Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1918-03-15
The Joke EoundrJ,

How to get at a jolsc-thats the rub: how
10 write one. how TO tease it of the system
and get II on paper
How can John Jones. with little time on his
hands between odd jobs. whir Off a merry Jest
that will land somewhere for the price of
dinner? For after all. we are mercenary. and
tradition to the contrary Notwithstanding
writer's do hope for money
The trade of joke-wrtinE NAV he classcd
as skilled labor. either statistics or as COM
plimentary concession. Yet even rank tyro
with the right sort of and hammer and
that gift of tho gods known as PERSISTENCE
may cut out gay quip that will cop laugh
in a community Of Quakers.
First, you think of neutrality-suspicious.; It
doesn't matter what. Pruncs. for instance
Many deacon has been set into outlaws 10y a
prunc joke. prune is fruit. Having no bright
idea about prunes. you start down the list of
fruits Pears. peaches. bananas, oranges
lemons, apples-halt! Apples apples, apples
what can he said about apples? Nothing!
Very well, then. what Go apples suggest?
The Garden OF Eden! Now we're getting to It!
Garden. gardening. farming agriculture, till
ing the soil. filling. TILL cash register. vaults
bankcr-whoa! This is crime we're pur-
suing; back up to Eden
Now in Eden there were Adam and Eve
Thus, starting with the prunc, reach the
genesis OF comedy in the genesis OF all things
Adam and Eve-ahem! Adam suggests in
the large Eve suggests two things: costumery,
which brings us TO rigs. which is fruit again
and ribs. which may lead to joke about a
butcher shop umbrella as things happen
to fall
AS things happen TO fall" in connection with
umbrella suggests parachute, and parachute
suggests aviation and there are. hopping
gayly from prunes to Eden to Eve to rib to UNI
brclla TO parachute Now parachute opens
and closes but so does Lank account. There's
an idca-bank account.
To the GOLDSMITH there must always he some
thing funny about bank account The very
idea of n bank account causes ripples of mrth
to crease his vest. But bank account suggests
cashier and Canada, the border of which
roars Niagara. where Homogeneous arc: and
jokcsmth so much as honeymoon. There's
something ludicrous per sc in voluntary honey
moons.
But honeymoon suggests billing and cooling
Bill" is short for wiz or "Wiliam" and
william" is slang for So note that Where
there's will there's way becomes "Whcre
there's a bill there's pay" Bills on the
bills. tips and hat bills. chocolate sundaes and
Where there's Bill :" But no; that is rank
punning. The true jokesmth pun.
SO here stranded again high on the
reefs. beaten inland by mercilcss of per-
pcNity and nothing funny doing. We think
of everything connected with bride and groom.
honeymoon. domestic infelcity, paying rent and
romping to Reno, all the way to tho end CT the
chapter. And at last throw up the sponge
and go back to prunes!
That's the way Il joke is made. It's a most
confoundedly laborious process and requires a
splendid physique. And the net result OF all
our anxiety is that we're back to- the least
justiiiable of all joke themes; for Say what you
WILL the prunc is excellent member of So
ciety. Its moral status is unqucstioned 1t is a
bencfactor Of mankind, and by means to be
laughed