The Beauregard Thread--For Everybody Who Didn't Get A Joke

[Fraggline]

Hi, everyone! This thread is for everybody who, when it comes to that one confusing joke in an FR episode or Muppet movie, feels like blinking hard and declaring, "I don't get it." Maybe this thread will help!

I figure that people can post jokes they didn't get here and others can answer them and...well, you get the point.

Anyway, here's one from me. Does anybody get the "koala bear" joke Fozzie tells Kermit in TMTM---you know, the one right before the show starts and everybody's trying to get Kermit to "come to" again?

 

[Gonzo's Hobbit]

I always thought that joke was one of those ones that nobody gets becaus eyou came in on the middle of it. So whoever wrote it can make the punchline as obscure as they want.

 

[minor muppetz]

There's a number of times when we hear the punchlines to jokes without hearing the set-up (Floyd's joke backstage in the Dom DeLuise episode following Don't Blame the Dynamite, a joke Maria tells Gordon at the beginning of the "Sleeping Grouchy" episode). In the Loretta Lynn episode we hear the set-up and punchline to a joke Fozzie told, but a train sound blocked out the middle of the joke, which was perhaps the most important part.

Still, the joke Fozzie told involved somebody answering the phone, not knowing it was a CALL-ola bear. Call-wola = koala. Play on words.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Still, the joke Fozzie told involved somebody answering the phone, not knowing it was a CALL-ola bear. Call-wola = koala. Play on words.

OK thanks, I always figured that's what it was, but you never know, lol.

 

[Fraggline]

Thanks, everyone! Always wondered what that meant...:3

In the Loretta Lynn episode we hear the set-up and punchline to a joke Fozzie told, but a train sound blocked out the middle of the joke, which was perhaps the most important part.

Love that one! It's one of the funniest moments of the whole episode, in my opinion. Poor Fozzie, it wasn't his fault he didn't get a laugh...well, that time, anyway.

 

[minor muppetz]

In the Jean Stapleton episode, in "At the Dance", Bunsen dances with a woman with no mouth, and he says "I see you have nothing to say". Kermit says he doesn't get it, and Miss Mousey says he'll have to think about it. A few jokes later and Bunsen tells the "You still have nothing to say" joke and Kermit comments that he thought about it and still doesn't get it. But then there's a joke that I really don't get, and Kermit comments that he doens't get that.

With the final joke, some rhinocerous woman asks her partner if he's doing something to her leg (I have trouble understanding what). The partner says no, and then she says she thinks it fell off, and she falls, to which Kermit responds "I don't get that, either."

I don't quite get it. Seems the character just had a wooden leg, but it doesn't really play right. Is that bad joke just done for the sake of having Kermit say he doens't get it?

 

[David French]

With the final joke, some rhinocerous woman asks her partner if he's doing something to her leg (I have trouble understanding what). The partner says no, and then she says she thinks it fell off, and she falls, to which Kermit responds "I don't get that, either."

I don't quite get it. Seems the character just had a wooden leg, but it doesn't really play right. Is that bad joke just done for the sake of having Kermit say he doens't get it?

The Male Whatnot says that he loves his partner (named Letitia). She asks if he is pulling her leg as it just dropped off. The joke is in the line "Are you pulling me leg?"

 

[minor muppetz]

The Male Whatnot says that he loves his partner (named Letitia). She asks if he is pulling her leg as it just dropped off. The joke is in the line "Are you pulling me leg?"

Oh, I misheard it as either "hitting" or "pinning".

 

[minor muppetz]

Another joke in "At the Dance" that I didn't quite get... Actually, it's the punchline. The joke goes...

"You say you were born in Paris? How'd you manage that?"
"The usual way"

And I'm thinking, why would anybody aks how somebody managed to be born anywhere? We can't pick how or where we're born.

Another joke I feel might not play out much to those who aren't real hardcore fans is the first appearance of the "shouting lady". Pretty much all her appearances are in "At the Dance", and I don't know if the writers expected audiences to remember her every time, but in her first appearance, she asks her partner if she can announce their engagement, and then excitedly shouts she's engaged.

Now, I think it's normal for women to be that excited about being engaged, and considering her main gimmick, it doesn't seem that loud; That was actually the most appropriate time I cna think of for her to shout. And she actually spoke quietly before announcing their engagement. And of course it was her first appearance (going by production order; airing order might be different but even then it seems odd for those who don't remember every minor gag character that easily). Also, even though I know the character, I don't think that gag was very funny.

 

[David French]

Another joke in "At the Dance" that I didn't quite get... Actually, it's the punchline. The joke goes...

"You say you were born in Paris? How'd you manage that?"
"The usual way"

And I'm thinking, why would anybody aks how somebody managed to be born anywhere? We can't pick how or where we're born.

The joke is more in the word "manage"; the question that is really being asked is "How did you come to be born in Paris? What were your parents doing there?"

"The usual way" answer indicates that the dancer has misinterpreted the question to literally mean "How did you manage to be born in Paris?" I'm assuming we all know how we literally come into this world.

Another joke I feel might not play out much to those who aren't real hardcore fans is the first appearance of the "shouting lady". Pretty much all her appearances are in "At the Dance", and I don't know if the writers expected audiences to remember her every time, but in her first appearance, she asks her partner if she can announce their engagement, and then excitedly shouts she's engaged.

Now, I think it's normal for women to be that excited about being engaged, and considering her main gimmick, it doesn't seem that loud; That was actually the most appropriate time I [can] think of for her to shout. And she actually spoke quietly before announcing their engagement. And of course it was her first appearance (going by production order; airing order might be different but even then it seems odd for those who don't remember every minor gag character that easily). Also, even though I know the character, I don't think that gag was very funny.

The joke is a play-on-word on "announce"; she literally announces the engagement. Normally you "announce" it to friends and family or in a newspaper.