Avoiding The Punch Line
Not all jokes have a punchline in a classic sense. Some comedic sketches simply end abruptly, or fade to black without a conclusion. Shaggy dog stories are long-winded anti-jokes where the punchline is deliberately anticlimactic, and are not intended to elicit laughter. Slapstick humor often relies more on an action and comical reaction instead of an actual punchline, but a pie in the face or pratfall can still work as a comical conclusion to a premise.
Monty Python moved away from punch lines as they found it increasingly hard to find good ways of rounding up humorous sketches. Terry Gilliam's animations and The Lumberjack Song were two of the many methods used to conclude sketches without punch lines.
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Famous quotes containing the words punch line, avoiding the, avoiding, punch and/or line:
“I never had anybody but you ... not a real husband ... not even a man.... It’s a bad joke without a punch line.”
—Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928)
“The only sure way of avoiding these evils [vanity and boasting] is never to speak of yourself at all. But when, historically, you are obliged to mention yourself, take care not to drop one single word that can directly or indirectly be construed as fishing for applause.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“As you are entered with the class of Nat. philosophy, give to it the hours of lecture, but devote all your other time to Mathematics, avoiding company as the bane of all progress.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“There are two kinds of fathers in traditional households: the fathers of sons and the fathers of daughters. These two kinds of fathers sometimes co-exist in one and the same man. For instance, Daughter’s Father kisses his little girl goodnight, strokes her hair, hugs her warmly, then goes into the next room where he becomes Son’s Father, who says in a hearty voice, perhaps with a light punch on the boy’s shoulder: “Goodnight, Son, see ya in the morning.””
—Letty Cottin Pogrebin (20th century)
“I thank heaven for a man like Adolf Hitler, who built a front line of defense against the anti-Christ of Communism.”
—Frank Buchman (1878–1961)