How to Tell a Knock-Knock Joke

A staple of second-grade humor, the knock-knock joke has been around a long time. Proper delivery is key to making sure this old standby gets a laugh.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Hand Buzzers
• Joke Books

1. Choose a person to act as your straight man.

2. Say, "Knock knock," to your straight man.

3. Wait until your straight man says, "Who's there?"

4. Reply with the setup. For example, "Lettuce."

5. Expect the straight man to repeat your setup in the form of a question followed by the word, "who." Here, the straight man says, "Lettuce who?"

6. Reply with the punch line. This will usually be a corruption of the true meaning of the setup or a humorous response to the straight man's reply. In our example, the punch line is, "Lettuce in. It's cold out here."

Tips & Warnings

• In another example, if the setup is, "Boo," and the straight man says, "Boo who?," a good punch line would be, "Why are you crying?"
• The humor of some knock-knock jokes is based on a variation of the traditional structure of the knock-knock joke itself. For example:
• Teller: Knock knock.
• Straight Man: Who's there?
• Teller: Delores the interrupting cow.
• Straight Man: Delores the int ...
• Teller: Moo!
• Another favorite gag is to confuse the straight man by having him start the joke. Begin by saying, "I have a great knock-knock joke. You start it." The straight man will say, "Knock knock." Observe the expression on his face after you ask, "Who's there?"
• When a teller laughs at his or her own joke, the joke loses its effectiveness. This is especially true if the teller laughs before the punch line.
• If your punch line relies on a pun, or wordplay, for its humor, emphasize the word or phrase that constitutes the pun by saying it more clearly and loudly than the rest of the punch line.