I think a set-up along the line of, “Did you hear about the dead baby who <insert action here> because he was a little stiff?” would have worked better.
I laughed harder at that phrase than at the joke. 
I think I’m the only person on these boards who doesn’t find puns amusing. That one didn’t work for me, either.
Quite so. Offensive jokes can sometimes be the funniest because the point is to get the audience focused on the offensive part so that the actual humor can sneak up and actually be a surprise, making the punchline unexpected usually garners bigger laughs. Offence is a technique, not a payoff unless you’re in the company of hardcore joke tellers, hence the sublime beauty of a film like The Aristocrats. Funny is easy once you learn timing and a bit of a arsenal of punchlines, but to be truly tasteless is an artform. This is why I can laugh at someone like Doug Stanhope, who’s really just crude and filthy.
You got me. I didn’t see it coming.
Not funny.
Oh whew! I was hoping dead babies didn’t do all that stuff.
Then I would think to myself (but not say) that the teller needs to get a life.
See, that doesn’t work for me. The OP was able to play off two different meanings of “a little stiff” with both being applicable to the dead baby’s situation. You lost that dual meaning in your version.
And I have no problem with the idea of a dead baby walking into the bar. It’s a convention of the joke - we accept the idea that grasshoppers or kangaroos or horses walk into bars and order drinks for the sake of setting up the joke.
“No, if it was a joke it would have been funny. This was something else.”
I like that. Definitely funnier than the “joke”.
That’s funny as hell.
Good setup for a good pun.
I vote funny…by reason of a hell of a lot of vodka.
It would work better if it was something like:
Two doctors are looking at a dead baby in the ER. One says, ‘Has rigor mortis set in?’ The other replies, ‘He’s a little stiff.’
Oh yes. But the bartender needs to say “You okay, Mac?”
Not at all. Three ‘owies’ is just right.
Well, it is a dead baby joke.
It’s got a talking dead baby in it.
Not especially. I’d be a little surprised to hear it from my grandmother, I suppose.
“Yeah, well.”
Didn’t do anything for me.
I didn’t find it funny.
It took too long to get to the punchline, and it was predictable- so you don’t really get that dark humor out of it.
:shrug: I liked Knead’s joke though, quick and to the point always works better for Dead Baby humor rather than dragging it out for the audience.
I think knowing your audience is essential.
Yes. I giggled, briefly but aloud, when I got to the punchline. It wasn’t what I expected; most DBJs, (which I usually do find pretty funny, as my sense of humor leans heavily toward the cruel and morbid side) are simpler and a lot grosser. This one has a kind of surreal je ne sais quois to it that appeals to the more intellectual end of my funnybone; and as for the howler at the end – well, an atrocious pun is always, always its own reward.
What type do you mean – DBJ or whatever you call the kind that conclude with Mr, Peabodyesque pun-ctuation ? Because, like I said, I’m quite capable of laughing at either sort.
Not annoyingly so, IMNAAHO, no.
Yes indeed.
Those things are not usually considered detrimental to a joke – how many other jokes have a storyline that’s even remotely plausible, after all?
Not really, no.
DLux, aka The Mean 13
PS: Why do babies have that soft spot on thier heads?
So you can carry ten of 'em at a time!
(Now that’s a classic DBJ!)
Thanks for all the responses.
We’re all in agreement that it is properly a slew of DBJs then?
One of the most interesting things about this is that I feel compelled to tighten up the joke.
Two comments:
The baby walked into the bar then crawled across the floor??
I agree with the opinions that puns can be great jokes but generally won’t support a long set-up. Generally they need to be at most a two-line to be effective.
Without going into an analysis, I’ll just say it made me laugh. I was actually prepared not to like it but it took me by surprise.