One-line joke

A one-liner is a joke that is delivered in a single line. A good one-liner is said to be pithy - concise and meaningful.^[1] Comedians and actors use this comedic method as part of their act, e.g. Jimmy Carr, Tommy Cooper, Rodney Dangerfield, Norm Macdonald, Ken Dodd, Stewart Francis, Zach Galifianakis, Mitch Hedberg, Anthony Jeselnik, Milton Jones, Shappi Khorsandi, Jay London, Mark Linn-Baker, Demetri Martin, Groucho Marx, Dan Mintz, Emo Philips, Tim Vine, Steven Wright and Henny Youngman and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Many fictional characters are also known to deliver one-liners, including James Bond, who usually includes pithy and laconic quips after disposing of a villain.

Examples

• "A baby seal walks into a club."
• "A dyslexic man walks into a bra." (Anonymous)
• "There are three types of people, those who can count and those who can't."
• "Venison's dear, isn't it?" (Jimmy Carr)
• "An escalator cannot break, it can only become stairs." (Mitch Hedberg)
• "Race is just a pigment of the imagination." (Glen Highland)
• "What Iran needs now is a more modern leader—a mullah lite." (Shappi Khorsandi)
• "I have nothing to declare except my genius." (Oscar Wilde, upon arriving at US customs, 1882)^[2]
• "Take my wife ... please." (Henny Youngman)
• "They hired a 3-piece band that was so lousy, every time the waiter dropped a tray, we all got up and danced!" (Les Dawson)
• "What a magnificent show this is going to be when it starts!" (Ken Dodd)
• "Infamy, infamy, they've all got it in for me" (Kenneth Williams playing Julius Caesar in Carry On Cleo)
• "I hate when I am about to hug someone really sexy and my face hits the mirror." - Bill Murray^[3]
• "I have an L-shaped sofa... Lowercase." (Demetri Martin)
• “Crime in multi-storey car parks is wrong on so many different levels.” (Tim Vine^[4])

See also

• Greguería
• Paraprosdokian
• Throwaway line

References