[Lexicog] words for different kinds of laughter

Michael Cahill Mike_Cahill at SIL.ORG
Sun Feb 25 20:12:58 UTC 2007


Fritz mentioned this joke, but there's an alternate version:

Fritz'
That reminds me of a joke: 
A new prisoner joins the group of other prisoners who sit in a circle in 
the evening and obviously have a good time.
One of them shouts “12”, everybody laughs. Another shouts, all men guffaw. 
One shouts 112, they all slap their thighs.
The new prisoner wonders what is happening and asks his neighbor in the 
circle why they all laugh when someone calls out a number.
The other guy says: “We are telling jokes and have given a number to each 
joke. As we have already heard all of these jokes, it is enough just to 
call out the number.” The new prisoner thinks “That is easy, I can do that 
myself.” So he shouts “71.” Noone laughs.
So he turns to his neighbour asking “Why does noone laugh?” His neighbour 
answers: “one has to know how to tell jokes.”
 
I wonder what kind of “laughter” (smile) this provokes with you. I hope I 
havn’t spoilt the joke by the way I told it.
 
Fritz


ALTERNATE:
The new prisoner thinks "I can tell jokes like these" and shouts "132!" 
Everyone bursts into louder laughter than ever, rolling on the floor, 
gasping for air. The new guy says "Wow, what did I do?" Finally, someone 
recovers long enough to tell him - "That was one we hadn't heard before!"

Mike C

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lexicography/attachments/20070225/104a880c/attachment.htm>


More information about the Lexicography mailing list