ABSTRACT
Jokes come in numerous shapes and sizes ranging from very long and highly structured ‘shaggy dog stories’ to short, almost spineless one-liners. Depending on the length of a joke, the recipient’s attention may be engaged for several minutes to hear a complex plot unfold before the narrative explodes into a pun, or else she/he may be suddenly surprised by a clever quip casually thrown into an ordinary conversation. Whatever the type of joke, however, for it to qualify as such, what is commonly known as a punchline or a punch must always be present. 1 The punch is the point at which the recipient either hears or sees something which is in some way incongruous with the linguistic or semantic environment in which it occurs but which at first sight had not been apparent. If the incongruity met with appears in the form of a pun, a new and unexpected meaning of the form in question will suddenly become apparent; if it implies a situation, it will be equally new and surprising.
There was an lrishman an Englishman and… BANG!!!
