# Is there a name for this style of joke? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** comedian-jokes\ **Created:** [October 20, 2023, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-style-of-joke/991865 "2023-10-20T23:44:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2023, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-style-of-joke/991865/21 "2023-10-21T22:17:28Z")
When I was in grade school back in Minneapolis, we kids were told explicitly to call them engineers, not janitors, and it’s stuck with me for the last sixty years. Custodians I’ve always associated with places like churches and cemeteries/graveyards. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2023, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-style-of-joke/991865/22 "2023-10-21T22:17:30Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Calling someone an “engineer” in Czech apparently implies they have some kind of specialized higher education. Until his dying day, my father refused to call a janitor/custodian/sanitation engineer an engineer because Dad’s bachelor’s and master’s degrees are for engineering. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2023, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-style-of-joke/991865/23 "2023-10-21T22:26:17Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Until his dying day, my father refused to call a janitor/custodian/sanitation engineer an engineer because Dad’s bachelor’s and master’s degrees are for engineering. What did he call railroad engineers? I know they’re considered “engine drivers” in Britain. (At least that’s what John Cleese once called them.) In the US, the guy who drives a train is called an engineer, but this might have changed since I was a kid. I honestly don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2023, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-style-of-joke/991865/24 "2023-10-21T23:11:22Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > What did he call railroad engineers? Engineers. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2023, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-style-of-joke/991865/25 "2023-10-22T00:41:16Z")
“One round-trip ticket, please.” “To where?” “To **here!** ” ---
**Author:** ![Cwturner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Cwturner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cwturner)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2023, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-style-of-joke/991865/26 "2023-10-22T00:54:28Z")
A Lowes customer to employee “Can I get some rope cut?” Employee “Sure, how long do you want it?” Customer “I want to keep it” True story. Embelished, I would have added…forever, not that its any of your business. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2023, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-style-of-joke/991865/27 "2023-10-22T01:13:27Z")
Another true story, from when I was a historic site guide: The fort’s sutler brings a long iron rod to the squaddie working in the blacksmith’s shop and asks him to cut off about a foot of it. The squaddie clamps the rod in a vise and starts sawing away in the middle. **SUTLER:** Why are you cutting the piece out of the middle instead of off the end? **SQUADDIE:** Well, shucks, Captain. You only need a little one… (Yes, he really was that thick!) ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2023, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-style-of-joke/991865/28 "2023-10-22T02:27:48Z")
> [@Cwturner](#): > > A Lowes customer to employee “Can I get some rope cut?” > Employee “Sure, how long do you want it?” > Customer “I want to keep it” From _Family Feud_: “Name something you feel before you buy it.” “Excited!” ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2023, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-style-of-joke/991865/29 "2023-10-22T02:30:53Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > From _Family Feud_: > > “Name something you feel before you buy it.” Doubtful! ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2023, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-style-of-joke/991865/30 "2023-10-22T16:35:34Z")
“Things were much better back then, but now …” “But now what ?” “But now things were much better back then.” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2023, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-style-of-joke/991865/31 "2023-10-22T17:13:11Z")
Brings to mind George W. Bush’s reply when asked about having used drugs: _“When I was young and foolish, I was young and foolish.”_ With a quick pause, it sounds like the first part is leading up to excuse-making, is laying a little go-easy-on-me groundwork for what’s coming up next — but nothing else _is_ coming up next; the second part is just the first part. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-style-of-joke/991865.md?page=1)