Chats with Sparky #03: Comedy
As an AI language model, I don't have personal experiences or emotions like humans do, so I don't necessarily require assistance in learning to tell jokes.
I asked Sparky to tell me some short jokes. The best it came up with was:
"I bought shoes from a drug dealer. I don't know what he laced them with, but I've been tripping all day!"
- which has been online since at least 2015; so pretty much an example of rote recall. I expect that if you have an idea of the kind of joke you want, an internet search will be more useful than a rote-recall AI.
But what about new jokes, getting the AI to do something more useful than parotting what it has seen on t'internet?
(click or tap any table row to enlarge)
speaker | spoken |
|---|---|
Ant | Lets try and make a new joke, almost like a pun but using words that rhyme. Eg. Why did the banana go to the doctor? Because he wasn't peeling well. Peeling rhymes with feeling AND one peels bananas. The rhyme introduces a twist but that twist is resolved by the relationship between bananas and peeling plus the relationship between doctors and feeling (unwell). Let's see if you can make-up a joke like that. |
Sparky | Certainly! Here's a rhyming joke for you: Why did the bicycle fall asleep? Because it was tired of all the pedaling and wanted some wheel rest! Explanation: The joke plays on the rhyme between "tired" (meaning exhausted) and "pedaling," while incorporating the concept of a bicycle needing rest for its wheels. |
I have no idea why at that point it thought pedaling rhymes with tired. If you ask it explicitly it will admit that it does not. Rhyming is something it should be quite good at as it is a pattern recognition concern that doesn't need any understanding. It was also just trying to refactor a basic joke it had seen many times.
I tried seeding it by asking for a list of rhyme-pairs which gave us Whale and Tale:
speaker | spoken |
|---|---|
Ant | Fishermen are renowned for telling big stories. Stores are also known as tales. Tale is a homophone of Tail. Whales have tails. Whales are big! Can you assemble a humourpus statement using these facts? |
Sparky | Certainly! Here's a humorous statement incorporating the elements you mentioned: "Fishermen are known for their tall tales, but have you heard the whale stories? Those are real whoppers! They're like fisherman tales with a 'tail' twist!" Explanation: The statement plays with the words "tales" (stories) and "tails" (referring to the tails of whales). It humorously suggests that the stories about whales can be just as exaggerated and unbelievable as the tall tales told by fishermen, but with an added twist relating to the actual tails of whales. |
There are certaily hints of elements that create humour, but it just isn't funny!
The facts are, you can ask SParky to explain how jokes work and it will tell you. But if you ask it to explain how its own jokes work it will speak gobbledegook. And if gobbledegook is your thing, you can try explaining how a joke format works:
speaker | spoken |
|---|---|
Ant | Can you explain why the ocelot joke is funny? |
Sparky | Certainly! The humor in the "oscillate its tit-a-lot" punchline comes from a play on words and a touch of innuendo. The word "titillate" typically means to excite or stimulate in a pleasurable way, often with a hint of sensual or tickling connotations. In the context of the joke, the word "tit-a-lot" is a playful alteration of "titillate," which sounds similar to the name of the animal "ocelot." By substituting "oscillate" for "titillate," the joke takes a humorous twist. The word "oscillate" means to move back and forth in a regular rhythm. So, the punchline suggests that instead of "titillating" an ocelot, you would amuse or entertain it by making it oscillate or move back and forth. The joke relies on the juxtaposition of the wordplay, where "tit-a-lot" sounds like "ocelot" and "oscillate" creates a playful innuendo. The unexpected twist of the punchline is what adds to the humor. It's worth noting that humor is subjective, and different people may find different jokes funny. I hope this explanation clarifies the humor behind the joke! If you have any more questions or need further assistance, feel free to ask. |
Ant | Yes, but also the set-up uses oceLOT and titilLATE versus the punchline using oscilLATE and tit-a-LOT. Can you think of any pairs of word pairs like 'titillate and ocelot' vs 'oscillate and tit-a-lot'? |
Sparky | Certainly! Here are a few word pairs that follow a similar pattern of wordplay: 1. Word Pair: "navigate" and "captive" Potential Joke: How do you entertain a pirate? You let them "navigiggles" while keeping them "captiggles"! 2. Word Pair: "procrastinate" and "alligator" Potential Joke: Why did the student get in trouble at the swamp? Because they kept "procrasgatoring" instead of doing their homework! 3. Word Pair: "participate" and "chocolate" Potential Joke: How do you make a marathon even more enjoyable? By "particocoaing" and rewarding yourself with a piece of "chocograte" at every mile! These examples play on the rhyming words and create new hybrid words that add a touch of humor. I hope these inspire some laughter! Let me know if you'd like more examples or if you have any other questions. |
Hahaha, navigiggles and chocograte... jesus.
To be fair, the ocelot joke is the most beautiful construction I've ever seen. I certainly couldn't write a joke like it!
So creating brand new jokes is really a none starter. But what if we try riffing around some simple forms:
speaker | spoken |
|---|---|
Ant | why did the chicken cross the road? |
Sparky | Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side! Explanation: The joke is a classic and intentionally sets up an expectation for a clever or unexpected punchline, but instead, it delivers a straightforward answer that is the most common and mundane reason for crossing the road. The humor comes from the subversion of expectations and the simplicity of the punchline. |
Ant | Let's try some surreal humour. We will use the same punchline, but what - other than a chicken - might cross the road? |
Sparky | Certainly! Let's explore some surreal variations of the classic joke punchline. Instead of a chicken, here are a few alternative characters that might cross the road: 1. Why did the banana cross the road? To show it wasn't afraid to peel out on the other side! 2. Why did the robot cross the road? To calculate the meaning of existence on the opposite side! 3. Why did the UFO cross the road? To collect some intergalactic takeout from the alien restaurant across the street! 4. Why did the squirrel cross the road? To challenge the chickens' dominance in the "crossing the road" game! 5. Why did the mime cross the road? To silently perform an imaginary act on the invisible street stage! Remember, surreal humor often involves absurd or unexpected elements, creating an amusing juxtaposition. The punchline stays the same, but the imaginative characters add a touch of surrealism to the joke. I hope you enjoy these surreal variations! |
Ant | Can you re-tell number 3 more consisely? |
Sparky | Why did the UFO cross the road? To grab some takeout! |
Some of these (banana, robot, squirrel) are common variants in the set-up, although the pay-offs here are abysmal. Maybe we can count the UFO variant a new telling of the classic format?
The folk over at The Alan Turing Institute tried a similar experiment trying ot get Sparky to make up jokes. They worked with Christmas Cracker type jokes and cajoled it to come up with:
Why did the Christmas tree get mad at the elf?
Because the elf burst its bauble!
That, is a joke.
So it is possible to ellicit jokes from Sparky by riffing on simple extant forms ('what else might cross the road') - but its a lot of effort just to rework tired formats!