The next day

The next day, the dead bell ringer's twin brother comes in for the again vacant bell ringer position. He also has no arms. They lead him up to the bell tower, he runs at the bell, trips and falls to the sidewalk below. The same two guys walk by. The first asks, "Do you know him?" The second guy responds, "No, but he's a dead ringer for the guy we saw yesterday."

Here is my first example of a joke cycle. This joke has to be told after yesterday's joke to make any sense. The joke here seems weaker, however it is still an attempt at saying a colloquial phrase literally. To say that someone is a "dead ringer" normally means "a person or thing that seems exactly like someone or something else," however in this case it means that he is a dead person who rung a bell.