# Jokes (and other things) that you didn't get until much, much later. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 5, 2004, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-and-other-things-that-you-didnt-get-until-much-much-later/248815 "2004-06-05T15:36:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-and-other-things-that-you-didnt-get-until-much-much-later/248815/141 "2004-10-15T03:57:52Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > When I was a kid, my older brothers told me a joke I didn’t get until high school: > > How do you get down off an elephant? > You don’t; you get down off a duck. LOL, I didn’t get that one either. That’s what I was planning to post to this thread … . ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-and-other-things-that-you-didnt-get-until-much-much-later/248815/142 "2004-10-15T09:42:32Z")
One I recall from my distant youth is from the movie _Cannonball Run_. Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise are one pair of racers, while Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. are their main rivals. Martin and Davis, dressed as priests trick Reynolds and DeLuise into letting Martin ‘bless’ their car, while Davis sneaks around and slashes their tires. When R&D realize what’s happened, they have the following exchange: Reynolds: Those priests… DeLuise: Weren’t fathers. Reynolds: They were… DeLuise: Mothers. For a long time I thought the joke was just DeLuise still being stupid and not realizing what had really happened. Ok, it’s a long set-up for not much payoff, but dammit, it meant something to me! I also didn’t get the “down off a duck” and “what has four wheels and flies?” jokes until much later. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-and-other-things-that-you-didnt-get-until-much-much-later/248815/143 "2004-10-15T09:57:58Z")
> [@Max Torque](#): > > Here’s a recent one, relating to **Harry Potter** : I didn’t get the pun in “Diagon Alley” until I heard the name pronounced out loud in the audiobook version. I picked it up, but no one else in my family did. They didn’t pick up on Knock Turn Alley either. (waits.) ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-and-other-things-that-you-didnt-get-until-much-much-later/248815/144 "2004-10-15T09:59:34Z")
> [@TellMeI'mNotCrazy](#): > > They didn’t pick up on Knock Turn Alley either. … Oh, god. I used to think I was smart. ---
**Author:** ![Heloise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e36b37/32.png) [@Heloise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heloise)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-and-other-things-that-you-didnt-get-until-much-much-later/248815/145 "2004-10-15T10:32:00Z")
I actually had someone argue with me that Diagon Alley was just a coincidence. Then I read Knock Turn Alley and felt stupidly vindicated. And, although I think someone explained it to me once, I don’t recall what the Ford Prefect joke is. What’s the punchline? ---
**Author:** ![NutMagnet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea5d25/32.png) [@NutMagnet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NutMagnet)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-and-other-things-that-you-didnt-get-until-much-much-later/248815/146 "2004-10-15T11:16:22Z")
Ford Prefect was a car model sold in England (and also in Canada, I think). Why the character was named “Ford Prefect” and not say, “Vauxhall Velox” though, I ain’t got a clue. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-and-other-things-that-you-didnt-get-until-much-much-later/248815/147 "2004-10-15T11:20:13Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > The episode of _Seinfeld_ where Mr. Lippman opens the muffin top shop (“Top Of The Muffin To You”) and is getting pointers from Elaine on how to make the muffin tops (you gotta make the whole muffin then tear off the tops). At the end of the scene Elaine says “And it’s not 'Top of the Muffin TO YOU!!!” To which Mr Lippman replies “Yes! It is!” > > About a year later I saw the earlier episode where she was working for him at Pendant publishing and she was editing the book that had way too much punctuation in it… I’m not getting this one. ---
**Author:** ![Elret](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Elret](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elret)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-and-other-things-that-you-didnt-get-until-much-much-later/248815/148 "2004-10-15T12:26:02Z")
> [@haardvark](#): > > … the cheese says, “…butter…” Everyone turns to look at the cheese and quietly say, “Wha?” I feel like I’m on the brink of getting this one… can you help me please? ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-and-other-things-that-you-didnt-get-until-much-much-later/248815/149 "2004-10-15T13:05:16Z")
> [@NutMagnet](#): > > Ford Prefect was a car model sold in England (and also in Canada, I think). Why the character was named “Ford Prefect” and not say, “Vauxhall Velox” though, I ain’t got a clue. And to further expand on the idea, the actual joke is that Ford chose that name because he thought that since it was such a common name, it would be inconspicuous. If he’d come to the States, he might have chosen something like Ford Taurus, which is certainly common enough, but would definitely get a second glance (or three). ---
**Author:** ![Satchmo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/satchmo/32/4223_2.png) [@Satchmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satchmo)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-and-other-things-that-you-didnt-get-until-much-much-later/248815/150 "2004-10-15T13:11:35Z")
**Nutmagnet** If I’m remembering correctly, the ‘joke’ about naming himself Ford Prefect was that he’d misjudged the dominant lifeform on this planet. On preview I see **TellMeI’mNotCrazy** has beaten me to the punch. Story of my life. 😛 Satch ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-and-other-things-that-you-didnt-get-until-much-much-later/248815/151 "2004-10-15T13:26:22Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > Good old Officer Shrift in _The Phantom Toolbooth_. > The day when, thinking back on the book, I went ‘Ooohhh… he’s short!’ > > If you don’t know what I’m talking about , then read the book. I don’t think you’ll regret it. One of the best books ever. ---
**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:** [October 15, 2004, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-and-other-things-that-you-didnt-get-until-much-much-later/248815/152 "2004-10-15T17:21:38Z")
The “drunk” joke in Hitchhikers is probably my favorite joke in the whole series. On Dylan’s fourth album, he has a song called **Motopsycho Nightmare** which is a kind of a travelling salesman joke, with the singer stopping in at a farmhouse with a farmer and his daughter Rita. After about 20 years of listening to this song I finally figured out it was also a joke about the move **Psycho**. I was blind to this despite the name of the song, the line “There was Rita looking just like Tony Perkins” that “she moved away and got a job at a motel.” Rita wants the singer to take a shower and she mentions “her mother on the hill.” Aargh. :smack: If I had never seen Psycho I could excuse myself, but it’s one of my favorite Hitchcock movies. ---
**Author:** ![dotchan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@dotchan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dotchan)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-and-other-things-that-you-didnt-get-until-much-much-later/248815/153 "2004-10-15T19:24:35Z")
One of the many comics I read is a _Journey of the West_ parody arranged in a series of four panel comics. One of the Monkey King’s mishaps is when he goes down to the ocean to “borrow” a suitable weapon. The last two panels of one joke goes something like this (paraphrasing slightly because I don’t recall the exact dialogue, and it was in Chinese anyway)… Dragon God: …and in addition, it can change length at will. Monkey King (twirling the bo): SWEET! Dragon God’s Wife (rolling her eyes): If only some OTHER things could change length at will, too. (Dragon God looks supremely embarrassed, while Monkey King has a bit of a “TMI” expression on his face) Didn’t get the joke until like last year. :smack: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-and-other-things-that-you-didnt-get-until-much-much-later/248815.md?page=7)