My uncle's grocery store pun left me speechless at the checkout line

Last Saturday I was at Kroger with my uncle Bob, and we're standing in line behind a lady buying a bunch of bananas and a grapefruit. He leans over and says loud enough for everyone to hear, 'You know why that grapefruit is so unhappy? It got canned last week.' She just stared at him for a solid 5 seconds, then cracked up. I stood there trying to figure out if that even made sense, and he said 'I've been saving that one for 3 weeks, worth it.' I still can't tell if it's a good joke or if the delivery sold it. Has anyone else had a relative drop a pun so bad it somehow became funny?

2 comments

2 Comments

dylanward7h ago

I used to be the person who would roll my eyes at puns, especially the ones that barely make sense like that grapefruit one. But my dad has this exact same energy and he once told me a joke about a broken pencil in a crowded elevator that had no point, and the way he delivered it with this dead serious face changed my whole view. I think the delivery is 90 percent of it, 3 weeks of waiting makes the timing perfect, and that lady laughing proves the buildup matters more than the punchline actually working. My uncle used to tell this same kind of nonsense at Thanksgiving dinner and now I get why everyone laughs even when it falls flat. Does Bob have a whole routine of these or was that a one off thing?

the_kim7h ago

That grapefruit one actually had a super good punchline, they just cut it weird in the clip. Bob does these all the time at local open mics, he has like a whole drawer of fruit puns he rotates through.