I had never visited Oakland Cemetery until last year. I met a groundskeeper there and asked him if the place was haunted. He said, "I've worked here 177 years, and haven't seen anything suspicious."
Joke Poo: The IT Department
I was wandering through the abandoned server room in the basement…
I had never been down there since they centralized all IT functions in the cloud. I bumped into a grizzled old technician amidst the humming servers and blinking lights, and asked him if the place was ever buggy. He said, “I’ve worked here since punch cards, and I haven’t seen anything suspicious…just the usual expected errors.”
Alright, let’s dissect this joke and exhume some humor from it.
Joke Analysis:
- Setup: Establishing the scene (Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, known for its history and prominent burials) and the narrator’s query about hauntings.
- Punchline: The groundskeeper’s seemingly straightforward answer, which reveals the improbable: he’s worked there for an impossibly long time, implying he’s a ghost or something otherworldly.
- Humor Type: Situational irony and deadpan delivery. The humor comes from the unexpected twist that the person being asked about ghosts is likely one himself.
- Key Elements:
- Oakland Cemetery (History, setting)
- Groundskeeper (Occupational trope, source of information)
- Haunted/Ghosts (Thematic element, expectation)
- Impossibly Long Tenure (Twist, source of humor)
Comedic Enrichment and New Humor Creation:
Let’s leverage the history and location to build a related joke/observation:
Option 1: “Did you know” with a twist:
“Did you know that Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta is the final resting place of Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone With the Wind? And that after years of historians trying to track him down, the guy who finally located the missing manuscript pages? Turns out he was just really dedicated to his groundskeeping job. Really, really dedicated…”
Explanation: This plays on the historical significance of the cemetery. The “missing manuscript pages” adds an element of historical mystery and connects back to the original joke’s core: an unusually long-serving groundskeeper. It implies that this groundskeeper has literally been around forever, maybe even hiding the manuscript pages.
Option 2: New Joke Idea – Corporate Cemetery Visit:
“I was visiting Oakland Cemetery for a team-building exercise. Our HR director thought learning about Atlanta’s history would increase company loyalty. I ran into a groundskeeper, probably in his late 1800s, and asked if he knew much about customer relations. He said, ‘Son, I’ve seen businesses rise and fall around here. The secret? Always be receptive to feedback. And make sure your ‘exit interview’ is actually an exit.'”
Explanation: This uses the absurdly old groundskeeper trope again, but adds corporate humor. The words like “receptive,” “feedback,” and “exit interview” are used in a death-related context adding to the humor. The last line implies that the corporate cemetery may become someone’s final working ground.
Option 3: Witty Observation:
“You know, working at Oakland Cemetery seems like the ultimate job security. Unless, of course, you get promoted…to becoming the grounds.”
Explanation: This is a more concise, dark humor observation. “Job security” is juxtaposed with death and the pun of becoming the “grounds.”
The key here is to either lean into the historical context, the spooky elements, or the absurdity of the time scale, and then add a contemporary twist or observation that plays off the original joke’s core concept.