# Please explain to me the funniest joke ever told by Johnny Carson **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** comedian-jokes\ **Created:** [July 28, 2025, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-to-me-the-funniest-joke-ever-told-by-johnny-carson/1021428 "2025-07-28T15:05:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2025, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-to-me-the-funniest-joke-ever-told-by-johnny-carson/1021428/41 "2025-07-28T19:15:01Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > I remember he _really_ hated having to interview _Survivor_ losers, and made no attempt to hide it. I mean, what are you going to talk with them about for ten minutes? “How much does it suck to be the least lordly of the flies?” On the other hand, you could see the pure joy on his face whenever he got to interact with Teri Garr or Amy Sedaris, and loved reminiscing with Michael Keaton about their early jobs together. He would positively swoon whenever he got Natalie Merchant or Emmylou Harris as a musical guest, and had great back and forth with Tom Waits. So, he didn’t hate everyone; just people who suck at being guests. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2025, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-to-me-the-funniest-joke-ever-told-by-johnny-carson/1021428/42 "2025-07-28T19:33:02Z")
> [@Hatchie](#): > > , but what is “bah” supposed to mean? It rhymes with “rah”. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2025, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-to-me-the-funniest-joke-ever-told-by-johnny-carson/1021428/43 "2025-07-28T23:00:39Z")
Great story. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2025, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-to-me-the-funniest-joke-ever-told-by-johnny-carson/1021428/44 "2025-07-29T02:12:34Z")
Late to the party, but I remember watching the original show that had the “Sis Boom Bah” line. I was a kid (I used to love staying up to watch Johnny Carson - made me feel very “grown up”) and I thought it was the funniest thing I’d ever heard. I’d never seen a joke that just completely destroyed the audience and the comedians like that, and I laughed myself silly over it. Never once did I even consider anything about cruelty to some hypothetical sheep. It was just funny as hell. The only other joke I’ve ever seen that affected everyone involved the same way was Richard Simmons on “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” If you’ve seen it, you know the one I mean. I laughed my ass off at that one, too. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2025, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-to-me-the-funniest-joke-ever-told-by-johnny-carson/1021428/45 "2025-07-29T02:38:09Z")
Do you mean [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-r4Flc\_d2M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-r4Flc_d2M) ? ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2025, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-to-me-the-funniest-joke-ever-told-by-johnny-carson/1021428/46 "2025-07-29T03:03:09Z")
That’s the one! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2025, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-to-me-the-funniest-joke-ever-told-by-johnny-carson/1021428/47 "2025-07-29T03:35:03Z")
That may be the funniest improv I’ve ever seen. Imagine being in that audience… ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2025, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-to-me-the-funniest-joke-ever-told-by-johnny-carson/1021428/48 "2025-07-29T03:49:05Z")
I laughed hysterically at the exploding sheep joke when I first saw the clip a few years ago and still think it’s funny. It wasn’t as if the only people laughing at the joke were Ed, Johnny, and me, either: the audience laughed, applauded, and cheered for almost 30 seconds. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2025, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-to-me-the-funniest-joke-ever-told-by-johnny-carson/1021428/49 "2025-07-29T04:13:17Z")
\ “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oy, oy, oy!” \ “What happens when you yell ‘Aussie! Oy!’ and the Grand Canyon?” It’s pretty irrelevant where these nonsense cheers get started. It just matters that people recognize them, and then you twist them into a weird, literal context. And details matter. In the original clip, Johnny says “describe the sound made when a sheep explodes” and it kills. In the other clip of Ed recounting the story, he gives it as “what is the sound made by an exploding sheep?”, and nothing. Saving that absurd image until the last word helps make it funny. And Johnny managed to surpress his giggles long enough to get the line out. If he’d laughed and had to start over, the timing would have been all wrong. A lot went in to making that moment work. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2025, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-to-me-the-funniest-joke-ever-told-by-johnny-carson/1021428/50 "2025-07-29T04:16:01Z")
I can’t explain why this joke is funny. All I can say is that as soon as I read “the funniest joke ever told by Johnny Carson” I immediately thought of sis-boom-bah before I opened the thread. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2025, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-to-me-the-funniest-joke-ever-told-by-johnny-carson/1021428/51 "2025-07-29T04:22:22Z")
I guess I’m of the Carson generation and I thought the joke was quite funny. Maybe not the funniest Carson moment, that might be the Fugawee Indians bit. And not the only time “Baaaa” was the punch line. In one of Mel Brooks films a just married shepard and his wife go into their tent. From the outside we hear them trying to figure out how do “do it”. The wife says, “Just do as the sheep in the fields do”. After a perfectly long pause comes, “Baaaaa”. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2025, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-to-me-the-funniest-joke-ever-told-by-johnny-carson/1021428/52 "2025-07-29T13:19:26Z")
> [@Stanislaus](#): > > The joke was really funny then because Carson, McMahon, and the audience shared various assumptions: that the phrase Sis-Boom-Bah has a clear and familiar context Right. The joke, like many jokes (including pretty much all jokes from the Carnac routines) works by making the audience assume and imagine that it means one thing before abruptly changing the frame of reference so that it means something completely different. But if the setup (in this case, the phrase “sis boom bah”) doesn’t already mean something to you, you don’t have the kind of expectations that can be subverted to make the joke work. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2025, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-to-me-the-funniest-joke-ever-told-by-johnny-carson/1021428/53 "2025-07-29T13:20:38Z")
I liked the SInbad Summarize the bible. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2025, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-to-me-the-funniest-joke-ever-told-by-johnny-carson/1021428/54 "2025-07-29T15:35:45Z")
I’m in my mid-forties, and the sis-boom-bah joke is _fuckin’ hilarious_. Loved the **Focus** ranch joke above as well. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2025, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-to-me-the-funniest-joke-ever-told-by-johnny-carson/1021428/55 "2025-07-29T23:06:28Z")
Carson had a dry humor. He rarely delivered gut buster laughter. Here’s a nice selection. Johnny’s timing and delivery makes the jokes work. > **[Johnny Carson’s 20 Funniest Jokes of All Time - Back in Time Today](https://backintimetoday.com/johnny-carsons-20-funniest-jokes-of-all-time/)** > > Johnny Carson, the legendary host of The Tonight Show, was a master of late-night comedy. His wit, impeccable timing, and ability to turn any situation into a joke made him an icon. Here are 20 of Johnny Carson’s funniest and most memorable jokes. 1.... ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-to-me-the-funniest-joke-ever-told-by-johnny-carson/1021428/56 "2025-07-30T00:17:40Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Personally, I think it’s hilarious. The best part is watching Ed and Johnny trying to keep it together afterwards. Same same with Tim Conway’s elephant joke. Vicki’s punchline was killer, but the sheer joy of the joke is watching everybody on the couch trying to get through the bit without losing it. 100%. I also love that scene. “SNORKIE!" The sheep joke is hilarious, both because it’s absurd and dumb and Johnny damned well knows how stupid it is, and because sheep are inherently funny. I agree that a lot of the humor here is in the delivery. It’s funny that a grown ass professional comedian came up with this joke in the first place, put on a silly hat and actually told the joke knowing how ridiculous the whole thing is, and for a perfect moment in time, it was accepted and appreciated. There’s something transcendentally beautiful about a receptive audience and an earnest comedian. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-to-me-the-funniest-joke-ever-told-by-johnny-carson/1021428/57 "2025-07-30T00:20:41Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > It’s funny that a grown ass professional comedian came up with this joke in the first place You mean a gross ass professional comedian’s writers’ room came up with a bunch of options and he choose this as one of several to make it on air. Credit where credit’s due. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-to-me-the-funniest-joke-ever-told-by-johnny-carson/1021428/58 "2025-07-30T00:24:08Z")
Was he gross? Did Carson get cancelled and I missed it? I was too young to watch this show. I did watch _The Carol Burnett Show_ in syndication, mostly at the behest of my mother, but she was right. That shit was funny. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-to-me-the-funniest-joke-ever-told-by-johnny-carson/1021428/59 "2025-07-30T00:39:52Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > But I sure don’t see anything even remotely funny. If you watch the clip on YouTube, everyone was cracking up before Johnny even read the joke. And it was a bit of a dark joke, which wasnt common on the Carson show. > [@silenus](#): > > The best part is watching Ed and Johnny trying to keep it together afterwards. Yep, and even beforehand. > [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > If you watch the clip, you’ll see that Carson (who knew what was coming) and McMahon (who knew something was coming, if not exactly what) were both struggling not to break up before even opening the envelope. Seeing that, the audience was primed for a big punchline, and reacted appropriately. Right > [@Stanislaus](#): > > (Don’t buy the book! The crowdfund publishers ripped him off, he hasn’t been paid for the books he has sold and he won’t be for future sales. That’s the only reason I’m not recommending it, it’s brilliant.) This interview says a little different- > **[Where do you get your ideas from?](https://joelmorris.substack.com/p/where-do-you-get-your-ideas-from)** > > Why creators need enough time and money to think. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-to-me-the-funniest-joke-ever-told-by-johnny-carson/1021428/60 "2025-07-30T00:52:56Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Was he gross? My mind and my fingers are often on different planes of existence, running at different speeds. [grown ass turned into gross ass, to my chagrin] Though Carson, as on every late night program, had endless battles with the network censors, as jokes kept poking the boundaries. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-to-me-the-funniest-joke-ever-told-by-johnny-carson/1021428.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-to-me-the-funniest-joke-ever-told-by-johnny-carson/1021428.md?page=4)