# What's this joke?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-joke/22108>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 12, 2000, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-joke/22108 "2000-06-12T11:56:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2000, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-joke/22108/1 "2000-06-12T11:56:39Z")

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A freind asked me to find out the whole joke here. Apparently, this is from the movie, “The Breakfast Club”:

A lady walks into a bar with a salami under one arm and a poodle under the other. She comes in and puts the poodle on the bar and the bartender says, ‘I guess you won’t be needing a drink’ and the lady says …"

What’s the rest?

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**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2000, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-joke/22108/2 "2000-06-12T12:20:46Z")

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This is too frickin’ weird!  
I just saw this movie last night, and my Hungarian girlfriend asks me afterwards what the punchline to this joke is. Unfortunately, I don’t have a clue either, but it was a pretty weird coincidence to login to the SD and see this question sitting here. I too, anxiously await an answer…

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**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2000, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-joke/22108/3 "2000-06-12T12:28:33Z")

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Hmm…just did a little research at AltaVista.  
I got this “Finish the punchline webpage:”

[http://lenpal.globaldrum.com/seizure/m040598.htm](http://lenpal.globaldrum.com/seizure/m040598.htm)

Unfortunately, the contest is now over, and no answer that sounded like the real punchline was found.

Here’s another page that has suggested punchlines:

[http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/regent/827/joke.html](http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/regent/827/joke.html)  
My guess is that it’s just a teaser. Something in the script that sounds like a promising start to a joke, but really has no punchline, and will just drive people mad for the next … what is it … 15 years.

I’m willing to bet the writers had no joke in mind when this was scripted.

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**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2000, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-this-joke/22108/4 "2000-06-12T12:41:28Z")

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It’s a writer’s ploy. After all, why is a raven like a writing desk? (Though Carrol did explain that in letters).

More commonly, you hear the punchline of a joke but not the build up as a sort of shorthand for telling the audience they’re coming in on a lengthy conversation just as it’s getting to the good (i.e., plot-relevant) parts.