This YouTube video (presented by Hadar Shemesh, with a guest clip from Luke of Luke’s English Podcast and comedic Siri exchanges) teaches non-native English learners how to understand language-based jokes. It defines and exemplifies several joke types—puns, knock-knock jokes, bar jokes, and dad jokes—then explains the wordplay or cultural/idiomatic double meanings that make each punchline funny (e.g., “we're Russian” vs. “rushing”; "up to something"; "see right through them"; knock-knock phonetic plays; bar-joke setup "walks into a bar"; dad-joke puns). The presenter also notes that explaining jokes reduces their surprise but is necessary for learning.
Chapters
Siri, can you tell me a knock knock joke?
Okie dokie. Knock knock.
Who's there?
Ariana Grande.
Ariana Grande who?
Okay, Boomer.
How about another one? Do you understand jokes in English? Understanding jokes in English can be challenging because sometimes it relates to the culture or history, and sometimes it's very focused on the language. And if you don't have a strong grasp of all the elements of the language, then it might be a little hard or confusing to understand. So in this video, I wanted to share a few language related jokes and explain them so that we can laugh together and also for you to start understanding how to think about jokes. I came up for this idea for this video because recently I interviewed Luke for from Luke's English podcast. And on the video he shared a joke.
And a couple of people came in late and I sort of, you know, had to deal with that. And I said, oh, you know, you're a bit late anyway, come in. Where are you from? And they said, we're Russian. And I said, well, you weren't Russian to come here, were you?
The joke is a pun and it's a play on language.
And.
And I got a lot of questions from people asking, can you explain the joke? And when I looked at how people watched the video, I saw that during that part, the part that he actually tells the joke, so many people repeated it trying to understand the meaning of the joke. So quickly to explain Luke's joke, people came in late to his show, so they were taking their time. And then he asked them, where are you from? And they said, we're Russian. From Russia. Now Russian also sounds like rushing to rush is to hurry up. Now they were taking their time. They weren't rushing to get in. So the joke was funny because he said, we're Russian. And he said, well, you weren't rushing to get in because he meant the different meaning, because he was referring to the different meaning of the word Russian. Now this is called a pun. A pun is a type of joke that plays with words. So it usually uses words that either sound similar or the same words that have different meanings, and then that what makes it funny. And by the way, apart from explaining some puns, we're also going to explain some knock knock jokes, bar jokes, and dad jokes. Okay, the first one, I don't trust stairs because they're always up to something. So why is this a joke? Because stairs are leading you up somewhere. Right. But also, the phrase up to something is usually a negative phrase. It means that the person is plotting or scheming or planning something secretly. So talking about stairs like they're up to something kind of funny. Okay, another one. Ghosts are terrible liars. You can see right through them. This is funny because obviously ghosts are transparent, so you can see through them. But the phrase you can see through them means that you can immediately see if they're lying. You can see right through what they're saying, their lies.
I can see right through you.
So when someone is really an open book, you can say about that someone, oh, you can see right through them. You see exactly how they feel. It's really hard for them to hide something. And this is why it's funny, because ghosts are actually transparent. Get it? Explaining jokes is really hard. Have you ever tried eating a clock? It's very time consuming eating a clock. So time consuming means it takes a long time to do it, right? Because it will take you a long time to eat a clock. But also time consuming. You're consuming eating time. Why did Adele cross the road? To say hello from the other side. All right, the next type of jokes that we're going to talk about is knock, knock jokes. Knock knock. Jokes are like a childish, silly, wordplay type of jokes. And it goes like this. You say, knock, knock, and then someone else needs to ask, who's there? And then you say something, and then that person has to repeat that something and say, who? So let me give you an example. Knock, knock. Who's there? Figs. Figs who? Figs the doorbell. I've been knocking forever. Let me explain. Figs. Figs who? Figs the doorbell. So it sounds like figs, the doorbell. Figs, figs. But you don't hear it when you just say the word figs. You know what? Let me show you how it works with Siri. Siri, can you tell me a knock knock joke?
Okie dokie. Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Ariana Grande.
Ariana Grande who?
Okay, Boomer.
How about another one? See, it's. It's funny because I have to ask Ariana Grande who. Probably am not young enough. Okay, another one.
Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Radio.
Radio who?
Radio knock, here I come.
All right, let me explain. The joke was radio. So you're thinking radio, and then you're asking radio who? But radio is actually the beginning of another phrase. Ready or not, here I come. Ready or not, here I come. You can't hide. Ha ha. Another type of jokes is bar jokes, which usually goes something like this. Someone walks into a bar and then something happens. Or the bartender says, so let me tell you a Couple of jokes. And again, it's also language related. A sandwich walks into a bar. The bartender says, I'm sorry, we don't serve food here. Why is it funny? Because the sandwich is food. So we don't serve food here. It means we cannot serve you because we don't serve food.
Food.
We serve people, but also we don't serve food here. Something that you may often hear in a bar because they don't have food at the bar. A grasshopper hops into a bar. The bartender says, hey, we have a drink named after you. The grasshopper replies, you have a drink named Steve. Okay, so the grasshopper doesn't refer to itself as a grasshopper, but as Steve. But the drink's name is. Is a grasshopper. A horse walks into a bar. The bartender asks, why the long face? So the long face refers to, why are you sad? Now, if you don't know that why the long face means why are you sad? Then it would be hard to get the joke. Because, yes, a horse has a long face, but it has double meaning. And that's the joke. Two peanuts walk into a bar. One was assaulted. So assaulted. Peanut is a peanut that was salted, has salt around it. But someone who is assaulted means that the peanut was attacked, which is something that could happen at a bar. Assaulted. Assaulted. Get it? Now, lastly, we're going to talk about dad jokes. Have you ever heard this term a dad joke? A dad joke is usually a pun, and usually it's like an overly simplistic humor. Usually not with a strong punch. A lot of times it's referred to as not funny jokes that dads try to push and tell them again and again and again.
Virginia?
Nothing. He's at the top of the food chain. My dad has one that I think I've heard hundreds of times in my childhood. I won't tell it because it's in my first language, and most of you will not understand it. An example for a dad joke is what's orange and sounds like a parrot? A carrot. Orange rhymes with parrot. A carrot. It's not that funny. Singing in the shower is fun until you get soap in your mouth. Because then it's a soap opera.
You get it.
You get soap in your mouth when you sing. And then it's a soap opera, because opera is. Because you sing in an opera and then you have soap while singing. But a soap opera is dramatic. It's so lame to explain jokes. This is what kills the whole joke. But I had to do it to help you understand jokes better. Okay? That's it. Now, it might be hard to be funny in English because you have to have the confidence to say something and also the linguistic understanding of how to say something. But you can have a sense of humor in English because you don't have to be funny. You just need to understand that something is funny. That's it. Now, I want you to write down in the comments all the knock, knock jokes, all the puns, all the dad jokes, all the bar jokes that you know, and let's have fun with it. All right? That's it. Thank you so much for watching, and I really hope you will come back for the next video. I know some of you might have other thoughts about me, about my sense of humor, but I have to say I love these kinds of jokes, especially when I hear them for the first time, and the second time, it's not as funny. Like, the surprise element is what does the trick. And I really hope that you will be able to open your ears and open your mind and also practice it to start understanding more and more of these jokes. Know that it is possible for you. Have a beautiful day, and I'll see you next week in the next video. Bye. Okay.
