I was flipping through a Bathroom Reader, and it said bar jokes have only been around since the 1950’s. Is this true? What was the archetypal joke opening before then? Was there an archetypal joke opening?
Like newspaper articles, jokes seem to have gotten a lot shorter and snappier as the years go by. It seems like back in the day joke listeners were willing to tolerate a greater amount of scene-setting and buildup, which now can be contained in the short phrase “walk into a bar” or “were walking down the street”.
The London Joke Book or 1835 is an interesting read. Of course a lot of the jokes are a) not funny or b) too obscure for us these days but there’s a few good old standards in there (there’s a “right to bare arms” joke for instance)
The most interesting thing is the number of jokes or anecdotes which come with names and personal details attached, which makes me think that a large component of joke telling was “telling about a funny thing that actually happened”. Whereas we more think about joke telling as making up crazy stories, most of which couldn’t actually happen in real life.
Here’s a good example from that book - which is actually still sufficiently amusing, but way longwinded by our standards.
So what did two guys do before walking into a bar?
They had to finish their studies to become a priest and a rabbi.
I think we have an answer.
Two warriors walked into a mead festival; one a Knights Templar and the other an Israelite…
Dennis
You win the thread.
A priest, a minister, and a rabbi walk into a bar. The barkeep looks up and says, “What is this, some kind of joke?”
So what did two guys do before walking into a bar?
Got distracted by talking to the foreman.
Then BAM right into the bar. Good thing they had their hard hats on.
JMHO but the “walk into a bar” setup creates a quick scenario.
You have a reason for strangers to meet - ie bartender and customer(s)
You have a place for them to meet - The bar
You have a plausible interaction - order a drink
You have a straight man - Bartender
You have the comic relief - customer(s)
“Walk into a bar” gives you all of this.
If you were to say “walk into a building” or walk into a store it has too much vagueness in it.
Jokes get shorter as the audience gets more sophisticated.
Case in point, this old joke: #35!
I didn’t laugh. I think you told it wrong.
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Jesus, a rabbi and a Roman walked out towards the crowd . . . wait, that’s not funny.
A Cro-Magnon stops by a stream to get a drink. He sees a Neanderthal with a duck on his head approaching the stream. He says to the Neanderthal “Do you know you have a duck on your head?” The Neanderthal bashes his head in with a rock.
Supposedly this is the first “walks into a bar” joke. Interesting in that it has a pretty long setup and actually requires a bar as the setting:
Sorry. I don’t get it.
“pull my finger”? ISTR that a most early comedy was rather scatological.
I did laugh - I never heard that one before.
Regards,
Shodan
In my neck of the woods Two Guys was a department store.