Joke-athon

There was a young man called Ken

Who swallowed a set of encyclopedias

His mother said "Ken,

What have you done?

They were for dinner!"

I've read this so many times and I just don't get it.

It's to do with what is expected. If you heard that someone ate a stack of books (as unlikely as that is) you would expect a member of their family to call a medical professional, you wouldn't expect them to be planning to serve the books as a meal. It's a silly sort of humour - it makes some people giggle, leaves others puzzled. We all have an individual sense of humour.

It's to do with what is expected. If you heard that someone ate a stack of books (as unlikely as that is) you would expect a member of their family to call a medical professional, you wouldn't expect them to be planning to serve the books as a meal. It's a silly sort of humour - it makes some people giggle, leaves others puzzled. We all have an individual sense of humour.

Oh, so the joke is the absurd response "they were for dinner!" (As if eating books for dinner were a common thing). I certainly didn't get it originally.

I think it's safe to say that kind of joke is completely lost on me even with an explanation. But yes you are right everybody's humour is different.