What about the delivery, stage presence, etc? A joke is more than its words. Here is one of my (written by I) favorites silly jokes to tell: I just bought a do it yourself boat kit from Amazon. wait to build tension Just need to add water.
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LLMs tell bad jokes because they avoid surprises
131–140 of 163 posts
Re: LLMs tell bad jokes because they avoid surprises
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
A valiant defense of her joke, thanks! But no, it still doesn't make any sense as a joke and isn't funny. (Though obviously it's adorable coming from a 4 year old.)
This is the weirdest conversation about a joke that is definitely making its target audience laugh -- as a comedian, I say that's the only honest measure of a joke. But allow me to analyze the shit out of this, because the only thing funnier than a groaner is meticulously explaining the groaner. It's at least as funny as "why did the chicken cross the road," which is only a joke inasmuch the punchline is merely a sta…
OP author here.
A number of commenters here have argued that "Why did the chicken cross the road" is a subtle allusion to the chicken's death, but I don't think that's why it's a classic joke.
We traditionally start kids off with antijokes, jokes where the "surprise factor" is that there's nothing surprising at all, where the punchline is completely predictable in hindsight. It's more than a mere "groaner."
Another classic antijoke for kids is, "Why do firefighters wear red suspenders?" "To keep their pants up."
Many antijokes (especially antijokes for kids) are structured like riddles, where the listener is supposed to actively try to figure out the answer. For the "red suspenders" joke, the kid is supposed to try to guess why the suspenders are red. Might it have something to do with the color of firetrucks? Could there be a safety or fire-related reason why the suspenders would be red? At last, the kid gives up and says "I don't know."
Then, the punchline: "to keep their pants up." Of course, that's the whole purpose of suspenders. Inevitable in hindsight, but surprising to a kid who got distracted by the color.
"Why did the chicken cross the road" is like that, but not quite as good IMO. The chicken crossed the road for the same reason anyone crosses a road, to get to the other side of the road, but the listener is supposed to get distracted with the question of why a chicken would cross the road, and give up.
"Why did the sun climb a tree?" is definitely in the family of antijokes. The joke is to mislead the listener to focus on the tree. I think it's certainly made funnier by who's saying it; it feels inevitable in hindsight that young kids would tell jokes that are only halfway coherent. (This is part of why marginally coherent improvised on-the-spot jokes seem funnier than prepared material.)
Re: LLMs tell bad jokes because they avoid surprises
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
But some of these are pretty creative, perhaps in an anti-humor sort of way. Seems more of a subversion of joke structures than a lack of understanding. > A man goes to a doctor's office and says "Doctor, I'm a chicken." And the doctor says "No you're not." > There are two guys, riding a bike. One is washing his hair. And the other one is not. > What do you get when you cross a t-rex and a chicken? Nothing but death.
Seems like you stumbled over the concept of the Antiwitz. Congratulations :D https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiwitz
The concept exists in English as well. Kaufman, Norm Macdonald, Isaac Asimov.
Re: LLMs tell bad jokes because they avoid surprises
#134[dead]
Re: LLMs tell bad jokes because they avoid surprises
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe the people raving about LLM progress are the same people holding them to those high standards? I don’t see what’s inconsistent about it. “Due to this latest amazing algorithm, the robots keep scoring goals. What do we do? Let’s move them back a bit!” Seems like a normal way of thinking to me… I see people fawn over technical progress every day. What are they supposed to do, stop updating their expectations and…
> I mean, when I sit in a train I don’t spend half the ride saying “oh my god this is incredible, big thanks to whoever invented the wheel. So smooth!” Two thoughts: - In that context, neither do you expect people to be invested in why the train is nothing special, it’s basically a horse cart, etc, etc - And maybe here’s where I’m weird: I often am overcome by the miracle of thousands of tons of metal hurtling along…
Louis CK did a bit on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdFB7q89_3U :)
My point isn’t that other people shouldn’t be amazed, it’s that I see this recurring assumption they aren’t. How do you know the people holding LLMs to higher standards aren’t also the same people who herald the dawn of a new AI era?
Emphasis in the text you quoted: “saying”, not “thinking”.
Re: LLMs tell bad jokes because they avoid surprises
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
With more thorough prompting: > Complete the following joke. Think carefully and make it really funny! Think like a great comedian and find that perfect balance of simple, short, surprising, relevant, but most of all funny. Don’t use punchlines that are irrelevant, non sequiturs, or which could be applied to any other setup. Make something funny just for this one setup! Here goes: Why did the sun climb a tree? Claude…
...can anyone come up with a legitimately funny punchline for "Why did the sun climb a tree?" I feel like I need a human-authored comparison. (With all due respect to OP's daughter, "to get to the sky" isn't cutting it.) I'm not entirely sure that a good response exists. I thought GPT-5's "to demand photon credit from the leaves” was very mildly funny, maybe that's the best that can be done?
According to the incongruity model, the humor response is triggered by awareness of conflicting interpretations of the narrative. In jokes, this triggering usually hinges on some linguistic ambiguity.
To leverage incongruity, a funny punchline for "Why did the sun climb the tree?" would rely on an unexpected interpretation of the question or a double meaning in the answer.
Re: LLMs tell bad jokes because they avoid surprises
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Even 6 year olds don't understand humour at all. Very similar to LLMs they know the shape of a joke from hearing them before, but they aren't funny in the same way LLM jokes aren't funny. For further examples see a great deal of documentation here: https://www.tumblr.com/badkidsjokes
But some of these are pretty creative, perhaps in an anti-humor sort of way. Seems more of a subversion of joke structures than a lack of understanding. > A man goes to a doctor's office and says "Doctor, I'm a chicken." And the doctor says "No you're not." > There are two guys, riding a bike. One is washing his hair. And the other one is not. > What do you get when you cross a t-rex and a chicken? Nothing but death.
> Seems more of a subversion of joke structures than a lack of understanding.
Yeah it can be unintentionally funny in that way but children definitely aren't trying to do that. They just don't understand how jokes work.
Re: LLMs tell bad jokes because they avoid surprises
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
With more thorough prompting: > Complete the following joke. Think carefully and make it really funny! Think like a great comedian and find that perfect balance of simple, short, surprising, relevant, but most of all funny. Don’t use punchlines that are irrelevant, non sequiturs, or which could be applied to any other setup. Make something funny just for this one setup! Here goes: Why did the sun climb a tree? Claude…
...can anyone come up with a legitimately funny punchline for "Why did the sun climb a tree?" I feel like I need a human-authored comparison. (With all due respect to OP's daughter, "to get to the sky" isn't cutting it.) I'm not entirely sure that a good response exists. I thought GPT-5's "to demand photon credit from the leaves” was very mildly funny, maybe that's the best that can be done?
It tried to be bold,
but the mountain was cold.
The rocket was cruel and demanded more fuel.
A tree wished to grow, but alas, too slow; in exchange for a tan, the sun gave what it can.
The sun reached its goal — with its new friend, coal.
Re: LLMs tell bad jokes because they avoid surprises
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the weirdest conversation about a joke that is definitely making its target audience laugh -- as a comedian, I say that's the only honest measure of a joke. But allow me to analyze the shit out of this, because the only thing funnier than a groaner is meticulously explaining the groaner. It's at least as funny as "why did the chicken cross the road," which is only a joke inasmuch the punchline is merely a sta…
OP author here. A number of commenters here have argued that "Why did the chicken cross the road" is a subtle allusion to the chicken's death, but I don't think that's why it's a classic joke. We traditionally start kids off with antijokes, jokes where the "surprise factor" is that there's nothing surprising at all, where the punchline is completely predictable in hindsight. It's more than a mere "groaner." Another c…
> We traditionally start kids off with antijokes, jokes where the "surprise factor" is that there's nothing surprising at all, where the punchline is completely predictable in hindsight. It's more than a mere "groaner.
Which I find completely strange. An antijoke doesn't make sense (and isn't funny) unless you're already familiar with a non-anti-joke!
And before you say "well it makes the kids laugh"—is that because they find it funny or because they know that laughing after a joke is what you're "supposed" to do? Maybe that's one in the same to a young child.
Re: LLMs tell bad jokes because they avoid surprises
#140This post got me wondering, so I asked chatgpt for jokes about hackernews as if made by various comedians...I laughed at one or two /shrug Bill Hicks (angry truth-telling prophet) "Hacker News is where ideas go to die. Not because they’re bad — but because 400 anonymous software prophets decided they’re God. And God doesn’t code, man." --- Bill Burr (ranty everyman, annoyed at everything) "I went on Hacker News once.…
I actually laughed at the last one.... Jesus.....