2 Jokes 4 the price of 1

[bountyfull]

Type: Video
Sender ID: bountyfull
To: general public
Subject: Two Things
Warnings: It's dad jokes.


[ Haha, helloooo! He waves with one han—the metal one— since the other is holding his shellphone. It's pretty novel, this kind of technology. He seems fairly adept at it if the way he's framed himself in the video is any indication. ]

I heard some pretty good jokes the other day [ DID YOU, VASH? ] so I wanted to share them.

[ He clears his throat with a laugh, his head tilting slightly. ]

What would bears be without bees?

[ There's a pause as he leans in to the camera to whisper: ]

Ears.

[ He does his absolute level best (not really) not to laugh, which is unsuccessful. Once he calms down he grins in a way that makes his nose wrinkle ]

One more!

The other day a guy hit me with a bottle of milk!

[ Another Pause... ]

How dairy?!

[ He needs to be stopped. ]

Comments

[bountyfull]

[ Oh text. Interesting.

EVALUATING HIS JOKES, LESS INTERESTING. ]

Well at least they're better than average!
What do you think would be a 10/10 joke?

[indispensable]

For one that depends on wordplay, the best ones should not depend so heavily on text or enunciation, for those can all be subjective to each individual.

[As Vash... can already see from the other responses.]

[bountyfull]

Yeah, I think I'm catching on.

[ Hmmm... ]

Do you know how to make an eggroll?

[indispensable]

No. How?

[How long will it take for Kaveh to see this place your bets.]

[bountyfull]

You give it a push!

[ He's SO clever. ]

[indispensable]

7.5/10.

[A pause, and then:]

Do not take up any offer of drinks.

[Yeah, guess who heard Kaveh talking about going drinking.]

[lecturer]

If you would forgive me for cutting in, I couldn't help but notice your analysis, and I've a counterpoint - isn't a 10/10 rating also subjective?

[indispensable]

Yes.

[The nature of a joke will always be subjective since its based on timing, crowd, timing, and other such matters. So he sees no point in contesting something that is already fact.]

[lecturer]

Just so!
The anatomy of a joke's quite interesting across different cultures - even ancient Hornburgian runes display the fine art of wordplay, here and there!
I suppose that's the consistency, that a pun's likely to get a good laugh out of all.
...Or, a groan, at the very least.

[indispensable]

The latter is more common in my experiences.

[That's mostly because Cyno is the one making them, but that's neither here nor there.

Anyway, he read something about runes.]

How do those runes that you've mentioned achieve it?

[lecturer]

Since the language itself is pictographic by nature, it's not completely uncommon for ancient texts to have pictures inside of pictures, where the latter is the runic language itself and the former is a larger image.

Most recently, I saw it on a mural, depicting the image of a door and waves coming out of the door; while the runes only said "death, doom, destruction", the shape they formed was the actual context of the door, relating likely to a place called the Gate of Finis.

Of course, that's merely context - and has little to do with wordplay.
[ its time for me to make shit up o clock ]

As literacy as a whole was fairly rare in the High Hornburgian period, many of the written works are formal in nature. You'd hardly find a jape in a law book or formative religious text.

However, if one looks in less academic sources, the natural color of the culture shines through - graffiti is a unique treasure trove of colloquialisms, and one archaeologists have uncovered among the ruins of ancient society.

They tend to be quite bawdy.
If I recall correctly, there's a tablet that says something along the lines of, "What hangs at a man's thigh and wants to poke the hole that it's often poked before?" and the runes were arranged into a shape.
Could you imagine what that shape might be?

[indispensable]

[Alhaitham can't say he was expecting this... but he can't say that he minds either. It's an interesting read, if nothing else, and while the magic auto-translate of this place still irks him from time to time, it hasn't dampened his interest in the languages of other worlds.

Pictographic-based language is nothing new to him, as that's more or less what Deshret's script is like, but hearing about it like this is not-not interesting.]

A hook?

[It's a random guess at best, based on some keywords he'd picked out there—or at least what he assumes to be keywords. Either way, it'll be a learning experience.]

[lecturer]

[ a real nerd to nerd conversation here ]

An excellent guess!
But not quite: it was a key.
One lends itself to a more, ah, phallic shape than the other depending on interpretation - and thus the wordplay.

[indispensable]

[Truly the stuff of legends.

But the thought that somewhere out there exists a language where 'key' and 'dick' use the same word/character is a little funny, and he snorts lightly at that.]

I see.

Do you have any other examples?

[lecturer]

Not nearly so many as I'd like!
The majority were often more personal caricatures - commentary upon this leader or that.
There was a King of the region once upon a time who was rather disliked, and the characters chosen for his name would be arranged into the shape of a rat, and over time, the word for 'rat' came to be that very ruler's name.
And so on, and so forth.

I had just come into possession of a quite rare dictionary of High Hornburgian and was rather looking forward to translation in my spare time, but then I found myself here.
Adventures and mysteries occasionally set aside the best plans of mice and men, but I'd hardly complain.
Are you a linguist, sir?

[indispensable]

[Associations are certainly a common thing, so that much Alhaitham is not surprised by—but it is always interesting to see the way it evolves over time, much like how Deshret is known as the Scarlet King. The evolution of language remains as always, a most fascinating thing.]

Yes. It was my field of studies when I was a student.

[As always, for a man who studies languages, Alhaitham sees no reason to talk much unless necessary.]

[lecturer]

Wonderful!
Perhaps sometime you'll tell me of your studies at home? I'd love to hear about it.
The idea that we are all from rather different places is a scholar's dream.
Of course, I'd be more than happy to share knowledge in exchange.

[indispensable]

I don't see why not. An exchange of knowledge can only be beneficial for both parties.

[Knowing new things is fun and exciting!! Especially if they actually make sense for once!!]