# Help me understand this joke **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 12, 2008, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-this-joke/441129 "2008-03-12T17:43:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![NightRabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbce88/32.png) [@NightRabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NightRabbit)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2008, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-this-joke/441129/21 "2008-03-12T23:34:39Z")
[QUOTE=NurseCarmen] A red brick! [/QUOTE] There’s a friend of mine who thinks the red brick joke is the funniest thing she’s ever heard! She cracks up every time someone says “red brick”. She was the one who first told it to me- her hysteria in telling it was infectious and, by the time she got to the punchline, I thought it was hilarious, too. We were literally rolling around on the bed! I know it’s meant not to make any sense, but that was really the funny part of it, that and my friend’s great delivery. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-this-joke/441129/22 "2008-03-13T00:03:08Z")
[QUOTE=NightRabbit] I know it’s meant not to make any sense, but that was really the funny part of it, that and my friend’s great delivery. [/QUOTE] Are we thinking of the same joke? A red brick does make sense…if told in both parts. It’s kind of meta, but it does make sense. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-this-joke/441129/23 "2008-03-13T00:22:46Z")
[QUOTE=Shagnasty] It is a nonsense joke that you get other people in on. You target a person (or persons) who is a know it all or never admits any weakness. You wait for the proper moment and build up to the joke with the necessary theatrics. You tell it and the people that are in on it with you bust a fake gut laughing hysterically. One of two things happen here. The people that aren’t in on it laugh along and say that they get it or they admit that they don’t and you never tell them the point of it. [/QUOTE] Gotdammit, **Shagnasty**! You explained to soon. Don’t you know how this joke is played?? That is my favorite prank by the way. I hardly ever get a chance to do it. ---
**Author:** ![Charger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df788c/32.png) [@Charger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charger)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-this-joke/441129/24 "2008-03-13T01:58:59Z")
[QUOTE=Santo Rugger] Maybe the zookeeper is presuming the lady wants to do the hippo!?! :eek: [/QUOTE] No. He is reluctant to reveal the hippo’s gender because that would raise suspicion about what the _zookeeper_ does with the hippo after hours. Because, y’know, anyone left alone with a hippo _is going to_ have sex with it eventually…if it’s the right gender, that is. Unless they’re weird. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-this-joke/441129/25 "2008-03-13T02:09:21Z")
[QUOTE=Nzinga, Seated] Gotdammit, **Shagnasty**! You explained to soon. Don’t you know how this joke is played?? That is my favorite prank by the way. I hardly ever get a chance to do it. [/QUOTE] It’s my favorite prank too. For anyone interested the (what appears to be) original punchline has a wikipedia entry: > **[No soap radio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_soap%2C_radio)** > > "No soap, radio" is a form of practical joke and an example of surreal comedy. The joke is a prank whereby the punch line has no relation to the body of the joke, but participants in the prank pretend otherwise. The effect is either to trick someone into laughing along as if they "get it" or to ridicule them for not understanding. > The joke became popular in New York in the 1950s. The punch line is known for its use as a basic sociological and psychological experiment, specifically relating to mo... I also love general long pointless jokes. They work so much better with speech though. Purple socks is my favorite (it’s usually purple something, the original may hav b een purple gorilla from searching around on it, not sure). I may type it sometime. And yeah I figure it’s anti-humor or, something lewd insinuating bestiality, but I try not to think about that last one. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-this-joke/441129/26 "2008-03-13T03:11:38Z")
[QUOTE=NightRabbit] There’s a friend of mine who thinks the red brick joke is the funniest thing she’s ever heard! She cracks up every time someone says “red brick”. She was the one who first told it to me- her hysteria in telling it was infectious and, by the time she got to the punchline, I thought it was hilarious, too. We were literally rolling around on the bed! I know it’s meant not to make any sense, but that was really the funny part of it, that and my friend’s great delivery. [/QUOTE] What’s the joke? ---
**Author:** ![AveDementia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@AveDementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AveDementia)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-this-joke/441129/27 "2008-03-13T03:48:31Z")
[QUOTE=Enright3] My wife has cursed me with a “bad joke of the day” calendar; and boy are they bad! I don’t get today’s joke… Help me. Here it is: **At the zoo** \*\*Blanche: \*\* Mr. Zookepeer, is that hippopotamus a male or a female? **Zookeeper:** What do you care, lady? That’s it. what the hell is a joke about that… even a bad joke? [/QUOTE] I laughed. I don’t know if people are over analyzing this or I’m being whooshed, but I thought it was funny because you’d expect a zoo keeper to be very helpful and knowledgeable about the animals there, but yet he’s giving the woman lip like a stereotypical New Yorker. What makes it funnier is that her question is so formal and proper. It’s sort of reminiscent of the old joke traditionally told by a guy: “How do you tell when a woman has an orgasm?” Who cares? ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-this-joke/441129/28 "2008-03-13T10:04:38Z")
The joke in the OP got an almost chuckle out of me. It has a existential air about it, what difference would it make to the woman what gender the hippo is? ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-this-joke/441129/29 "2008-03-13T12:34:37Z")
There was a Peanuts strip that for years I didn’t get. Charlie Brown lends a book to Linus; a ghost story. “It’s really interesting,” CB says, “and yet it’s not too scary.” Linus reads it, then brings it back, saying, “You were right; it was only mildly frightening!” Don’t know how many times I looked at that strip before I noticed the **one** hair standing up on Linus’s head. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-this-joke/441129/30 "2008-03-13T13:45:40Z")
[QUOTE=AveDementia] … It’s sort of reminiscent of the old joke traditionally told by a guy: “How do you tell when a woman has an orgasm?” Who cares? [/QUOTE] Reminds me of the joke, Q: How many feminists does it take to screw in a lightbulb? A: \*That’s not very damned funny! \* And now, it’s time for the penguin on top of your television to explode. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-this-joke/441129/31 "2008-03-13T16:45:25Z")
[QUOTE=HazelNutCoffee] What’s the joke? [/QUOTE] The first part of the joke is: Three pigs are throwing bricks in the air. (Yeah, I’m not sure why, go with it.) The first pig throws a blue brick in the air and it goes up about ten feet. The second pig throws a green brick in the air and it goes up about twenty feet. The third pig throws a red brick up, and…it doesn’t come down. So that goes over like a lead balloon and no one getes it. You’re then supposed to wait a while before you tell the next part. The next part is: There’s an airplane. A man is smoking a cigar and getting increasingly pissed at a crying baby in the next row. The baby’s mother asks the man to put out his cigar. When he refuses, she grabs the cigar and throws it out of the airplane. He responds by taking the baby and throwing it out. There’s silence–except for the sobbing of the mother. When the airplane lands, to everyone’s shock, the baby is sitting on the wing of the airplane. And what do you, dear reader, suppose it had in its mouth? ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-this-joke/441129/32 "2008-03-13T17:06:34Z")
[QUOTE=Freudian Slit] I prefer the one where two people (though I suppose they could be penguins) are sitting in the bath tub, and one asks the other for the bar of soap, and the other says, “No soap, radio.” I’m not sure why “radio” figures in so heavily. [/QUOTE] The version I heard (late 60’s) was the same as yours except it was 2 elephants in a bathtub. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2008, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-this-joke/441129/33 "2008-03-14T01:38:27Z")
[QUOTE=beowulff] Penguins. Why did it have to be Penguins. [/QUOTE] The penguins are psychotic, Marty… ---
**Author:** ![Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/278dde/32.png) [@Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Runs_With_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2008, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-this-joke/441129/34 "2008-03-14T05:21:45Z")
[QUOTE=BwanaBob] The version I heard (late 60’s) was the same as yours except it was 2 elephants in a bathtub. [/QUOTE] Me, too. 1981. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2008, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-this-joke/441129/35 "2008-03-14T16:38:12Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] And now, it’s time for the penguin on top of your television to explode. [/QUOTE] What did he say? ---
**Author:** ![WF\_Tomba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d9b06d/32.png) [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2008, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-this-joke/441129/36 "2008-03-14T16:58:51Z")
[QUOTE=BwanaBob] The version I heard (late 60’s) was the same as yours except it was 2 elephants in a bathtub. [/QUOTE] I heard it with a lion and a lioness in the bathtub. I like that because it seems to suggest that the humor is gender- or sex-related. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2008, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-this-joke/441129/37 "2008-03-14T17:03:21Z")
[QUOTE=Freudian Slit] I prefer the one where two people (though I suppose they could be penguins) are sitting in the bath tub, and one asks the other for the bar of soap, and the other says, “No soap, radio.” I’m not sure why “radio” figures in so heavily. [/QUOTE] We told it with elephants in the tub. There was a TV show (short-lived) named [No Soap, Radio.](http://www.jumptheshark.com/topic/Soap-Radio/Soap-Radio-General-Comments/1450) I liked it - it seemed very few others did. I guess they didn’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2008, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-this-joke/441129/38 "2008-03-14T17:13:12Z")
I figured out a secret punchline for the penguin/radio jokes in case anyone presses the issue. Think how penguins and radios are similar. They both travel in waves Boy, people sure will feel dumb for not getting that zinger if you have to tell them. ---
**Author:** ![Blaster\_Master](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cab0a1/32.png) [@Blaster\_Master](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blaster_Master)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2008, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-this-joke/441129/39 "2008-03-14T17:25:06Z")
[QUOTE=Freudian Slit] The first part of the joke is: Three pigs are throwing bricks in the air. (Yeah, I’m not sure why, go with it.) The first pig throws a blue brick in the air and it goes up about ten feet. The second pig throws a green brick in the air and it goes up about twenty feet. The third pig throws a red brick up, and…it doesn’t come down. So that goes over like a lead balloon and no one getes it. You’re then supposed to wait a while before you tell the next part. The next part is: There’s an airplane. A man is smoking a cigar and getting increasingly pissed at a crying baby in the next row. The baby’s mother asks the man to put out his cigar. When he refuses, she grabs the cigar and throws it out of the airplane. He responds by taking the baby and throwing it out. There’s silence–except for the sobbing of the mother. When the airplane lands, to everyone’s shock, the baby is sitting on the wing of the airplane. And what do you, dear reader, suppose it had in its mouth? [/QUOTE] This is quite possibly my favorite joke of all time. The way I heard it, it was an obsessive compulsive home builder in the first part fretting over having one brick left over, and the second part was a chihuahua and she pulled it back in the window by it’s leash. I also think the joke is a lot funnier when you really embellish it, taking several minutes to tell each part. I one time actually waited about a week before telling the second part… AWESOME. Of course, anyone who’s heard me tell it before always groans when I mention it, so it just make the audience that much more interested in hearing it. As for the OP, I think the joke is supposed to be that the zookeeper interprets her question sexually, as in, he takes it accusatory that he’s having sex with the hippo because he is. ---
**Author:** ![Solfy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Solfy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Solfy)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2008, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-this-joke/441129/40 "2008-03-14T17:36:30Z")
[QUOTE=NurseCarmen] What did he say? [/QUOTE] He said, “Property of the Zoo.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-this-joke/441129.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-this-joke/441129.md?page=3)