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PSA: The setup and punchline are not the same thing
I was testing jokes at a family barbecue last Saturday in Portland and my brother-in-law kept saying the setup was the punchline. Like he'd tell the whole story and then just stop, waiting for laughs that never came. I finally asked him why he skips the payoff and he said "the twist IS the joke." No, the twist is where the joke starts. A good dad joke needs three beats: setup, pause, and punchline. Has anyone else run into this with their own material or is my family just weird?
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abbyr9614d ago
My cousin's kid does the exact same thing and I finally figured out why. He grew up watching those short meme videos where the punchline is just the punchline, no setup, so he thinks the surprise IS the whole joke. But in real storytelling, the setup is like the promise you make to the listener. You're saying "stick with me, this will be worth it." When you skip the punchline, you break that promise and the listener feels tricked, not amused. Last month I timed it out, my best jokes have about 20 seconds of setup for every 5 seconds of payoff. Your brother in law probably thinks he's being clever by being minimalist, but he's actually just skipping the hardest part, which is earning the laugh.
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