This is for the jokes that are so bad, that years, maybe even decades afterwards you remember them specifically for being just so bad/unfunny. The actual good jokes surrounding it have been forgotten but the unfunny one has just stuck with you. Either because they had a terribly delivered punchline, it made absolutely no sense, or just wasn’t funny.
NOTE - Jokes that personally offended you or you found offensive due to your beliefs I don’t count because I don’t want this to be full of political jokes or people complaining about episodes of South Park or Family Guy that offended them. I’m looking for just terrible at every conceivable level.
The worst joke I ever heard was on a Disneyland Jungle Cruise. Now I understand the point of the cruise now is to intentionally make fun of how dated the ride is and I’ve been on boats with incredibly funny captains, this one day in the early 2000’s I had one Captain who was trying so hard that every single joke fell flat. None of them made any sense, he was like a bad improv comic on his first ever day. The worst joke I got from him was he held his prop gun to his shoulder like he was standing at military attention and said “Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Pikachu!!!” The punchline made absolutely no sense in any context and to this day I still occasionally wonder what the hell it was about. If he was trying to insert a modern pop culture reference into the military listing he could have picked an actual organization instead of the name of a character in a show.
Guy goes into a house of ill repute and asks to see the line up. Every girl he likes costs too much. This one charges $50, that one charges $60. He only has ten bucks. Shaking her head a bit the madam says, “Well. for ten dollars you can have Sandpaper Sally, but most guys don’t like here”.
So he heads off with Sally and as they try to do the deed he is getting nowhere. She is dry, tight and rough when he does get in. Sadly he gives up. “What minute”, Sally says. She fumbles around under the covers for awhile and says, “Now try it”.
Wow, what a difference. She is smooth and slippery as all get out and the guy can barely hold back. He finishes quickly and exclaims, “That was great! How did you do that?”
Sally Replies, “I just reached inside and broke open a few scabs and let the pus run out…”
Those are among the jokes that totally slipped past me when I first read the book, and only noticed when I was reading it aloud. This was also true for the Terry Pratchett characters, Rob Anybody (a Feegle of loose morals) and Miss Tick (a witch).
