My Critical Mistake
 

A guy's sitting in a bar drinking, and the bartender can't help but notice... the guy's got a great big, round, orange head.

He says, "Hey, buddy... What's with your head?"

Guy says, "Well, it's a funny story.

"I was walking down a beach a few years ago when I found a magic lantern. I rubbed it, and a genie came out. He said he'd grant me three wishes.

"For my first wish, I asked for $100 million. And that's how I got all my money.

"For my second wish, I asked for a beautiful woman who would love me completely. And that's how I found my wonderful wife.

"For my third wish--and here, I think, is where I made my critical mistake--I asked for a great big, round, orange head."

So I was sitting here looking for the pun... And then I realized how funny this joke is. Nice one ratbastid.

I don't find this funny at all.

I may have missed the joke though.

If you don't get it, you are thinking way too hard about it. There's nothing hidden in this joke.

I like!

why would he ask for a big round orange head? What am i missing? :lol:

That's the joke. He wouldn't ask for that. It's absurdist humour.

That'd be why I didn't get it then

Oh don't be absurd...

Sorry, not my kind of humor.

I absolutely love this one, but I think it could be a repost. Ah, here it is.

Oh my gosh, I laughed so hard at this one!

I think you can tell a lot about people by their reaction to this joke.

I told my best friends this joke, and they totally fucking died laughing. I told it to a bunch of high school kids and they stared at me as if I'd grown an arm out of my forehead.

This made me laugh. But, I must fess up, I find the aristocrats not funny at all.

wow...it took me forever, but it is damn funny.

I read this to my wife and we laughed until we cried...

OK... I did. She just laughed.

I grinned at the first mention of the "great big, round, orange head". It took one or two more reads to finally get it.

But once I got it, I laughed my ass off :D

I feel stupid, I'm saying "great big round orange head" to the computer screen for over 10 times, and I still don't get the joke.

I must be daft or something

Quoted for truth, and because people don't seem to be getting it. God, I love this joke.

ROFL

That's FUNNY...but I have a warped sense of humor, anyhow.

Itch, don't worry. You got it. It just wasn't funny to you. Don't stress over it.

explain please... :hmm:

Compare and contrast to the joke 10 Inch Pianist. That might help.

I really don't like jokes that are "funny" because they make no sense.

Maybe it's me, but I like jokes that are funny becase.. they do make sense.

Now see Redlemon's actually makes sense.. he's got bad hearing so he mistook 10 inch pianist for 10 inch penis..

But what's the excuse for a great big, round, orange head? He's not hard of hearing, so he likely didn't misunderstand..

The joke is (and there's nothing like explaining a joke to kill it completely) is that you hear the beginning of Rat's joke, and you are thinking it is a joke like the 10 Inch Pianist. So, as the joke is being told, you are trying to figure out what mistake he could have made in his request that he ended up with a great big round orange heard. But nope, he asked for it directly.

That's the joke, dissected and pinned to the wall. Dead.

I think the reason some people don't find absurdist jokes funny is because you are partially laughing at yourself (if you do laugh).

Jokes are really about the unexpected, and since the majority of jokes are about unexpected happenings, expected happenings become the unexpected.

original
read it on this board about a year ago, i remember because i copy and paste the good ones =p

Nice. Mount it next to the Monarch and the Luna Moth.

Aww, man... I thought this was the funniest joke ever until Zeraph told me I was supposed to be laughing at myself!

I read this to my wife and we laughed until we cried...

hahahahahahahahahhaahah!

oh okay

is this like the 8 year old boy who wanted tennis balls for his every bday until he almost died, and no one knew what he did with the tennis balls?

No, that would be a shaggy-dog story, which is characterized by a very long buildup with an unsatisfactory ending. I'm not sure what category this joke is in.

Sorry, I'm still not getting what's so funny about this joke :hmm:

And what does it say about me that I don't find it funny? Is this joke only funny for people who have sophisticated senses of humor or something?

Hilarious!

As Redlemon points out, the joke is funny because it plays on our expectations. It assumes you have heard a similar joke that revolved around something misheard or a malapropism (i.e. pianist does not equal penis -- but they do sound an awful lot alike). We are expecting a big, clever finish but one is not delivered. In the end, the humour is derived from the play between our expectations and the simple answer. He received a big, orange head because he asked for it.

It is just plain silly. Nobody would ask for this.

/me goes over to the unsophisticated humor corner...

No, I understand the joke, I just don't understand why it is funny. Why is it hilarious that you expected one thing and got another?

Expecting humor + not getting humor /= humor [at least, to me]

Actually, nevermind, asking why yall think this is funny is like asking why I think Dumb and Dumber is the greatest movie ever created. It just is. We all have different senses of humor, I guess mine just doesn't find this one funny.

No... I find Dumb and Dumber hilarious as well.

It's not funny to you because you've never known the heartbreak of psoriasis...

I think it's funny that some people don't think it's funny. :lol:

The original joke is funny, too.

Not quite Da-daism...

It's been two years--time to bump this one and collect a whole new crop of screeching "That's not funny!" comments.

What really MAKES this joke in my humble opinion is the little digression in the punchline. "For my third wish--and here, I think is where I made my critical mistake..."

Yup, it's a good one!

how did i not see this before?!

wonderful!

It's good.

Yeah, sorry, but I'm going to come down on the not-so-funny side of this little dead-horse-beating session.

It sounds like the kind of punchline Norm Macdonald used to deliver on SNL's Weekend Update, and he would repeat, vainly, waiting for a laugh....

Jokes like these always make me feel like "It was so close!! It was so close to being funny! I was totally prepared to laugh! And now I have to find the humor equivalent of going off to the bathroom to finish myself off after the hottie I picked up at the party passed out after she came...."

I think where we make our critical mistake is....
we need to be beaten over the head with the punchline. (although, Norm McDonald did totally suck on SNL)

Nice bump ratbastid! Once in a while, a discussion of what is funny, and why we think it is, can open us up to different humor.

Despite my pompous tone two years ago, I agree with the general sentiment. Still confused, still not terribly funny. I did smile, this time..

I much prefer the Lenny Bruce version. That makes sense.

it took me a few seconds but i love it. and everyone i´ve told it to has laughed until they cried.

hehe. very silly.