Lightbulb joke

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The lightbulb joke is an example of an endless-variations joke and has possibly thousands of versions covering every imaginable culture, belief, occupation and special-interest group. Generally the punchline is not complimentary to the group providing the subject of the joke.

The generally acknowledged "original" goes as follows:

Q: How many [insert chosen group here] does it take to change a lightbulb?

A-1: Ten — one to hold the lightbulb and nine to turn the ladder around.

[edit] Basic variations

Even the original is subject to variation, the most common involving more people turning the entire house around.

Once the subject is chosen, variations on the joke tend to achieve their comedic effect by highlighting features of the cultural or social group based on altering several variables:

• The quantity (ten, three, two, none, millions) of light bulb changers can be adjusted in unexpected ways in the punchline.
• The word change can refer either to replacing a light bulb or making a cultural or structural change. Often it is stated that the group that is the subject of this variation "will never change anything".
• The duration can be introduced as a variable, usually if the answer is "one".
• Light bulb jokes are sometimes used as passive revenge to poke fun at those who have become socially prominent, especially if the possibility of under-handed means exist.
• The word screw can be used to mean either a threaded fastener, to make a mess of something, to take advantage of, or the act of sexual intercourse.
• Other variations exist that achieve their effect through dramatic alteration of the joke paradigm itself, by not having a punch-line, or by simply making it nonsensical. Absurdists and surrealists are often the subjects of such versions.
• A common variation on the original form of the joke targets one of many groups that are viewed as having an inflated sense of self-importance, stating that it only takes one to change the bulb, as the world revolves around them.

This generic usability of the lightbulb joke prompted one commentator to create the "all-purpose ethnic version" which reads as follows:

Q: How many members of a (given demographic group) does it take to change a lightbulb?

A: 'N+1 (where N is a positive whole number)' — one to hold the lightbulb and N to behave in a fashion generally associated with a negative stereotype of that group.

[edit] See also

• Internet humor

[edit] External links

• Light bulb joke list — Probably the first such list on the Web, since about 1994. Even got mention in Time magazine in 1996.
• Peter Anspach's Star Trek Parody Pages — contains scripts for Star Trek Episodes of every flavour, each revolving solely around the business of changing a light bulb.
• Quickies about Light Bulbs
• Astrojokes — The Inevitable Lightbulb Jokes — Contains lightbulb jokes revolving around star signs and their personalities.
• A Prairie Home Companion