“Where do penguins like to store their money?” 

“ Where?” 

“Snow banks” 

(laughter) 

Context:

The speaker was surrounded by their family and as everyone was going around sharing different jokes to make each other laugh, the speaker decided to share this one, which led to laughter in the room. 

Personal Thoughts:

This is a joke that uses a similar structure to many jokes in Western culture, leaning into the idea of “puns”. The speaker has a clear understanding of where this joke will go, and the audience may as well, as the punchline leads to an “Ohhh” reaction from the audience. However, what makes this joke effective in how it is passed along is that it is a fairly easy joke to remember, at least in an English-speaking context. There is a clear throughline, connecting money to penguins with the “snow banks” pun. This also follows the structure of Western jokes, with a set-up and punchline, as well as a call-and-response interaction with the audience. This specific joke, as well as jokes similar, are thus often passed around as audience members who interact with the joke can then pass it on themselves, leading to multiplicity and variation of this joke.