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Unpopular opinion: The 'walk into a bar' setup actually works if you stop overthinking it
tbh I was stuck trying to come up with clever twist endings for weeks. then I just told a simple one about a horse at my nephew's birthday party last Saturday and got real laughs from 6 people. have you ever just leaned into the basic format and surprised yourself?
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the_drew2mo ago
Yo that bit about the "clever twist endings" killed me because I spent like a month trying to make a joke about a priest and a rabbi and a duck work and it just got more complicated until nobody got it. But then at a cookout last summer I just went "so a guy walks into a bar with a penguin" and my buddy's dad literally choked on his burger laughing. The format is solid for a reason. People just want the setup then the punchline quick, not a whole short story. I swear sometimes we try too hard to be original and forget the simple stuff works. Like my grandma always says if it ain't broke don't fix it, and the bar joke is basically a rusty old car that still starts every time.
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aaron_mitchell2mo ago
Simple and fast is where it's at. That penguin bit always kills.
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samflores1mo ago
Oh man, I used to be one of those people who thought the 'walk into a bar' jokes were totally played out. I was always trying to subvert the setup or add some meta layer to it. But @the_drew hit it on the head, my grandma says the same exact thing about that rusty old car. I finally tried a dead simple one at a family dinner last month and got a huge laugh from my uncle who never cracks a smile. It really made me realize I was overcomplicating something that just works when you let it breathe.
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