Word of the Day: Corny
Jokes in a foreign language are often the hardest to understand for learners.
The one thing to remember is that nobody laughs at corny jokes, so if you don’t get it and native speakers are not laughing at it, there’s a good chance the joke is a corny one.
A corny joke is one that is not funny because it’s not new, everyone knows it, and you’ve more than likely heard it a thousand times before.
Well, maybe YOU haven’t heard it a thousand times before, but the native speakers surely have.
Quite often, it’s older guys who tell these jokes.
That’s why they are called 親父ギャグ (an old guys gag) in Japanese.
I don’t know how many times I’ve heard my wife’s father, after drinking a few beers say ニューヨークで入浴 or ふとんがふっとんだ and laugh hysterically.
I must admit that at first, I found them funny, but now, not so much.
He’s the only one who laughs because everyone else is rolling their eyes while trying not to be embarrassed.
As I am getting close to old guy territory, I decided to share the ‘the corn has ears’ joke with you.
When corn is on the stalk or has been picked but not husked (peeled), it is called an ear of corn.
I often buy a fresh ear or two of corn a week when it’s in season.
It’s a great joke for kids to help them learn English and for old guys, well, because they are old guys.
Everyone else, though, thinks it’s a corny corn joke.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least a 6th-grade education (age 11).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 81.
The higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100, the easier the passage is to read.