This occurred in Newfoundland, Canada. A man who has had a few drinks is out ice fishing with an auger. After he starts drilling a hole in the ice he hears a loud booming voice: “There are no fish in that hole!”. There is absolutely no one around him and being religious he imagines God might be talking to him. He moves a distance away and starts drilling a second hole. Sure enough the booming voice returns: “There are NO FISH in that hole!”. Again, he moves yet further away and starts drilling. The booming voice returns: “This is the arena supervisor. There are no fish in that hole!”.
Okay, here’s my attempt at a “Joke Poo” titled “Alien Abduction Assistance” based on your “Ice Fishing” joke:
Joke Poo: Alien Abduction Assistance
A farmer in rural Kansas, late one night, is startled awake by a strange humming noise outside. A little tipsy from a late-night beer, he grabs his shotgun and cautiously heads out to the cornfield. He starts scanning the area and suddenly hears a booming voice in his head: “You will NOT find the spacecraft there!”
Completely bewildered, and maybe thinking the beer was stronger than he thought, he stumbles further into the corn, gun raised. He tries another location and bzzt the booming voice returns: “You will NOT find the spacecraft THERE!”
The farmer, now completely freaked out and starting to sober up, runs to another part of the field and tries again. BZZZT The voice booms once more: “This is the groundskeeper. You will NOT find the spacecraft! This is a corn maze!”
Okay, let’s break down this joke:
Key Elements:
- Setting: Newfoundland, Canada, with a strong emphasis on ice fishing.
- Character: A drunk man ice fishing. The implication is he’s not thinking clearly.
- Premise: The man believes a booming voice is divine guidance (or at least supernatural intervention) related to his fishing.
- Twist: The voice isn’t God, but the arena supervisor. The presence of an arena clarifies that he is trying to ice fish on top of an indoor ice rink.
- Humor: The humor comes from the incongruity between the man’s expectations (divine guidance) and the mundane reality (arena staff), amplified by his intoxication. The joke also leverages the stereotype of Canadians being polite and potentially involved in ice hockey/ice rinks.
Comedic Enrichment: New Joke/Observation
Now, let’s use some facts/trivia related to ice fishing and arena’s to spin off a new piece of humor:
New Joke:
A guy is ice fishing on the Ottawa River, really committed – fancy gear, heated hut, the works. Suddenly, he hears a booming voice from the sky, “Son, you will catch no fish here! The riverbed below is riddled with old government memos, mostly about which beaver was the most efficiently dam-building civil servant of 1978.”
Startled, the fisherman looks around. Another voice, lower and more disgruntled, pipes up, “Yeah, well my beaver won the damn award in ’82! They keep moving my beaver habitat.”
The first voice, exasperated, cuts back in “I SAID, NO FISH!”
The fisherman, finally catching on, sighs, “Ugh, figures. Public Works. Always arguing.”
Why it works:
- Building on the Original: We keep the ‘booming voice’ element, hinting at divine/authoritative knowledge.
- Canadian Context: The Ottawa River, a famous Canadian landmark, reinforces the setting. References to beavers and government bureaucracy are Canadian staples.
- Twist on the Twist: The joke twists the original concept. Instead of the voice being mundane from the arena, it’s the “divine” insight to the odd stuff on the riverbed. The second voice is disgruntled to further the joke.
- Absurdity: The image of an underwater memo-ridden landscape and beaver-related bureaucratic squabbles is inherently absurd and comedic.
- “Did you know?” Integration (implied): Did you know beavers are revered national symbols in Canada? Also, government paperwork can be a source of endless, often pointless, debates?
Hopefully, this new joke successfully builds upon the original while adding its own quirky, Canadian-themed layer of humor!