This is only a quarter-baked idea, as I have not fully formulated it yet.

You have a deck of joke "factors." (A woman, Santa Claus, some beer, a bald guy, a bar....) You take a certain number of cards. You consider them. (Will it be dirty? Will it have a pun? Will it have shock value? All three? Something different? will it merely be a comedic situation or observation?)

For a quick version, players exchange cards with each other and the draw/discard pile until they have a joke. Then they lay down. they tell the joke. If somebody else has a joke, they tell it last-minute and then the other players vote for their favorite. They also vote on whether they like it or not. Both at the same time, i mean. Points for factors used, funnyness, votes, etc.

Continuation: the joke is layed down. Somebody adds something to it, or modifies it, or lays something else down and takes from the other one. Points are distributed accordingly. A sort of combination of poker and Rummicube.
-- Eugene, Dec 26 2002

I like this. Kind of prompted improv.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Dec 26 2002


A rabbi, Santa Claus, and Maggie Thatcher walk into a bar... bartender says "What is this, a joke or something?"
-- Malakh, Dec 26 2002


//A rabbi, Santa Claus, and Maggie Thatcher//
That beats my hand. All I had was a blonde, a redneck, and a duck.
-- Amos Kito, Dec 27 2002


Love it!!
-- Pericles, Feb 10 2003


I think the joke type should be a card too. Like a "joker", ha ha. No really, you could get "type" cards (pun, shock, dirty, clean, etc..) and element cards (bald guy, priest etc..). Either way, my vote is a +!
-- DickWeed, Feb 10 2003


Promising start, [Eugene], but more baking required, as you said. What are the different joke components? People, places, sure. What about the punchline? Is that a card type or are the players intended to furnish the punchlines?
-- count_crackula, Feb 10 2003


I like the idea but seems to be a lot of room for things that are not funny. It would take some very creative people to play with so this game would not be for everyone. The sytem you have needs some tuneing.
-- bkornele, Feb 18 2004


The cards might have lists of hint phrases or words that could pertain to the card's subject?
-- Zimmy, May 02 2005


this is great. would be a good tool for teaching people how to tell jokes in english, who dont speak english.
-- benfrost, May 02 2005


Joke In The Box
-- 37PiecesOf Flair, May 02 2005


Doctor Remulac 3 has done extensive testing of this concept (actually, I spent about 3 seconds thinking about it) and determined that the jokes would come out with about a 1 in 10 chance of being funny and then only due to their absurdity. More likely, these cards would produce nonsensical "zen /haiku" style stuff like: "A donkey... - A librarian... - A doorknob... - walked into an... - easter bunny... - gulag... - and fried... - the front lawn... - Buddah said... - More tranmission fluid... - and they said... - love the rubber mat... . I could be totally wrong on this one though. With a little work somebody could probably come up with a interchangable matrix of ideas that all fit within a framework that would deliver something funny when mixed up randomly. However, if you're that clever, your time might be better spent coming up with a cure for cancer or something.
-- doctorremulac3, May 02 2005


(+) for crazy inprov.
-- Shadow Phoenix, Nov 06 2007


This is as great as all get-out.

[+] for the very reason that [doctor 3] whines about.

But actually I could see the deck being built in such a way as to make forming actual jokes the challenge, while sharing the fun and surreal nature of the aleatoric jokes that will arise:

A rabbi / and a blonde / are falling from a building / one looks at the other and says / "pass me the soap"

You don't technically win the game with that one because it makes no sense, but we all win because it's so delicious.
-- globaltourniquet, Nov 07 2007


What do you get when you cross a rabbi, a blonde, and a bar of soap?
-- k_sra, Nov 07 2007



random, halfbakery