Vanessa: Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
What's so funny?
Let's talk about it.
Do you understand jokes in English?
Have you ever watched an English movie or a TV show and people were laughing and you
thought, "What's so funny, why are they laughing?"
Well, in my video, English fluency test, I mentioned that if you are sitting at a dinner
table, people are telling jokes and they're laughing and you understand the joke, congratulations,
you're fluent.
Understanding jokes is a wonderful way to level up your English and to have a little
fun.
Even if you don't think the jokes are funny, it's important to understand them.
A lot of jokes in English are puns or plays on words.
This means that there are two words that sound similar, and the joke is about these similar
sounding words.
So it takes a high level of vocabulary to understand why the jokes are funny.
Today I'd like to tell you 10 wonderful jokes in English.
I made a part one to this video, which you can check out up here.
A lot of you enjoyed it so I decided to make a part two.
Today we're going to be talking about some very common puns or jokes in English that
almost everyone who's an English speaker knows.
These first four are these really common puns and you will hear all the time.
And the other six are jokes that I thought were pretty clever, pretty funny, and they
also introduced some important vocabulary, grammar, or pronunciation that you as an English
learner could benefit from.
All right, let's get started with the first joke.
You're going to see my husband, Dan, saying these jokes because sometimes they're called
dad jokes.
Dads often say these types of punny, play on word type of jokes.
So you're going to see my husband, Dan, say these jokes and then I'll explain why they're
funny.
Let's go to the first one.
Dan: Why did the melons have a wedding?
Because they cantaloupe.
Why did the melons have a wedding?
Because they cantaloupe.
Vanessa: Why is this a joke?
This is an extremely common joke in English.
What is a cantaloupe?
Well, a cantaloupe is a type of melon, like watermelon, honeydew, cantaloupe.
It looks like this, but the word cantaloupe sounds like another word in English.
What happens if you can't have a wedding or you decide not to have a big ceremony and
you and your lover decide to run away, maybe to a beautiful destination, and there's only
you two plus an official, we call them an officiant, who gets you married, who marries
you?
What do we call this?
We call this eloping.
You elope.
This means it's usually a surprise.
Your family and friends don't know, and then you tell them later, "Guess what?
We eloped?"
So you didn't have a wedding.
What's happening in this joke?
We're talking about a melon, cantaloupe, and the verb elope.
Well, unfortunately these poor melons can't elope.
So what's the opposite?
They have to have a wedding.
So the melons can't elope, so silly.
All right, let's go to joke number two.
Dan: Why was six afraid of seven?
Because seven ate nine.
Why was six afraid of seven?
Because seven ate nine.
Vanessa: Let's count together.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.
Okay, you probably know this, right?
Seven, eight, nine.
But what does the word eight sound like?
It sounds like the word eat in the past tense.
So why is six afraid of seven?
Well, seven is a terrible monster, it ate the number nine.
Seven ate nine.
Oh, no, run away from seven, maybe it'll eat me too.
Six is afraid of seven because seven ate nine.
Very silly.
All right, let's go to our third joke.
Dad, I'm hungry.
Dan: Hi hungry, I'm Dad.
Vanessa: Dad, I'm hungry.
Dan: Hi hungry, I'm Dad.
Vanessa: This joke makes every kid roll their eyes
and say, "Oh dad."
Let's talk about why it's funny.
Well, you can introduce yourself with this same sentence construction.
"I'm Vanessa, nice to meet you."
"I'm Dan, nice to meet you."
I'm plus your name, but is that what's happening here in this sentence?
I'm hungry.
Hungry is not your name, you're trying to tell your dad that you want food, but he's
pretending that hungry is your name.
My dad used to say this all the time.
And I think every time I did that and said, "Oh dad, no, I want food."
You can use this in a lot of situations.
You might say, "Dad, I'm tired."
"Hi, tired."
"Dad, I'm thirsty."
"Hi, thirsty."
It's so annoying for kids, but also a little bit silly.
All right, let's go to our next joke.
How was your camping trip?
Dan: It was intense.
Vanessa: How was your camping trip?
Dan: It was intense.
Vanessa: Why is this joke funny?
Some people would say it's not funny, but why is this a joke?
Well, the word intense means difficult or serious.
Why would your camping trip be intense?
Maybe it rained the whole time, or maybe you had to hike a long way get to your camp site.
This is very difficult.
It's a serious camping trip, but what does that word sound like, intense?
Where do you sleep when you go camping?
Well, you sleep in a sleeping bag in a tent.
So let's make it plural.
We slept in tents.
What's that sound like?
Intense, in tents, very silly.
Do you see how these jokes are a play on words?
We have one word, intense, difficult, serious, that sounds like another word in a tent or
in tents, and that's why they're silly.
So it does take another level of understanding for vocabulary, or grammar, or pronunciation
to understand why it's funny or why someone might say, "Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha."
Maybe they don't think it's hilarious, but they understand that it's supposed to be a
joke, and now you do too.
All right, these first four were the most common type of puns in English, but let's
talk about some others that will help you to level up your vocabulary.
Dan: Ooh, I pulled a muscle digging for gold, but
it's just a miner injury.
Ooh, I pulled a muscle digging for gold, but it's just a miner injury.
Vanessa: Let's talk about this first phrase, I pulled
a muscle.
What's that mean?
Usually to break a bone is very serious and to pull a muscle is a little less serious.
Maybe your muscle feels strained or pulled and it's uncomfortable.
And maybe you need to stop for the day, you need to rest, maybe put some ice on it.
So it's not a very serious injury.
Usually you can recover relatively quickly.
But what is happening in the rest of this joke, I pulled a muscle digging for gold.
It was a miner injury.
This phrase, a minor injury is a common phrase we use for an injury.
So getting hurt, that's not so serious.
It's not a major injury.
A major injury, if I can say that correctly, a major injury would be maybe breaking a bone.
Okay, that's that's a little more serious, but a minor injury is just your muscles stretched
and after some ice and rest, it feels better.
But what does this word minor sound like?
What do you call someone who digs for gold, or maybe they go into a mine and they're digging
for coal or other type of minerals?
They are a miner.
So notice how the spelling is slightly different, but that's the joke here.
The word minor injury, this common phrase, and to be a miner, they sound very similar.
All right, let's go to our next joke.
Dan: A new Lego store just opened, people lined
up for blocks.
A new Lego store just opened, people lined up for blocks.
Vanessa: Do you know what Legos are?
This is a Lego creation that my son made.
My son is obsessed with Legos.
They are these types of blocks.
These are bigger Legos.
We actually call these Duplos, but it's the same idea.
And you can make lots of creations with them.
I think he made a forklift with a digger bucket and eye to watch you, with two sets of wheels.
Very cool, he always comes up with cool creations.
But Legos are a kind of block.
Well, there is another meaning for the word block.
A block is an American expression used to describe a set of streets.
We usually use this when we're giving directions to someone.
So you might say, "Go two blocks and turn right."
That means you need to pass two streets and then turn right.
This is especially common when you are living somewhere that has an organized structure.
So for example, New York City is quite organized.
There is one, two, three, four, 34th, 35th street.
They are quite organized in a grid.
So it's easy to see one city block, another city block, another city block.
We can imagine that kind of structure.
Most cities are not organized that way in the US, so where I live is not organized that
way, but I still would use this phrase, a block to give general directions.
We live two blocks away from the park.
Okay, this gives a general idea about how far away we live from the park.
So let's take a look at this joke and why it's funny.
People lined up for blocks.
So the original meaning is that they lined up for a long distance, it covered many city
blocks.
Maybe they were lined up for one kilometer.
Okay, they were lined up for blocks.
But also why are they lining up?
They want Lego blocks.
So they lined up for what reason?
For blocks, to get Lego blocks.
So would you like to use both of these expressions blocks together?
You might say people lined up for blocks to buy blocks.
Oh, so silly.
All right, let's go to our next joke.
Dan: My friend David had his ID stolen, now he's
just Dav.
My friend David had his ID stolen, now he's just Dav.
Vanessa: Do you know what an ID is?
ID stands for identification.
And usually this is your driver's license, maybe a passport.
It's something official, usually from the government or your school, that shows that
you are a legitimate person, maybe that you're a legitimate student, or that you can officially
drive a car, like a driver's license.
This is your ID.
So a lot of places will ask for your ID.
Maybe if you need to reserve a place, a concert ticket or something like this, they might
ask for your ID, and this shows you are who you say you are.
But what's happening in this joke?
When I say that my friend David had his ID stolen.
Someone stole his driver's license.
Not good, but now his name is Dav.
Look at the end of his name, what are the two letters at the end of his name?
ID.
Well, a common shortened form of the name David is Dave.
So a lot of people whose names are David, they'll say, "Hey, I'm Dave."
They go by Dave.
It's a shortened version of their name.
For example, my husband Dan, his real name is Daniel, but he goes by Dan, this is the
shortened version of his name, like a nickname.
So unfortunately my friend David had his ID stolen and now we had to change his name.
His name's Dav.
All right, let's go to our next joke.
Dan: If your man doesn't appreciate fruit puns,
let that mango.
If your man doesn't appreciate fruit puns, let that mango.
Vanessa: What does it mean to let that man go?
Usually this means to break up with someone.
So just forget about your boyfriend, let him go.
Let him go off into the world and you're better off without him.
Let that man go.
But what does this look like?
Look at the last two words here.
Does this look like a fruit to you?
Mango.
This is a mango and it's a very silly pun.
Let that man go.
This is a common phrase or mango is a fruit.
So if your boyfriend does not like puns, especially puns about fruit, forget about him, let that
man go.
All right, let's go to our next joke.
Dan: The wedding was so beautiful, even the cake
was in tiers.
The wedding was so beautiful, even the cake was in tiers.
Vanessa: Why is this joke funny?
Well, at a wedding, if it's beautiful, usually people are crying.
Another way to say that people are crying is people are in tears.
Have you ever cried at a wedding?
Was it so beautiful, so touching that you cried?
I have.
But what about this spelling, that doesn't look like a tear, T-E-A-R, why is it spelled
like that?
And why is the cake crying?
Well, we need to talk about what is a tiered cake.
This is a tiered cake.
At a wedding, it's very common to have a cake layered up like this, a layered cake.
This is most common at a wedding.
You would never see this at a birthday party because it's very expensive, it's very fancy.
Usually this type of tiered cake is reserved for weddings.
But another way to say this is the cake is in tiers or in tears.
The wedding was so beautiful, even the cake was crying.
The cake was in tears.
All right, let's go to our next joke.
Dan: Did you hear about the two guys who stole
a calendar?
They got six months each.
Did you hear about the two guys who stole a calendar?
They got six months each.
Vanessa: Got six months.
What's that mean?
That's not funny.
Why is this supposed to be a joke?
Well, there's another meaning for the word get plus time, to get six months.
Well, in this case, these guys did something bad, they stole something.
They stole a calendar.
Yes, it's a strange thing to steal, whatever, it's a joke.
They stole a calendar.
Do you think that they were caught?
Did the police catch them?
Yes, we know that they were caught because they got six months.
This is another way to say that they were sentenced to six months, they had to go to
jail for six months.
So when we use get plus time, it means that that is the length of time that you went to
jail.
So you might say, "I stole a car and I got two years," got two years?
Like someone gave you two years?
No, this means that you went to jail for two years.
I got two years, or we might say, "He stole my car and he only got two years.
What?
That's not fair, he should go to jail for longer."
So we have get plus a time means to go to jail.
But also it's a calendar.
How many months are in a calendar?
12 and there's two guys.
So if they split it down the middle, they each can have six months and six months.
So they're sharing what they stole.
They each get to have six months.
So there's a play on words here, a pun about going to jail for six months and splitting
the thing that they stole, the calendar, and receiving six months.
A little bit silly, huh?
I hope that you enjoyed these jokes, puns, plays on words.
Feel free to go on and use them with your friends, family, co-workers, whoever you'd
like, your dog.
Maybe your dog will think it's funny.
I'd like to leave you with a final joke.
Tell me in the comments why is this a joke?
What's the pun or the play on words that's happening?
Where do boats go when they're sick?
To the boat doc.
Tell me, what do you think about that?
Tell me in the comments why this is funny and thank you so much for learning English
with me.
I'll see you again next Friday for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel.
Bye.
The next step is to download my free e-book, Five Steps to Becoming a Confident English
Speaker.
You'll learn what you need to do to speak confidently and fluently.
Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more free lessons.
Thanks so much.
Bye.