Joke Explainer

  "I have a split personality," said Tom, being frank. This is a pun. The joke here is centered on the word 'Frank'. Frank can be an adjective which means "open, honest and direct", but it can also be a person's first name, and if Tom has multiple personalities, then he could be both frank (as an adjective), and Frank as a proper noun. This joke would also work with the name Earnest, and is also the lynchpin of the play "The Importance of Being Earnest." I suppose that it also bears mentioning that this is a joke about mental disorders. I find this joke to be highly amusing.

My wife told me to take the spider out instead of killing it Went out. Had a few drinks. Nice guy. He's a web designer This is a joke about a misunderstanding, it has talking animals in it (sort of), and it has a pun. There are also two punch lines in this joke. First: the misunderstanding. The wife meant "take the spider outside and release it there", and the husband heard "take the spider out on a date". That misunderstanding occurring is pretty unlikely, so it makes the joke funny. Second: the spider is a web designer - this is a pun. Spiders make literal spider webs, and a sentient spider could possibly be said to design them, however a web designer is usually someone that designs websites, so there are two possible meanings of the term Additionally, it is most likely true that if he took the spider out and found it to be a nice guy that the spider talks, because otherwise how would he have determined that the spider is nice and a web designer?

My Grand dad's last words were "Are you still holding the ladder?" This is an example of dark humor. The joke as it currently stands tells the start of the story, indicates that the grandfather died, and leaves you to guess how that occurred. The implied full story is that the grandfather asked if the jokester was holding the ladder, and then fell to his death because the jokester was not in fact holding the ladder. Weather the jokester intentionally killed his grandfather is left up to the reader to decide, however it is obvious that at a bare minimum the jokester is guilty of negligent homicide. I find this joke to be pretty funny - not telling the whole story makes the user puzzle out what actually happened, and that work makes it funnier.