Well, I’ve been on a meta kick lately (not a meta-kick, although if I start thinking about that, I’ll end up on a meta-meta-kick, etc.), so I decided to try my hand at coming up with some meta*-humor (the star indicates a variable number of ‘meta’s).

Feel free to try these out and alienate your friends with an awkward silence as you pause for laughter that never comes. It really works!

Joke 1:
A: Have you heard the self-referential joke?
B: No.
A: You have now.

Joke 2:
A: Knock, knock.
B: Who’s there?
A Incomplete self-referential “knock knock” joke.
B: Incomplete self-referential “knock knock” joke who?

Joke 3:
Two theoretical linguists walk into a bar, and they’re depressed because they haven’t laughed in years. Jokes have become boring, and even meta-jokes seem tedious. So, they have a few drinks and the first suggests to the second that they should try to find a joke with an infinite level of recursion so that it will be infinitely funny and they’ll never stop laughing. They have a few more drinks and ponder the idea intensely. Eventually, the second linguist perks up and says to the first, “I’ve got it! I found a joke with an infinite level of recursion.” The first asks, “Well, what is it?” The second replies, “Two theoretical linguists walk into a bar [Continue with the original joke as verbatim as possible until people get it.].”

Joke 3¹:
Two theoretical linguists walk into a bar, and they’re depressed because they haven’t laughed in years. Jokes have become boring, and even meta-jokes seem tedious. So, they have a few drinks and the first suggests to the second that they should try to find a joke with an infinite level of recursion so that it will be infinitely funny and they’ll never stop laughing. They have a few more drinks and ponder the idea intensely. Eventually, the second linguist perks up and says to the first, “I’ve got it! I found a joke with an infinite level of recursion.” The first asks, “Well, what is it?” The second replies, “Two theoretical linguists walk into a bar …” The first linguist interrupts him and says, “What is this, a joke?”

Joke 3¹¹:
Two theoretical linguists walk into a bar, and they’re depressed because they haven’t laughed in years. Jokes have become boring, and even meta-jokes seem tedious. So, they have a few drinks and the first suggests to the second that they should try to find a joke with an infinite level of recursion so that it will be infinitely funny and they’ll never stop laughing. They have a few more drinks and ponder the idea intensely. Eventually, the second linguist perks up and says to the first, “I’ve got it! I found a joke with an infinite level of recursion.” The first asks, “Well, what is it?” The second replies, “Two theoretical linguists walk into a bar …” The first linguist interrupts him and says, “What is this, a joke?” The second interrupts the first and says, “What is this, a joke?” [This can be repeated in the same fashion ad infinitum]

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 8th, 2007 at 8:18 AM and is filed under humor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.