Joke: A man walks into a bar. He says “ouch”.

The Informant was a nineteen year old female friend that I sat down to chat with. We were bored and telling each other jokes and she mentioned that she found this hilarious website while procrastinating on homework. This was one of the jokes that she decided to tell me.

Collector: Why of all the jokes did you remember this one in particular?

Informant: I don’t know- because it was funny. It was short and sweet, like “oh wow that makes sense”, you know? The guy literally walks into a bar – not inside the bar – but into it…it’s literal. You’re so used to jokes being set up like this that you don’t expect the twist. Creatures of habit, I guess.

Collector: I know this is a weird question, but does the joke mean anything to you? Like, on a personal level?

Informant: (Sarcastically) Yeah, I mean we’ve all walked face first into bars, it’s a pretty normal day thing to do – (normal voice) no. I just thought it was funny, that’s all. There’s no philosophical implications behind the joke or anything like that.

I don’t have much of an opinion on this joke. I do agree with the informant that it’s wonderful in its simplicity and in the fact that you don’t really expect it to go the way it does. It requires the audience to take the words literally, which isn’t usually how a joke works – which is why it works. It’s kind of ironic.