Joke:

“A piece of string walks into a bar. The bartender says “we can’t serve your kind here.” So the piece of string walks out, rolls in some dirt, and comes back inside. The bartender says “you just rolled in some dirt, you have to leave.” So the piece of string goes outside, rolls in the dumpster, ties itself in a knot, and goes back inside. He asks for a drink, and the bartender says “Sure what would you like? Wait a second… are you that piece of string from before?” and the piece of string says “No. I’m afraid not (a frayed knot).”

The informant was a nineteen year old female friend that I sat down with to chat. She was recounting events of the previous night where she told another mutual friend of ours a joke that apparently “took forever to tell.” I asked her to tell it to me, so she did. Afterwards, I asked who had told her that joke and she answered that it had been her English teacher from her sophomore year of high school. I mentioned that it was a pretty random thing to remember from a while ago and she commented on how much she liked this particular teacher and that that was probably why the lame joke had stuck with her for so many years.

If I had to analyze anything about this joke, it’d have to be the length of it. It seems way too long winded with not enough payoff, which may be the whole point of the joke in the first place. I believe it’s one of those things where the buildup is entirely unnecessary and is just there to annoy the other person. In that case, the joke did a very good job, because by the end of it I didn’t even care about the punch line anymore.