Friday, October 15, 2010

These are the Jokes, Folks, Part II


To follow up the rather confusing Joe Miller collection of questionable humor, Louis Untermeyer offers another loose collection of jokes, but with a caveat provided by Josh Billings:

There is little chance of agreement among experts on humor. Or, rather, there are no experts; the only real test is personal taste.

That goes especially for the jokes in this section, which Untermeyer calls “Joe Miller’s Grandchildren.” Here are a few examples:

It was in the hills of Kentucky that a traveler saw a farmer holding a pig in his arms so that the creature could eat the apples right off the tree.

“Won’t it take a long time to fatten your hog that way?” asked the traveler.

“I suppose so,” replied the farmer. “But what’s time to a durned old hog?”

Yeah. The jokes don’t get much better than that. Well, they do, but not in this collection. Behold:

“Did you hear about the woman who married four times? Her first husband was a millionaire. Her second was a famous actor. Her third was a well-known minister. And her last was an undertaker.”

“I see. One for the money; two for the show; three to get ready; and four to go.”

You’re larffing on the inside, I can tell.

What the hell. One more:

“Why do you act so unhappy? Anything wrong?”

“I had to shoot my dog.”

“Was he mad?”

“He wasn’t exactly pleased about it.”

[rimshot]

Only one thing to say to that:

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