Edited by Richard Walker, Monday, 15 Jan 2018, 01:16
This joke popped into my head last night. In an oblique way, it is what it says it is.
But when I googled - to see if it was original - I found the late humorist Mikes Kington (author of 'The Franglais Lieutenant's Woman', etc., etc.) had beaten me to it, in his The Independent column.
Disaster! Because, he mentioned Partridge's Dictionary of Catchphrases, and explained it was a serious distraction ('I took down it from my references shelf and at once found catchphrases I did not know existed').
Naturally I was at once seduced and immediately bought the book. I turned straightaway to 'Knock-knock' and found this beautiful gem*; a KK joke but with a lot of Mondegreen in it too.
Knock-knock!
Who's there?
Mayonnaise.**
Mayonnaise who?
Mayonnaise have seen the Glory of the Coming of the Lord.
In the same vein I offer my own humble attempt.
Knock-knock!
Who's there?
Manacled.
Manacled who?
Manacled, but Few are Chosen.
Notes
* One editor of the dictionary referred to describes this joke as 'exemplary for the extravange of its awfulness'.
** Mayonnaise is probably named for Port Mahon in Minorca, which is named after a Carthaginian general who was a close relation of Hannibal. So someone, related to a general who took elephants over the Alps, from Iberia to Italia, to wage war on Rome, gave his name to an island, where a salad dressing was invented, that turned up 2,500 years later, in a knock-knock joke.
'The Phrase that Launched a Thousand Quips'
This joke popped into my head last night. In an oblique way, it is what it says it is.
But when I googled - to see if it was original - I found the late humorist Mikes Kington (author of 'The Franglais Lieutenant's Woman', etc., etc.) had beaten me to it, in his The Independent column.
Disaster! Because, he mentioned Partridge's Dictionary of Catchphrases, and explained it was a serious distraction ('I took down it from my references shelf and at once found catchphrases I did not know existed').
Naturally I was at once seduced and immediately bought the book. I turned straightaway to 'Knock-knock' and found this beautiful gem*; a KK joke but with a lot of Mondegreen in it too.
Knock-knock!
Who's there?
Mayonnaise.**
Mayonnaise who?
Mayonnaise have seen the Glory of the Coming of the Lord.
In the same vein I offer my own humble attempt.
Knock-knock!
Who's there?
Manacled.
Manacled who?
Manacled, but Few are Chosen.
Notes
* One editor of the dictionary referred to describes this joke as 'exemplary for the extravange of its awfulness'.
** Mayonnaise is probably named for Port Mahon in Minorca, which is named after a Carthaginian general who was a close relation of Hannibal. So someone, related to a general who took elephants over the Alps, from Iberia to Italia, to wage war on Rome, gave his name to an island, where a salad dressing was invented, that turned up 2,500 years later, in a knock-knock joke.