Tag Archives: knock knock joke

“Knock Knock, Who’s there?………..”

Nationality: Jewish-American
Age: 24
Occupation: Student, Part time facilities attendant at on campus gym
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/27/13
Primary Language: English

This is another seemingly popular “knock knock joke provided me by my informant:

Informant: say “knock, knock”

Me: knock, knock

Informant: Who’s there?

[a long pause followed by laughter]

Informant: Yep, that’s the joke!

 

In this joke, the teller attempts to invert the knock knock sequence, by attempting the get the other party to tell him a joke without having a joke in mind, thus being rendered dumbstruck. It adds an interesting twist of deception to the otherwise predictable “knock knock” pattern.

A Knock Knock Joke Involving Cows.

Nationality: Philippeano
Age: 21
Occupation: Student, Part time facilities attendant at on campus gym
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/13/13
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Here is another knock knock joke, one which follows the standard pattern, but is more fun because it involves cows:

Informant: Knock knock

Me: Who’s there?

Informant: Interrupting cow

Me: Inter[MOOOOOO!]

[a pause]

Informant: You’re supposed to go “interrupting cow who?” and then I… interrupt them.

 

While the informant did not recall exactly where he heard this joke, he did remember to have heard it or its variations multiple times while working with young children. It’s silly formula and absurdity surely appeal well to children, and it seems that it likely arose first from among children themselves

Joke: Knock, Knock…

Nationality: Caucasian, Filipino
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Chicago, IL
Performance Date: 25 April 2012
Primary Language: English

Man 1: Knock, Knock…

Man 2: Who’s There?

Man 1: Britney Spears.

Man 2: Britney Spears who?

Man 1: Britney Spears…

OOPS I DID IT AGAIN.

My informant told me this knock-knock joke one day when there we were in an awkward situation. He later explained that his sister always told people this joke when there was an awkward silence or to break the ice when meeting new people.

Jokes, I feel, are often an overlooked division of folklore. Since jokes are so common nowadays in our society, they become almost part of our everyday speech. They also seem to come out of nowhere, but somehow everyone knows them. Jokes permeate our culture and often represent certain aspects of politics, society and popular culture. In this case, the reference to Britney Spears truly demonstrates that certain jokes are only understood by special groups of people. If you told this joke to someone who do not know who Britney Spears is, the joke would lose all meaning.

 

Knock knock boo who joke

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Writer
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/23/12
Primary Language: English
Language: German

“Knock knock.”
“Who’s there?”
“Boo.” “Boo who?”
“Don’t cry; it’s only a knock knock joke.”

A friend taught my informant this joke in elementary school. Like many knock knock jokes, it relies on using words with multiple meanings to give an unexpected punchline. And like some knock knock jokes, its annoying to the one hearing the joke, here because its suggested that they cry very easily (which could mean they are weak or oversensitive). My informant remembers disliking the joke for this reason, which is that it seems to trick the listener by taking their words to mean something they did not intend. My informant thinks it’s interesting because of this, though: because it shows that for some reason, there’s something people like about annoying others. They like pushing their buttons just to see what the reaction will be.

This is especially true in children I think, who want to see how people will react when they do something they suspect will annoy the person. Such a joke is also a form of teasing, which can make you feel above a person in a way. A child might want to feel that if they are insecure or just testing out social boundaries. Teasing, or jokes like this, can also be friendly, though, and used as a bonding event between people. Even though it’s at someone’s expense, it shows that the people involved are comfortable with each other and don’t mind making fun of one another.

Knock-knock Joke – Amy Fisher

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: November 1995
Primary Language: English

A. Knock Knock.
B. Who’s there?
A. Amy Fisher.
A. Amy Fishe…?
B. … BANG!
This was only a couple years after a girl named Amy Fisher went to the door of the house of a man named Joey Buttafuco, whom she was having an affair with. She asked him to leave his wife and when he refused she went to his house and shot his wife in the head. This can be an example of a kind of disaster joke, these are risky because for a certain time after the initial incident, people can find the joke inappropriate.