Good Humor [NOT 11/8/23]

Funny Ha Ha? Or Funny Stone Silence And Puzzled Looks?

Halloween meets the Minnesota snowball
Charles Lewis Bartholomew / Halloween and the Minnesota snowball / ca. 1898 / source: https://www.loc.gov/item/2009616274

What Makes You Laugh? Or Not?

We’ve shared jokes before. So here are some from 1882, thanks to The Banquet of Wit.

A Philadelphia paper relates the following laughable occurrence : A prisoner at the bar of the Mayor’s Court in that city being called on to plead to an indictment for larceny, was told by the clerk to hold up his right hand. The man immediately held up his left hand. “Hold up your right hand,” said the clerk. “Please your honour,” said the culprit, still holding up his left hand, ” I am left-handed.”

Oh wow, are you laughing so hard you can’t breathe? Here’s another!

Mass and Mess

Fontenelle had a brother, an abbot, who loved good wine. A gentleman asked him one day, “What is your brother doing ?” ” My brother,” said he, ” he is a priest.” “Has he a living ?” “No.” “How does he employ himself?” “He says mass in the morning.” “And in the evening?” “In the evening,” rejoins Fontenelle, “he don’t know what he says.”

Um, OK, so those aren’t so funny. Maybe they’ve gone stale over the past century. Anyway….

What’s something that’s made you laugh recently. Got any good jokes? Any scenes from TV or the movies you’ve seen recently that made you bust a gut?

After Paul Reubens died, I went through some of his appearances on David Letterman. Here’s one from Halloweeen in the 1980s:

Here’s a funny story. This week my son flew down to Florida for a summer job that lasts a couple of weeks. He booked a cheap Airbnb, checked out the area, it seemed decent enough.

When his rideshare rolled up, he saw to his amazement that the Airbnb was a unit in an advanced age retirement home.

Evidently they try to fill up vacancies with Airbnb rentals, only to avoid discouraging renters they hide the fact that you’re surrounded by 80 year olds. At least the price was right.

So what about you, Deadsplinterjokers? Got anything funny you want to share? Any standup comics you’ve seen recently? Or for that matter, some terrible anti-humor from the 1800s you want to warn us away from?

avataravataravataravataravataravataravataravataravatar

24 Comments

  1. put it in your zakje

    never gets old

    • OK, that joke went completely over my American head.

      “What’s my favorite place in Holland? Not Rotterdam. Not Amsterdam. The Albert Heijn! (LAUGHTER)”

      • lol…its a supermarket chain

        we usually call it the appie over here tho

  2. Currently HZ2’s innocence makes me laugh. Kids Say the Darndest Things style…

    I returned home with a gift of children’s pajamas from their great grandmother (GG). HZ2 asked me “Did GG grow out of them?” It took me a moment to realize HZ2 is used to wearing hand-me-downs.

    HZ2 was emphasizing how big their next birthday cake should be. “Bigger than our car. Bigger than our house. Bigger than your belly!” Sick burn kiddo.

    • Family lore is one of my uncles was on Kids Say the Darndest Things but somehow it never occurred to me to follow up and find out if that is true, and what happened.

  3. That video of the Boston cop faceplanting it down the slide is still cracking me up days later

  4. heres your sign never gets old either

    • OK that’s funny.

      “I’ll tell you what.”

  5. welp…im bored

    now probably also in trouble with ellie

    oh right yeah….after the fact warning….this one will get stuck in your head

    • No, not in the US either.

      If you want to get crude….

      • lol…..thats so much more offensive to me than words

          • omg..thats a gorgeous e-type

            i was offended by the first few…..then the fuck you became really funny

            save yourself! its too late for me!

            • Matt Berry and Peter Capaldi reading ancient insult letters:

              • i love capaldi

                shit talking in that accent just hits harder

                helps hes got the face for it

                • I didn’t know until now if he was Glaswegian or Edinburghian, but before I looked it up I said to myself he must be Glaswegian.

                  Yup, he’s from Glasgow, although I’m sure there are a lot from Edinburgh who are on the same level.

  6. I laughed at Ted Lasso and at Staged. Also the dogs.

Leave a Reply