18 Jokes to teach by 'Can a kangaroo jump higher than Dharara?'

Jokes arouse smiles and laughter, they make people feel good. Jokes are therefore are a good way to make students enthusiastic towards learning in the English class. Here are some jokes, with a brief commentary attached to help in the understanding of the jokes. We understand that many teachers of English will ‘get’ (understand) the jokes, and so the commentaries are meant for those who may have some difficulty. Even for others, the commentaries may add value to the understanding. - Editor

1

Teacher: Nita please point to America on the map.
Neeta: This is it.
Teacher: Well done. Now class, who discovered America?
Class: Nita did.
Commentary: When Europeans were exploring the globe, there were famous explorers like Christopher Columbus who were said to have ‘discovered America’. This joke is a play on the word ‘discovered’, because Nita certainly did point out where America was on the classroom map!

2

A man was pulled over for driving too fast, even though he thought he was driving just fine.
Policeman: You were speeding.
Man: No, I wasn't.
Policeman: Yes, you were. I'm giving you a ticket.
Man: But I wasn't speeding.
Police: Tell that to the judge! (The officer gives man the ticket.)
Man: Would I get another ticket if I called you a jerk?
Police: Yes, you would.
Man: What if I just thought that you were?
Police: I can't give you a ticket for what you think.
Man: Fine, I think you're a jerk!
Commentary: ‘Pulled over’ is a term for a driver taking his car to the side of the road or highway. ‘Giving a ticket’ is an American term for a policeman giving a written notice to a driver who has committed some driving offence. The man first extracts from the policeman the agreement that you cannot be punished for thinking something, and then proceeds to call the policeman a jerk!

3

A: Did you hear that a baby was fed on elephant's milk and gained twenty pounds in a week.
B: That's impossible. Whose baby?
A: An elephant's.
Commentary: This is funny because the ‘B’ obviously thinks that the person who is fed on elephant’s milk is a human, and calls that impossible. The reference to ‘a baby’ tricks ‘B’ into thinking that it is a human baby we are talking about.

4

A  drunk man comes out of the bar and sees another very drunk man.
He looks up in the sky and says, "Is that the sun or the moon?"
The other drunk man answers, "I don't know. I'm a stranger here myself."

Commentary: The second drunk man obviously believes, in his drunken stupor, that whether there is a sun or the moon on the sky depends on where you are in the planet – rather than the time of day.

5

A man is talking to God.
The man: "God, how long is a million years?"
God: "To me, it's about a minute."
The man: "God, how much is a million rupees?"
God: "To me it's a paisa."
The man: "God, may I have a paisa?"
God: "Wait a minute!"

Commentary: God is fooled because he decides to give a philosophical answer to the man’s question, implying that there is ‘relativity’ in how you perceive time or money. Having said that a million rupees is like a paisa, the man then asks for a paisa, meaning that he expects a million rupees. ‘Wait a minute’ is an English expression of someone having been taken by surprise. But there is also an additional play in the ‘minute’ used in the joke to mean a million years. The joke would have been funny even without this additional usage.

6

An elementary school teacher sends this note to all parents on the first day of school. "If you promise not to believe everything your child says happens at school, I will promise not to believe everything your child says happens at home.''

Commentary: This is a funny joke because the teacher is implying that a) he knows that the students in his class are saying not-so-nice things about him at home. At the same time, he makes a direct hint that the students have also been sharing not-so-nice secrets from home in the classroom. This is, of course, blackmail – You know about me and I know about you, so we will both keep quite. But this is also a joke!

7

Old man: Doctor, will I be able to play the harmonium after the operation?
Doctor:  Yes, of course.
Old man: Great! I never could before.

Commentary: Given the kind of question that Old man has asked, the doctor is led to believe that ‘Old man has been a harmonium  player and is worried about not being able to get back to music. However Old man is playing a trick. Now that the doctor says ‘yes of course’, the doctor has been found out promising something that is impossible.

8

Teacher: Tell me a sentence that starts with an "I".
Student: I is the...
Teacher: Stop ! Never put 'is' after an "I". Always put 'am' after an "I".
Student: OK. I am the ninth letter of the alphabet !

Commentary: The teacher thinks the student is making a mistake, whereas he was trying to say that, “The letter ‘I’ is the ninth letter in the alphabet.” But because the teacher corrects him before he is finished with the sentence, he is forced to make a mistake. This is an interesting joke because the teacher himself has been shown as falling into a trap of forcing his pupil to make a mistake.

9

Q: If you drop a white hat into the Red Sea, what does it become?
A: Wet.

Commentary: The Red Sea is the expanse of water to the north of Saudi Arabia, but of course the water itself is not red. The implication of the question is that if you drop a white hat into the Red Sea, it will come out reddish. But the answer is the obvious one, which is that it will come out wet. This joke is funny because it is so obvious what the answer should be!

10

A guy says to his friend, "Guess how many coins have I in my pocket."
The friend says, "If I guess right, will you give me one of them?"
The first guy says, "If you guess right, I'll give you both of them!"

Commentary: Some jokes are funny because they show the stupidity of one of the characters. It seems that humans love to laugh at someone else’s stupidity. Here, the first guy is seen to be stupid, because he is challenging the friend to guess how many coins he has in his pocket, but he is giving the secret away by saying ‘both’. Obviously the friend will win because of this mistake, and give ‘two’ as the answer.

11

The teacher speaking to a student said, "Subedi, name two pronouns."
Subedi, who has been dozing, says, "Who, me?"

Commentary: This is a good joke. Subedi, the student, has been dozing. He is caught by surprise, so he asks, “Who, me?” whose longer version is as follows, “Who are you asking? Are you asking me?” But inadvertently, he has answered the teacher’s question, because ‘who’ and ‘me’ are both pronouns!

12

Teacher: Today, we're going to talk about the tenses. Now, if I say "I am beautiful," which tense is it?
Student: Obviously it is the past tense.

Commentary: This joke is again of the kind where there is an attempt to disparage someone, in the expectation that the listener will like someone being brought low. Here, the answer the teacher is seeking is, “I was beautiful.” Whereas the mean-spirited student is referring directly to the teacher rather than to the lesson, by saying that “I am beautiful” must be the past tense because she (the teacher) is no longer beautiful. Of course the answer is wrong in terms of English usage. Finally, you may ask how come we know the teacher is a ‘she’. That is because the term used is ‘beautiful’ rather than ‘handsome’. Female teachers are obviously ‘beautiful’, and male teachers are always ‘handsome’!

13

Q: Can a kangaroo jump higher than the Empire State Building?
A: Yes, because the Empire State Building can't jump!

Commentary: There are several things to keep in mind about this joke. Firstly, why are we using ‘kangaroo’? Because it is an animal, of Australia, which is known to jump (or hop) very high. But the question is whether an animal which can jump higher than other can still jump higher than the Empire State Building. But the ‘trick’ in the joke is in the use of the term ‘jump higher than’. One usage is whether person ‘A’ can jump to a higher than person ‘B’. Another usage is whether person ‘A’ can jump to a higher than an object ‘C’. The object obviously cannot jump. In this joke, the expectation of the question in simple understanding is ‘No, it is impossible for a kangaroo to jump higher than the Empire State Building.’ But because we have used a trick to use the second usage in the answer, the answer becomes, ‘Yes’ because obviously a building cannot jump. There may be a need for Nepal-contextualisation of this joke. Students may understand what a kangaroo is, but it may be difficult to explain also that the Empire State Building is a tall building in Manhattan Island of New York City. It used to be the tallest building in the world for a long time, at which time everyone knew of the Empire State Building. But because there are so many taller buildings now, your students may not understand the usage of ‘Empire State Building’. And so, you could simply replace it with Dharara. “Can a kangaroo jump higher than Dharara?”

14

Q: What starts with E, ends with E and only has one letter ?
A: An envelope

Commentary: This is more of a riddle than a joke, because there is a puzzle that you have to solve. But riddles can also make you smile, and so to that extent you can call this a joke!

15

Q: What travels around the world and stays in a corner?
A: A stamp.

Commentary: Here is another riddle or quiz involving an envelope. Though not strictly a joke, like the earlier item, it can make the reader smile or laugh. Going around the world implies that someone or something is traveling a lot, whereas staying in a corner means someone or something is staying in one place. So, how can you have someone who is traveling all over and yet not traveling at all? Well, a letter does travel all over, and the postage stamp travels with it. But the postage stamp stays without moving in one corner of the envelope

16

Q: What is white when it's dirty and black when it's clean?
A: A blackboard

Commentary: Another riddle, and an obvious one for the classroom. Normally, things are dirty when they are black, but in the case of a classroom blackboard, it is cleanest when it is black.

17

Q: What happens when "you" and "I" are gone?
A: Only 24 letters are left.

Commentary: This is also a riddle like the earlier one, where what is heard is different from what is written. The question is about what happens when the person spoken to and the person speaking is gone. But the answer refers to the letters ‘u’ and ‘i’, which sound like the spoken ‘you’ and ‘I’.

18

Q: What is orange and sounds like parrot?
A: A carrot

Commentary: Another riddle, but a nice one. A carrot is obviously orange, but it also sounds like a parrot, except that ‘p’ is replaced with ‘carrot’. In English, similarly spelt words need not always be pronounced the same, but in this case they are.

While sometimes adapted, these jokes and riddles are taken from iteslj.org/c/jokes.html