I get it, but then I am a lover of awful puns (as, I suspect, are a disproportionate number of Dopers). People are not going to get this at all unless they know the original (verbal pun) joke, and love it enough to remember it well. It is an old joke, but not everyone will have heard it despite that, and many of those who have will probably have long forgotten it.
Also, although I got it from your description, I am not entirely sure that I would have got it from actually seeing it. I suspect it would have taken me longer, at any rate, perhaps too long for it to seem funny (rather than merely clever).
I’ve never heard that joke before, and I like puns. I think this would work in like an Animaniacs cartoon, which I find hilarious. I like the joke.
However it would be impossible to visually show “nine inch” so you’re going to lose a lot of people there because at first it’s going to be a “tiny pianist” which is what I thought at first, even though I had the words “nine inch” right there.
It would give me pause for a sec because I’ve only heard it as “12 inch pianist,” not 9. I like it. Not everybody will get it, but some might chortle, kind of like The Simpsons “Sneed’s Feed and Seed (Formerly Chuck’s).”
A Google Fight suggests 12 is more prevalent, several times over. Would a ruler next to him help?
There’s that. I have also never heard that joke before, so I didn’t get it. Also, I don’t think a genie could pretend to mishear a word (assuming the wishes are spoken, rather than texting?). If he pretended to mishear something like that, he wouldn’t be truly honoring his obligation, would he? I think a genie would have to hold true to the actual words of the wish, but he would manifest it in a more “unexpected” way, like you said. Know what I mean.?
Maybe I’m just being too nit-picky technical about a little joke though, hehe
I don’t think a joke scene would play badly, but it’d probably be better to use some kind of joke relating to the time-period. Now we just need to find Persian jokes!
I got it, but I don’t think it’s a very good joke, especially visually. The absolute worst way for a genie to be a jackass is the “mishearing” trick, it’s boring, and it feels unfair. Now, if the genie was kindhearted and did it accidentally, that’d be one thing, but there’s a lot of better jokes you can make, even punny ones. For instance, one million male deer running him over (a million bucks), because at least that one keeps the same wording, just with a different interpretation of the key word.
The best way, of course, if for the genie to exploit a loophole (you never said the dragon you wished for had to be FRIENDLY), but that’s harder to convey in a voiceover.
I think if it’s meant as a major punchline with a long beat, it fails; it comes off as trying too hard. As a one-off sight gag that happens quickly and then moves on just as quickly, it works. Timing is everything. The people who know the joke will get the reference, everyone else will still understand that this had to be some sort of miscommunication because who the hell would wish for a tiny man playing the piano?
Not every joke or visual joke needs to be “gotten” by everyone in your audience. Lord knows I loved “Arrested Development,” but I guarantee a good 1/3 of the jokes went right past me-- either because of the breakneck speed of the delivery, or because I just didn’t get the reference.
ETA: Or you could even change the joke up and have the pianist be especially small. The punchline is the genie saying “What’s the problem, you said five and three-quarter inches, right?”
Er, when I say “unfair” I mean that the genie isn’t following the rules. That feels cheap, what I mean is that it’s better when the genie is willfully defiant, but never technically breaks any rules.
It’s funny but it is an old joke. I’d heard it years ago. Seems to me that puns are so easy to write that it would be straightforward to simply come up with something original.
Pianist is one of those words like epitome. Half the people pronounce it pee-ann-ist and the other half say piano player. The gag only works if you know the joke and if you do, you’re not going to find the gag very funny. Pick a new one.
