doug — off the record

just a place to share some thoughts

Whatever happened to …

… knock knock jokes?

When I was a kid, this was a chance for you to be a live close up comedian.

Knock Knock jokes were great for the purpose. They were short, to the point, and actually easy to remember. After all, there’s nothing worse than forgetting where you are headed half way through telling a joke. Well, maybe one thing worse and that’s starting to laugh because you know the punch line is coming.

My favourite? How about

Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
A little old lady.
A little old lady who?
Hey, you can yodel!

Now, you can’t sit there, reading this post, and not have a knock knock joke come back in your mind.

How about telling us your favourite or just what came back to mind in the comments below?

This is part of a regular Sunday morning series “Whatever happened to …”. You can read them all here.

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dougpete

The content of this blog is created by me at the keyboard or as a result of an aggregator of my daily reading under the title OTR Links. On Fridays, look for my signature post “This Week in Ontario Edublogs” where I try to share some great writing from Ontario Educators. The other regular post appears Sunday mornings as I try to start a conversation about things that have gone missing from our daily lives.

7 responses to “Whatever happened to …”

  1. Andrew Forgrave Avatar
    Andrew Forgrave

    Good morning Doug!

    Knock knock jokes are alive and well. I’m sure they will never go out of style.

    It’s unlikely that knock knock jokes would have come up in the secondary panel to the same degree that they come up in the elementary panel. Suffice to say, my lunch duty over the last few years before I retired was a wonderful opportunity to carry around a big book of jokes and engage with the kids in the three classrooms that I supervised. The kids were always ready to share their favourite joke, and it was a great opportunity to add some new material to the repertoire.

    The Knock Knock joke that was new to me the last year I was in the classroom followed the familiar format but was a little different in delivery and was very dependent upon timing. It went like this:

    “Knock knock.”
    “Who’s there?”
    “Interrupting cow.”
    “Interrupti—“
    “Moo.”

    I had another personal favourite that I used to use periodically when kids were primed for a Knock Knock joke. Again, it depended upon the familiar structure of the joke, but the humour arose when the sequence of the joke around before the other person was fully aware.

    “Say ‘knock knock.’ “
    “Knock knock.”
    “Who’s there?”
    (At this point, the other person realizes that because they haven’t initiated the joke, they don’t have the next line prepared.)

    Of course, there is the old standby:

    “Knock knock.”
    “Who’s there?”
    “Banana.”
    “Banana who?”

    “Knock knock.”
    “Who’s there?”
    “Banana.”
    “Banana who?”

    “Knock knock.”
    “Who’s there?”
    “Banana.”
    “Banana who?”

    “Knock knock.”
    “Who’s there?”
    “Banana.”
    “Banana who?”

    (This repeats until the other person is sufficiently tired of answering the door, at which point you put them out of their misery)

    “Knock knock.”
    “Who’s there?”
    “Orange.”
    “Orange who?”
    “Orange ya glad I didn’t say banana.”

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  2. adunsiger Avatar
    adunsiger

    Doug, I agree with Andy. Every day in kindergarten I hear numerous knock knock jokes. In fact, our group of kids in the back would tell them to each other all day if they could. They start making up their own when they’ve run out of ones that they know. Even COVID didn’t kill knock knock jokes. Kids just have to say them louder for others to hear them through their masks. Curious if other teachers continue to hear these jokes at school or if parents hear them at home.

    Aviva

    P.S. My favourite one is the banana one that Andy shared.

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  3. Lisa Corbett Avatar
    Lisa Corbett

    Knock knock
    Whose there?
    Who
    Who who?
    Is there an owl in here?

    That’s my favourite!
    I forgot about interrupting cow! I’ll have to use that this week. My class had some joke “show & tell” during our online learning. Knock knock jokes were quite popular.

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  4. Lesley P Avatar
    Lesley P

    There’s a point in kindergarten when students understand the structure and the punchline of a knock knock joke. It’s amazing to watch and see the joy of telling a joke.

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  5. dougpete Avatar
    dougpete

    Upon re-reading this post, I realized that I didn’t share the inspiration for the post. I didn’t just pull it out of my hat. I was watching “Whose Line is it Anyway” and they had skits where they improvize what happens when people show up on the doorstep. Hillarious stuff!

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