One-liner joke

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A one-liner is a joke that is delivered in a single line. A number of comedians have adopted this comedic method in their act, and some, including Steven Wright, Emo Philips, Henny Youngman, Mitch Hedberg, Dan Mintz, Zach Galifianakis, Demetri Martin and Jimmy Carr have used one-liners to make up a significant portion of their repertoire.

[edit] Examples

  • "I have nothing to declare except my genius." (Oscar Wilde, upon arriving at US customs 1882[1])
  • "Race is just a pigment of the imagination" (Ben Harland)
  • "If all those sweet young things were laid end to end – I wouldn't be a bit surprised." (Dorothy Parker, on girls attending a Yale prom[2])
  • "Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies." (Groucho Marx[3])
  • "Take my wife – please!" (Henny Youngman)
  • "I went to a fight the other night, and a hockey game broke out." (Rodney Dangerfield)
  • "Black Beauty....Thats a dark horse." (Tim Vine)

[edit] References

  1. ^ Number 64300. The Columbia World of Quotations (1996). Retrieved on 2007-06-20.
  2. ^ Tuleja, Tad (1994). The New York Public Library Book of Popular Americana. Macmillan, p. 287. ISBN 0671899872.  Originally quoted in Leach, Joshua (1934). "Our Mrs. Parker", While Rome Burns. Viking Press, p. 149. “And there was that wholesale libel on a Yale prom. If all the girls attending it were laid end to end, Mrs. Parker said, she wouldn’t be at all surprised.”  Cited in Number 43615. The Columbia World of Quotations (1996). Retrieved on 2007-06-20.
  3. ^ Simpson, James B. (1988). Number 812. Simpson's Contemporary Quotations. Retrieved on 2007-06-20.