A certain kind of joke.

I learned another joke from my son Hugh this morning, and it seems to me structurally similar to one of my favourite jokes. In this short post, I will give you two jokes to enjoy and then ask your help: why are they similar, and what is it about them that makes them different from other jokes?

Joke 1.

Q. What’s brown and sticky?

A. A stick.

Joke 2.

Q: What’s orange and sounds like a parrot?

A: A carrot.

Although the puns are simple, the actual working of these jokes rely on a surprising reframing of the terms within the question phrase; the work of the joke happens not in the punch line, but in the set-up. Are there more like this?s