you KNOW i wanted to make the punchline sexual, but the network would have never approved it. it will be in my club show tho.
LOL, I just went to HULU to watch Leno's monologue and I'm not kidding, I just paused after the first joke which was: "Looks like we finally found something President Bush is good at....DODGE BALL!" (Jay dodges, ducks, dips, dives, and dodges) I bow to you AB, you were certainly heading in the right direction. <object width="512" height="296"><param name="movie" value="http://www.hulu.com/embed/gWjVxD-rqVo0HAWZqGsbOA/60/90"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.hulu.com/embed/gWjVxD-rqVo0HAWZqGsbOA/60/90" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" width="512" height="296"></embed></object> Shoe-acide bomber, not bad.
I wouldn't do #1. John Kelso at the statesman in Austin had an article out today that did the shoe thrower to yankees joke. It makes me think that there are people all over the country coming up with the same joke. http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/12/16/1216kelso.html I like 3,4, and 5, with 5 being the favorite.
1 and 3 got a laugh from me. I am 38..white and not a regular watcher of late night talk shows if it makes a difference to your demographics.
Here is the late night crew making fun of the shoe incident. <object classid='clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000' codebase='http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0' width='320' height='270' id='yfop'><param name='movie' value='http://d.yimg.com/cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/fop/embedflv/swf/fop.swf' /><param name='flashvars' value='id=11126772&shareEnable=1' /><embed src='http://d.yimg.com/cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/fop/embedflv/swf/fop.swf' width='320' height='270' name='yfop' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer' flashvars='id=11126772&shareEnable=1'></embed></object>
They were all pretty terrible, with #5 being the least so. With that said, I think they're perfect since all late night monologue jokes are terrible.
Are you interviewing for the Jimmy Fallon show? Last night I was at the UCB Theatre in NYC watching a show and one of the comics was talking about how he finally got a job since he was hired by the Jimmy Fallon show as a writer. I can't remember the name of the exact comic. It might have been Pete Holmes.
1. Good premise, but the punch line is a little wordy. 2. the transition from number one helps sell it, but I wouldn't keep it on its own. 3. Fair, but the weakest of the bunch. 4. My favorite of the bunch 5. Very nice, don't worry about folks who don't know Dane Cook, they will laugh out of embarrassment for not knowing Dane Cook. EVeryone else will just laugh.
Since we're on the subject of late night jokes, here's my most favorite of all time from Conan O'Brien. SAT analogies: Theory of Gravity is to "What goes up, must come down" as Paris Hilton is to "Must go down on what comes up" best of all time...
How about a joke involving former pres. Bill Clinton advising Obama to avoid this type of situation by using clothes-free press conferences.
[insert lead in about 50 billion dollar investment scam] [punchline] "...That's one Ponzi scheme that jumped the shark" Eubanks smirks and groans -- crowd goes wild.
I don't have to tell you AB, jokes are tough. It depends on the delivery, so I would customize the jokes to the person. Obviously carrot top couldn't pull off these jokes without a giant burger prop. Make sure you have someone proof your writing before you send it in. No apostrophe in Bobcats. Bad punctuation has got to be a deal killer in writing.
They were so-so. I think it depends a lot on delievery and just reading them on a screen with no inflection doesn't do anything for them.