were so "bright", but really it means intelligent,
okay? Double meaning, I really like this one, too.
All right, let's look at the last joke. Why did the pregnant lady start yelling:
"I'm, didn't, can't"? Any guess?
Okay, let me tell you why. Because...
she was having contractions." Okay, so to understand
this joke, you have to understand the double meaning of "contractions".
Contractions are the pains that a woman feels when she's about to have a baby many, many
hours before she starts to have the baby, the pain inside the stomach from the back,
anyway. Ask a girl; ask anyone who's had a baby. They can tell you the feeling of contractions.
Also the double meaning of "contractions" is the grammatical contractions of "I'm, didn't,
can't." So "I'm" is the contracted form of "I am". "Didn't" is the contracted form of
"did not", and "can't", "cannot", okay?
This joke can honestly work with any contracted verbs. So you can say "Why did the pregnant
lady start yelling 'shouldn't, wouldn't, couldn't'?" It can be anything, okay? And the joke, the
ending is always the same, because she was having contractions.
Now, remember, I didn't say these were good jokes. I didn't say they were funny jokes.
To me they're funny because I'm an English teacher, and I like English wordplay jokes
like these. If you understood these jokes, you are all the better for it, and I really,
really recommend that you use these at a party if you want no friends.
Okay guys, if you want to test your understanding of this knowledge, if you want to test if
you remember the ending of these jokes, and if you want to make the kids in your family
laugh, you can check out the quiz on www.engvid.com . Good luck and take care.