Talk about going viral: Paul Harrison, a syndicated gossip columnist, noted in 1936 that "Hollywood has failed to escape infection by the germ of that game Knock-Knock. Teresa who? Teresa Crowd!įletcher Henderson Orchestra. One of the examples in the Delaware County Daily Times: Knock knock. In August, the company announced a Knock! Knock! Contest with prizes. 3) Agnew I'd seen you somewhere before.Īnd back in Chester, the Edgmont grocery expanded its knock-knocking marketing campaign by crowdsourcing usable ad copy. Here are three of the punchlines: 1) Tarzan stripes forever. "Īnd columnist Ken Murray passed along this in the Altoona Tribune on July 30, 1936: "Evidently the anti-New Deal Democrats are also playing that new game.Īt the end of her duplicate bridge column in the Reading Times on July 31, 1936, Constance Gerhard tacked on a handful of rapid-fire knock-knocks. Don who? Don forget to do your shopping at the Cash and Carry. The Edgmont Cash & Carry grocery in Chester, Pa., ran a display ad in the Delaware County Times: Knock! Knock! Who's there? Don. But you've probably found that out for yourself." "They're fun and when some of the better orchestras perform them, they're screams. "You can't turn the radio on anymore without getting one of the Knock-Knock gags," Jean Mackenzie observed in a radio-listening column in the July 25, 1936, News Herald of Franklin, Pa. Writing in the Oakland Tribune, Merely McEvoy recalled that around 1900, a jokester would walk up to someone and pop a question like: "Do you know Arthur?" And the unsuspecting listener would reply, "Arthur who?" And the jokester would say "Arthurmometer!" and run off laughing. But who told the first knock-knock joke?īefore there were knock-knock jokes - as we know them - there were "Do You Know" jokes. So that, for better or worse, was Douty's initiation.
Mickey Mouse who? Mickey Mouse's underwear." The first joke that the 43-year-old Virginia comic remembers telling - at age 4 or 5 - was this: "Knock knock.
Knock knock jokes series#
When Melissa Douty - a stand-up comic who competed in the 2015 World Series of Comedy last week - was interviewed by a reporter in Roanoke, Va., recently, she said her career began with a knock-knock joke. Somehow - knock on wood - it has endured. In fact, in the heyday of the knock-knock's popularity, certain critics railed against it. With its repetitive set-up and wordplay punchline, the form has been invoked - and understood - by people of all ages and sensibilities.īut knock-knock jokes have not always been universally appreciated. The knock-knock joke has been a staple of American humor since the early 20th century. Joking like this used to be considered a sickness by some people.
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