Yesterday, I was sitting at a coffee shop and a customer asked the barista, "Fill me up again, please." Without hesitation, another person yelled out, "That's what she said!" and a hushed silence fell across the crowd. Other than me, who found the joke delightfully funny.

That story is a fabrication, but it, like all good stories, has set us on the right path toward our topic of the day.

Obvious jokes

white and black i love you print on gray concrete wall — Photo by Marija Zaric on Unsplash

Tired jokes, dad jokes, the cheesiest of the cheese jokes; I want them all. Jokes that have been overused. The ones getting the largest groans. The jokes that are expected and underappreciated by far too many people, if you ask me.

There was a time when the breadwinner of groan-able jokes was the household patriarchy, purveyors of the affectionately named, "Dad Jokes". But like so many aspects of our lives, the internet broadened our horizons to a population of people ready to make the obvious jokes the world needs. Nowhere did this become a more obvious phenomenon than twitter. It's estimated there are over 500 million tweets per day. Over 500 million tweets filled with poorly chosen words just begging to be exploited in the replies.

That moment, that juicy monment, when you see a twitter post and the joke yearning to grace the reply section is so obvious, the joke you know every single person reading the tweet imagined immediately, that moment separates the wheat from the chaff.
For too many people, they recognize the obviousness of what ought to be said and then have to decide, "Do I try and make a different, funnier joke or do I just not reply?" But, my dear readers, there are those special few. Those brilliant savants, unwilling to forgo the chance of being first in the replies, serving up a delicious spectacle of stale puns and that's-what-she-said's. These heroes know they aren't original, yet the forge ahead with vigor and they make me proud.

Their personas are interchangeable. None of these joke tellers are stand-outs. Comedy club managers are not clamoring for the chance to grace their marquees with these twitter handles. What they write could have come from any member of our growing population, yet the persevere. The goal of being the first to post their obvious joke is of the utmost importance, because they know there are millions of other humorists champing at the bit to seed the reply section with a blossoming tree of obviousness.
I am a self-proclaimed comedy lover. I am truly awed by a comedian's ability to weave brilliant tales that bring tears of joy to our eyes. It is a skill I envy and one that makes the world a more enjoyable place to live.

But, revelling in the comedy of those who grace the stage will never eliminate the enjoyment of the obvious joke. I am proud to admit that I will always chuckle at your obvious jokes in earnest. Because it takes all kinds of people to bring us pleasure.

That'S What She Said GIF - Michael Scott The Office Thats What She Said GIFs

Thoughtless Opinions

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