The way I heard that one is this:
Q: How many surrealists does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Fish.
It should probably be “Absurdists,” though; I like your surrealist joke better.
One of my favorite jokes was told to me by a 7-year-old:
Q: What does a cow say?
A: Moo.
It was hilarious in context, which was a bunch of adults sitting around telling stupid jokes, then the kid chimes in with this.
“Why does a chicken? I don’t know why.”
– A. A. Milne
I just wanna chime in and say I SO glad no-one here labels this “random” humor. It’s a pet peeve of mine.
Cottleston, cottleston, cottleston pie.
Absurdism is a thing wholly unrelated to non-sequitur humour. “… and a man called Kierkegaard who just sat in the conversation pit biting the heads off of whippets …”
This was actually part of a practical joke. The whole idea is to put some peer pressure on someone and try to get him to pretend he “gets” an unfunny joke and make him laugh at a joke the teller KNOWS makes no sense.
I have heard these things called unjokes.
When my friend’s middle daughter was around 3, she’d get caught up in the knock knock jokes we were telling and she’d start making up and telling us “Tingle Tingle” (a bell ringing) jokes. They pretty much went the way of the sample in the first post in this thread, but we laughed for her.
My friend’s favorite joke is as follows:
A: Ask me if I’m a fireman.
B: Are you a fireman?
A: No.
Not sure where that fits into this conversation but he finds it utterly hilarious, while I am less than amused.
I only laugh at these jokes ironically.
My favorite something along the lines of this set-up is as follows:
A: Hey wanna hear a good knock-knock joke?
B: Sure!
A: OK, you start.
B: Knock knock
A: Who’s there?
B: … …?
Well, it amuses me at least.