A joke is a thing that someone says to cause amusement or laughter, especially a story with a funny punchline.
Quite literally, a joke is a display of being funny or humorous, using words and a specific narrative that makes people laugh, hopefully uncontrollably. Jokes are meant to be taken lightly and in the moment, this means they shouldn't be taken seriously..
Many standup comedians will start by telling a story, often there is dialogue, which ends with a punch line. The punch line is when the audience is hit by the fact that this joke or story has a second, often conflicting meaning. Sometimes this is done using puns aka play on words like sarcasm or irony, nonsense, incompatibility or various other means.
Most jokes are short and humorous skits told orally, with the funniness or the funniest part being at the end. It is often a single-sentence punchline. Many modern-day comedians will create tension during their storytelling part until it reaches the end.
While many jokes are oral, there are also jokes that are printed, but there is often no obligation to reproduce the text from the jokes verbatim. That's why there are so many variations of popular jokes.
According to experts, jokes have always benefitted from brevity; they don't contain more detail than what is needed to build tension heading to the punchline. However, riddle jokes or one-liners as they are called, work slightly differently, which leaves only the dialogue and punch line that's verbalized. That said, sometimes breaking these rules can lead to triggered humor.
It is worth emphasizing that jokes are a known form of humor but not all humor is a joke. There are non-verbal humor or jokes, like situational humor, slapstick, involuntary humor, anecdotes, and practical jokes.
Jokes are identified as being the simplest form of humor and oral literature, which have been passed on anonymously through the ages, according to well-known Dutch linguist Andre Jolles. Jokes happen to be both private and they can be told at a public event. These jokes can be a single person telling one to a friend with a natural conversational flow.
However, often they can be a barrage of jokes that are told as part of a story or scripted entertainment. The jokes are passed through in the form of scripts and books. As of late, the internet has become the largest repository of jokes and small businesses have been set up around the joke industry.
Experienced stand-up comics are often those who tell jokes to a large crowd. These comedians will use perfect timing and slapstick to lay out their jokes, making them funny. Some comedians may use voice impressions to add a little extra "funny" to their jokes. In other words, they understand the art of turning an otherwise mundane story or event into a funny one.