Nope.
Can the hearer easily and safely laugh?
Could you come up to me on a busy street and tell this joke to me and get the expected reactions?
Sure.
If I walked up to you on a busy street, and said this while you were just standing there minding your own business, I doubt it’d be effective; I’ve never tried it in such a situation, and see no reason to.
Are there any nonverbal components to the joke? (Thought of “Interrupting Starfish”.)
Is the listener being kept busy while the observers laugh?
Is part of the joke something the listener is doing at the moment?
Does it require the mark to have just done something you might regard as clumsy?
Nothing like that.
Not sure what you have in mind, but I don’t think that’s it; when it’s worked, it’s been that he simply pays attention to me while I’m talking — and then I stop talking — and then other people laugh, and he doesn’t, while nothing else is going on.
At what moment?
The entire time I’m aware of them — from before I say the 14-word setup, and on through to when I pause to hear their spoken response, and then while I deliver the 7-word followup that tends to draw a laugh from others — the person I’m speaking with could remain motionless apart from, y’know, moving their mouth to speak.
At any moment…
I only say it in response to them having just done something.
Are people laughing at what is being said?
Could I, right now and with no special preparation, do this joke and expect to get the same kind of response?
Yes.
Yes.
does the joke work because your mark isn’t saying anything and waiting for more to come from you?
I’m thinking along the lines that you are talking, then seem to stop halfway through, where the mark is expecting you to continue, but the audience finds it humorous that the mark is standing there sort expectantly dumbfounded.
Is the joke
A culture reference?
A play on words?
One that requires physical animation?
A historical reference?
One that requires a specific response from the person being told?
Require the English language?
.
Not really, no; it’s pretty clear that I’m done talking, and that neither of us is waiting for the other to add anything.
It’s not a play on words, would presumably work just as well in a different language, and requires no physical animation. I don’t need a specific response when I pause — just some kind of encouragement to continue — and I wouldn’t say it involves a historical or culture reference, if you mean ‘something that could serve as a JEOPARDY question-and-answer’.
Would it help if we were to determine what kind of thing would prompt you to tell the joke?
Yeah, I’d say it’d help.
Why is the target not laughing? Do they not find the joke funny? are they embarrassed? confused? waiting for something?
Let’s talk about the something the target has “just done” to elicit your joke. Is it related to:
work
school
food/drink
transportation
recreation?
I’d have to say “recreation.”
As to why they’re not laughing, they apparently don’t find it funny; they don’t seem to be confused, or waiting for anything — and, as it happens, they haven’t struck me as particularly embarrassed, but I can’t rule that out.
does it have to do with sex or a sexual organ or anything like that?
Or does it have to do with drinking or drugs?