Telling jokes

Hi there

Alex I liked your joke very much and got it but maybe we can slightly improve it? As I think jokes are often a play on words it is very important to be accurate.

"There are 10 types of people. Those who's aware of binary counting and those who's not." Have you got it?

Try

There are ten types of people; those who are aware of binary counting and those who aren't! Get it?

I also admired your use of the word unveil as in;

I'm not supposed to unveil details of my job

You could also say;

I'm not supposed to divulge details of my job


But back to jokes. I think the world is divided into those who can tell jokes and those who can't. What do you think? I'm certainly one of the latter. I get quite nervous when telling a joke and then I risk forgetting the punchline, which is really mortifying!

I also think that men are much more likely to tell jokes. Am I being biased?

If I find it difficult to tell a joke in my first language, how much more difficult can it be in a second language. What's your experience?

Don't get me wrong I love jokes and am particularly fond of puns or plays on words but I just like to be the recipient or the audience. I suppose that I'm most drawn to verbal comedy and don't really enjoy physical comedy or slapstick routines. Not suprising that I'm drawn to language, is it?

Reza, thak you for your comments. I'm having a think about how best to respond to your suggestion about giving more support to the meaning of the highlighted patterns and lexis. One of the things that I'm trying to do as much as is natural is to give a paraphrase of language that I think maybe challenging within the text.


Tricia


Lexis and patterns from today;


a play on words

a pun

to divulge details of something

the punchline

mortifying

to be the recipient of something

slapstick routines

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