My father told this one to me about 40-50 years ago. God knows where he got it from.
Q: How is a sheet of ruled paper like a lazy dog?
A: A sheet of ruled paper is an ink-lined plane.
An ink-lined plane (inclined plane) is a slope up.
A slope up (a slow pup) is a lazy dog.
Joke Poo:
Q: How is a broken pencil like a sad potato?
A: A broken pencil has no point.
No point (disappointment) is disheartening.
Disheartening (de-earth-ing) is a sad potato.
Okay, let’s break down this classic joke.
Joke Dissection:
- Type: Wordplay/Pun, Syllogism
- Core Elements:
- Ruled Paper: The seemingly innocuous starting point.
- Lazy Dog: The unexpected and absurd punchline.
- Sound-Alike Puns: The mechanism of the joke (“ink-lined” sounds like “inclined,” “slope up” sounds like “slow pup”).
- Syllogism: The joke sets up a series of equivalencies to reach the final, surprising conclusion.
- Humor Source: The unexpected and ridiculous connection between a common stationery item and a lazy dog achieved through phonetic similarity and a somewhat forced logical progression.
Comedic Enrichment & New Humor:
Let’s focus on the “Inclined Plane” aspect of the joke. Here’s a witty observation built upon it:
Witty Observation:
“You know, the joke about the ruled paper and the lazy dog is essentially a Rube Goldberg machine of puns. It takes something simple, like ruled paper, and through a series of overly-complicated (and phonetically dubious) steps, arrives at something completely unrelated. It’s like inventing the inclined plane just to roll a marble into a slightly bewildered golden retriever.”
New “Did You Know” Joke Style:
“Did you know that Archimedes, the guy who probably actually invented the inclined plane, was also supposedly killed by a Roman soldier because he was too busy working on a geometry problem to acknowledge him? Talk about being slow on the uptake! I guess you could say he was… a slow pup. Just kidding, he’s dead.”
Explanation:
- The “Witty Observation” plays on the complexity of the joke itself and likens it to a Rube Goldberg machine, which is a comical representation of over-engineering.
- The “Did You Know” approach uses a factual tidbit about Archimedes and his invention of the inclined plane (related to the “ink-lined/inclined” pun). It uses a shocking fact combined with the original joke’s slow pup wordplay as a dark joke.
The goal is to take the original joke’s elements and either use them to make further observations about humor itself, or to combine them with related factual material to create a new layer of comedic value.