The Serious Business of Frivolity.

How the simple knock knock joke can help you exercise your mind and help you to become cleverer at the same time.

We like knock knock jokes, not because they are funny, but because they are clever.  I had this realization the other day when my 7 year old son was asking me why I was laughing at one of his jokes. I realized, it wasn’t because it was funny. I was laughing because it was clever.

Knock Knock jokes only work when they are based on a good pun or if they so completely break the rules that we are amused. In both instances it is the cleverness that amuses us. Or more specifically, we are surprised by the cleverness and so start laughing.

Coming up with a good knock knock joke is actually quite difficult because coming up with good puns is hard to do. My son is still grappling with this so his knock knock jokes are only occasionally funny, which is why he was asking me why I had laughed at one of them. He wanted to know so he could come up with more like that. It’s all part of the learning process.

To write a good knock knock joke, takes time and effort and a good deal of thinking. Like anything, the more you practice, the better you get at it and the easier they are to write.

Yes, writing knock knock jokes is a frivolous waste of time. That’s exactly the point. It is a fun and difficult task for your brain and is therefore good exercise for the brain. If you want to be more clever, you need to start practicing. Knock knock jokes are as good a place to start as any and a good deal more fun that other more serious forms of brain exercise.  This might be why Humanists love telling jokes.

So, let’s have them. Give me your favorite knock knock joke. Or your favorite pun based joke. And be honest, did you make it up or steal it from someone else? Either is fine with me as long as I get a good laugh out of them!