Bar jokes are a type of joke cycle ā a group of jokes such as light bulb jokes, knock-knock jokes, chicken jokes or the like ā that involve one or more people who find themselves in a situation at a place that serves alcohol.
The earliest known example of a bar joke is Sumerian, appearing as two similar variations of a proverb inscribed on a tablet circa 1700 B.C.
Unfortunately, scholars differ on the translation and on the meaning of the proverb, thus leaving the modern listener befuddled as to its meaning.
Over the years, the Roman taberna has taken many forms: tavern, inn, public house, saloon, bar, cocktail lounge, etc. But the bar joke has always followed a similar format: āA man walks into a barā¦ā
According to Scott McNeely, author of The Ultimate Book of Jokes: The Essential Collection of More Than 1,500 Jokes, we have C.B. Palmer to thank for it. In 1952, Palmer āpenned the very first bar joke in a 1952 article for the New York Times titled āThe Consummately Dry Martini.ā Palmerās original bar joke isnāt very funny.ā:
āA man walks into a bar and says he wants a very very dry martiniā25 to 1. The bartender is a little startled but mixes it very precisely. As he pours it out, he asks the customer "Would you like a twist of lemon peel in it?" Customer pounds the bar and shouts "Listen, when I want an asterisk obscenity lemonade, Iāll ask for one!"ā
But enough about the history of bar jokes. Letās take a look at a few related to wordplay.
An Oxford comma walks into a bar where it spends the evening watching the television, getting drunk, and smoking cigars.
A dangling participle walks into a bar. Enjoying a cocktail and chatting with the bartender, the evening passes pleasantly.
A bar was walked into by the passive voice.
An oxymoron walked into a bar, and the silence was deafening.
Two quotation marks walk into a ābar.ā
A malapropism walks into a bar, looking for all intensive purposes like a wolf in cheap clothing, muttering epitaphs and casting dispersions on his magnificent other, who takes him for granite.
Hyperbole totally rips into this insane bar and absolutely destroys everything.
A question mark walks into a bar?
A non sequitur walks into a bar. In a strong wind, even turkeys can fly.
Papyrus and Comic Sans walk into a bar. The bartender says, "Get out -- we don't serve your type."
A mixed metaphor walks into a bar, seeing the handwriting on the wall but hoping to nip it in the bud.
A comma splice walks into a bar, it has a drink and then leaves.
Three intransitive verbs walk into a bar. They sit. They converse. They depart.
A synonym strolls into a tavern.
At the end of the day, a clichƩ walks into a bar -- fresh as a daisy, cute as a button, and sharp as a tack.
A run-on sentence walks into a bar it starts flirting. With a cute little sentence fragment.
Falling slowly, softly falling, the chiasmus collapses to the bar floor.
A figure of speech literally walks into a bar and ends up getting figuratively hammered.
An allusion walks into a bar, despite the fact that alcohol is its Achilles heel.
The subjunctive would have walked into a bar, had it only known.
A misplaced modifier walks into a bar owned a man with a glass eye named Ralph.
The past, present, and future walked into a bar. It was tense.
A dyslexic walks into a bra.
A verb walks into a bar, sees a beautiful noun, and suggests they conjugate. The noun declines.
A simile walks into a bar, as parched as a desert.
A gerund and an infinitive walk into a bar, drinking to forget.
A hyphenated word and a non-hyphenated word walk into a bar and the bartender nearly chokes on the irony.
I wouldnāt recommend telling these jokes the next time youāre in a drinking establishment. You might get disbarred.
Thereās so much to learn,
A zugma walks into a bar and gets two beers, a martini and herpes