I was reminded today (through unattributed quotation) of a joke that goes like this:
Q: Who told the bear he couldn’t go to the school dance?
A: I don’t know, just, whoever’s in charge of that decision?
I can’t remember where I first heard this. I am pretty certain it was on the TV rather than something I read in a book. Do you know where it came from?
I don’t know but it sounds like the kind of line Chandler from Friends would deliver. There are other characters like that on TV and in the movies so I’m not saying it’s him specifically.
Isn’t a joke supposed to be funny?
I agree that joke isn’t funny.
Hopefully this version is better:
Which school events can a Polar Bear attend?
Whichever ones he wants to!
Louis CK told a story (on Letterman? Daily Show?) about his daughter making up jokes. That was one of the jokes.
Hmm… appears that was a slightly different joke.
Yes, which is part of what makes this a good joke.
Louis CK may not have told that joke exactly, but his kid is the one who told him a joke just like it and it must be the source.
If you have to explain it, then either the joke is not funny, or you should stop telling jokes to Englishmen.
For what it’s worth, I though it was funny, but I’ve had a fondness for ironic banality ever since the Morrissey v. Youngham ruling.
Why did the monkey fall out of the tree?
Because it was dead.
Not too far off.
That is where I first heard it. In an episode of Louis. It was a Gorilla not a bear though.
And, of course, the follow ups (at least as I heard them:
Why did the second monkey fall off the tree?
Because it was stapled to the back of the first monkey.
Why did the third monkey fall of the tree?
Monkey see, monkey do.
I dunno. The absurdism and the throwaway punchline make me chuckle.
That joke is funny.
I don’t know why anyone would think otherwise. Jokes are built around expectation and logic.
I immediately thought about the Louis CK story he told about his daughter’s jokes. Here’s the video who didn't let the gorilla into the ballet? on Vimeo
But I don’t have to explain it. 
These are basically un-jokes or anti-jokes. They are set up as a joke and you expect some sort of clever answer but instead you just get a realistic answer.
Unfortunately TVTropes doesn’t give any good examples other than standup comedians like Groucho Marx and Andy Kaufman trolling a difficult audience.
I heard this one from a kid, and laughed out loud. But it might say more about my sense of humor than anything else.
Two muffins are in an oven. The first one says “Boy, it’s hot in here!” and the other one says “Oh my God, a talking muffin!”
A man walks in to a bar. He’s an alcoholic and his drinking problem is tearing his family apart.
All I know is that it’s an antijoke–a joke where the joke is that there is no joke.
The Torqueling loves this one. It’s visual.
Q: What’s this? (hold up your right hand, flat, palm perpendicular to the floor. Curl and straighten your fingers as you slowly move your hand from right to left)
They’ll say, “I don’t know.”
A: A flock of these. (Do the same thing, using only one finger.)