This mini episode has a joke for you about the pandemic. (A joke about the pandemic? That's right!)
Episode 180 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that features a joke about the pandemic. Send your questions about English and your suggestions for future episodes to EverybodyESL@gmail.com! (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
I am going to say something now that I have not said since episode 157 from March 2020, and that is... Now it is time for the Joke of the Week!
That’s right: the Joke of the Week, a joke that doesn't really come once every week and is also not very funny. But I still like the Joke of the Week because I think these jokes can show us interesting things about English.
And here is this week’s joke. Although I can't really call it “this week's joke” because it is the first joke in almost five months.
Here's the joke: What is the only kind of joke you can tell in quarantine during a pandemic? What is the only kind of joke you can tell in quarantine during a pandemic?
Do you have any idea what the answer might be? Well, I'm just going to tell you. What is the only kind of joke you can tell in quarantine during a pandemic? An inside joke! An inside joke.
Do you get this? Do you get why this is supposed to be funny? It’s because the word inside means two different things.
The first meaning is... well, not outside. In some area. Like, in your home. If you are in your home, you are inside. And we see the second meaning in the phrase inside joke. An inside joke is like a private joke. It’s kind of like a secret joke. You and your friend might have an inside joke. There's something that is very funny for the two of you, but the other people around you don't understand. They don't know why this is funny. But to you and your friend, or you and your friends, this secret, special, private joke is very, very funny. We call things like that—those funny things that friends share—we call those “inside jokes.”
So now you can understand why this is supposed to be a joke. Because in quarantine during a pandemic, everybody is supposed to stay inside. So I guess that means the only kind of jokes you can tell are inside jokes.
What do you think? Is that funny at all? Well, I think it’s a little bit funny. Anyway, that is the first Joke of the Week since March.