If you laugh, you're fluent. Understanding jokes in English.

Added: 2026-06-04

[00:00:00]If you understand native speakers when they're telling jokes, that's a sign that you have reached one of the final levels of fluency. In this video, you will improve your English fluency by learning some words and expressions in English jokes. I will tell you some jokes and you can test your fluency by whether or not you understand them. If you understand these, your English is probably quite fluent. Have you ever been in a conversation where everyone started laughing, but you had no idea what was so funny? Many jokes contain words with a double meaning and you might only know one meaning of the word.

[00:00:39]And by the way, sometimes what's funny in one culture may not be funny in another culture. First, let's learn some words and expressions related to jokes.

[00:00:49]We can say, "I get it." And that means I understand the joke. Or you can say, "I don't get it." I don't get the joke and that means I don't understand it. I don't know why it's funny. Another common expression is it went over my head. The joke went over my head and that means I didn't understand the humor. I don't know why it's funny.

[00:01:10]Everybody laughed but the joke went over my head. Let's look at the meaning of punchline. The last part of the joke that makes it funny is called a punchline. You can say the punchline was so unexpected that everyone laughed.

[00:01:25]Let's look at the expression to butcher a joke. And that means to ruin the joke by telling it very badly. If you butcher a joke, you completely destroy the joke.

[00:01:36]Maybe you forgot some details and the joke wasn't funny anymore. You butchered it. And we have a phrasal verb to crack up. And that's an informal way to say to laugh very hard. So, we say to crack someone up. That joke cracked me up. The stand-up comedian cracked everyone up.

[00:01:57]Or you can say to a person, "You crack me up." And that means I think you're really funny. You crack me up. Let's listen to some native speakers.

[00:02:06]>> I love responding and reading your comments. You guys crack me up with your questions.

[00:02:11]>> That just cracked me up, man.

[00:02:13]>> It cracked me up in the moment and it cracked me up on the rewatch.

[00:02:16]>> You cracked me up. Let's look at the adjective corny. If a joke is corny, it's silly or it's predictable, usually in an embarrassing way. Maybe it's old-fashioned or it's overly sentimental or it's outdated. You can say, "My dad tells corny jokes. That joke was really corny." And speaking of dads, we have the expression dad joke. Do you know what a dad joke is? A dad joke is simple and it's a clean joke and it's usually corny and it's predictable and it's sometimes intentionally silly and they're called dad jokes because they're the types of jokes that your father tells you. He thinks it's funny but a lot of other people don't. They just roll their eyes and they might say, "Oh, that's so bad." Or, "Oh, no." Or they might say, "That's such a dad joke." My dad used to tell dad jokes and we laughed. Not because it was funny, but because it was so bad. Here's an example of a dad joke. Why was the math book sad? Because it had too many problems.

[00:03:24]The joke uses a double meaning of the word problems. In math, problems means exercises or questions to solve, and it also means difficulties. So, the math book is sad because it has a lot of math problems, but it also sounds like it has a difficult life. And this is a typical dad joke because it uses word play and a very obvious punchline. Word play is also called play on words. It's a humorous use of language where a word has two meanings or the two words sound similar. Okay, let's look at the first joke. This joke has a play on words and you would need to know a very common English expression in order to understand this joke. Why don't skeletons fight each other? And the punch line is because they don't have the guts.

[00:04:20]You have to know the expression to have guts in order to understand the meaning.

[00:04:25]The first meaning which is not an expression is the inside of your stomach. That's called the gut. This is your gut. And skeletons don't have guts, right? They only have bones. But there's also the English expression to have guts. And that means to be brave, to be courageous, or to have determination and strength in difficult situations.

[00:04:50]Instead of saying to someone you are very brave, you can say you have guts.

[00:04:55]You have a lot of guts. And if you say, I don't have the guts, that means I'm scared. I'm afraid to do it. I wanted to tell him the truth, but I didn't have the guts. Or you can say, it takes a lot of guts to do that. It takes a lot of guts to perform stand-up comedy. This is a very common expression. Let's listen to how some native speakers use to have the guts.

[00:05:22]>> I didn't have the guts to tell my dad I was going to be an acting major. But if you're brave enough, if you have the guts and the vision and the passion, >> very few companies have the guts to do it.

[00:05:32]>> So, let's look at the joke again. Why don't skeletons fight each other?

[00:05:37]Because they don't have the guts. Let's learn another common English idiomatic expression through a joke. Here's the joke. Why was the calendar nervous? And the punch line is because its days were numbered. Its days were numbered means you have the numbers on the calendar. So the calendar's days really are numbered.

[00:06:00]But this joke also uses a common idiom.

[00:06:03]One's days are numbered. And that means something bad is going to happen soon.

[00:06:09]Something will end soon. It often means that a person will die. But it can mean that they will be fired or that they will be replaced. For example, you can say his days are numbered. He is old and sick. His days are numbered. And that means he's not going to live much longer. But you can also use this expression about objects. You can say, "I love my old car, but its days are numbered. It's very old. It's not going to last much longer. It keeps breaking down." Let's listen to how native speakers use this expression.

[00:06:44]>> In fact, once stars start forming inside a nebula, its days are numbered. To the criminal traffickers, I say your days are numbered.

[00:06:54]>> I think his days are numbered. And I think that the uh regime's days are numbered.

[00:06:58]>> Let's look at the joke again. Why was the calendar nervous? Because its days were numbered. Do you get it? Okay, let's go on to the next joke. Why do cows wear bells? And the punch line is because their horns don't work. You have to know the meaning of horns. It has two different meanings. This is a horn on a car and the verb is to honk. So you honk the horn to communicate with another driver. But there's another meaning of horn. These are cow horns. The cow has horns. So now you understand the joke.

[00:07:37]Why do cows wear bells? Because their horns don't work. Did you get it? Let's look at the next joke. This one is related to being able to hear the words that are connected. And here's the joke.

[00:07:50]Why did the scarecrow win an award?

[00:07:53]Because he was outstanding in his field.

[00:07:56]This is a scarecrow. And outstanding in his field means excellent at his job. So if something is outstanding, it's very good. It's impressive. It's excellent.

[00:08:08]And in his field means in his area of work or profession. We can say she's outstanding in her field. That means she's one of the best in her profession.

[00:08:21]And outstanding in his field sounds like outstanding in his field, meaning he is standing outside in the farm field. A scarecrow stands in a field. A field is a piece of land where crops grow like corn or wheat. So, he is literally standing out. He's physically outside and visible in the field. So outstanding sounds like outstanding.

[00:08:50]Exact same pronunciation because of linking. So why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field. Now you got it right. With the next joke, let's learn a common idiomatic expression.

[00:09:07]Why are frogs so happy? And the punch line is because they eat whatever bugs them. Bug has two meanings. It's both a noun and a verb. Bugs are insects. So a bug is another word for insect. Let's look at the other meaning of bug. This is a verb to bug. To bug someone. This is a very common expression. It means to annoy or to bother or to irritate. You can say, "It bugs me when people interrupt me." That noise outside is really bugging me. Stop bugging me. And the past tense is bugged with a double G. Let's listen to how some native speakers use to bug.

[00:09:52]>> I think this is probably just a creative decision that bugs me personally. This question has been bugging me for the longest time. That hypocrisy kept bugging me.

[00:10:02]>> Let's look at the joke again. Why are frogs so happy? Because they eat whatever bugs them. They eat bugs and they literally eat the things that annoy them. It's a play on words. Let's learn another common casual word that English speakers use all the time. And this joke is based on a homophone. A homophone is when two words have exactly the same pronunciation. And here is the joke. Why did the cookie go to the doctor? And the punch line is because it felt crummy.

[00:10:36]And crummy has two meanings. It can be spelled with mb y or a double m and y.

[00:10:44]Crummy. To feel crummy is to feel unwell, to feel sick. Sometimes it's physical and sometimes it's emotional or to be unhappy. So if you say I feel crummy, it means I don't feel good. And let's look at the other meaning of crummy. Look at the word crumb. The B is silent and that means broken off pieces of food or broken off pieces of bread.

[00:11:10]These are bread crumbs. Make sure that you're not pronouncing the B. So if you say the cookie is crummy, it means that maybe the cookie is falling apart. This cookie is crummy. So crummy and crummy are pronounced exactly the same way. And here's the joke. Why did the cookie go to the doctor? because it felt crummy.

[00:11:33]The cookie is crummy and the cookie felt crummy. It didn't feel good. Crummy is a casual word. It's very common. Let's listen to how some native speakers used it.

[00:11:44]>> It had a negative effect on me. It felt pretty crummy.

[00:11:47]>> Where astronauts came home and felt pretty crummy for quite a long time.

[00:11:51]>> If you're really sorry, you should feel crummy. The more expressions you know and the more vocabulary you know, the more easily you will understand native speakers and humor in English. So, make sure to keep expanding your English vocabulary and your knowledge of English expressions. And to continue your fluency journey and take your English to the final level of fluency, I recommend that you get my online courses. We have a lot of different courses that will help you really feel confident about your English. There's the 400 advanced words you must know for fluent English course, the American accent course that will teach you all the rules that you need to know for a good, clear, standard American accent. I also have a very popular course, the phrasal verbs course, where you learn some very common expressions directly from native speakers. and the new articles course that teaches you all the rules that you need to know about uh an un andthe.

[00:12:54]Those three little words that are very tricky for a lot of learners of English.

[00:12:59]To learn more about the courses, go to accurateenglish.com.

[00:13:03]Here's another joke that contains homophones. Do you understand this one?

[00:13:08]What did the grape say when someone stepped on it? And the punchline is nothing. It just let out a little wine.

[00:13:16]Wine has the same pronunciation as the verb to wine. As you know, wine is an alcoholic drink made from grapes. When someone steps on a grape, it gets crushed and the juice comes out, which is how wine is made. So, it let out a little wine means the grape produced a little wine. And to whine is a verb. It means to complain in a sad high-pitched voice. to cry or to complain annoyingly.

[00:13:47]Small children often whine. You can say to someone, "Stop whining." And that means, "Stop complaining." Don't whine about your homework. Just do it. Why are you always whining? Let's listen to how some native speakers use it. May seem obvious, but most people whine and wallow in their misery rather than just doing something.

[00:14:08]>> You can wish or you can whine or you can be a total jerk. Many of us are are angry and cynical and many of us spend a lot of our times whining.

[00:14:17]>> Don't complain and whine about what is.

[00:14:22]Create what is supposed to be.

[00:14:25]>> Let's look at the joke again. What did the grape say when someone stepped on it? Nothing. It just let out a little whine. It made a sound like it was whining, like it was complaining. Let's look at the next one. Do you understand this joke? What do you call a bear with no teeth? And the punch line is a gummy bear. To understand this joke, you have to know what gummy bears are. And you have to know the meaning of the adjective gummy. These are gummy bears.

[00:14:57]They're candy. Do you eat them in your country? And these are gums. They hold your teeth. And sometimes we say gummy.

[00:15:06]This is a gummy smile because we can see her gums. So, here's the joke again.

[00:15:12]What do you call a bear with no teeth? A gummy bear. Do you get it? Let's look at the next one. This joke has a very common idiomatic expression. And here's the joke. I stayed up all night wondering where the sun went. Then it dawned on me. In this case, the word dawn is used in two different ways. Do you understand both of those uses? I stayed up all night means I didn't sleep at night. I stayed up. I didn't go to bed. And dawn means sunrise. Dawn is the early morning time when the sun rises and the sky becomes light. You can say I woke up at dawn. In the winter, I have to wake up before dawn to go to work.

[00:15:58]So, I didn't go to sleep at night thinking about the sun. And then it became dawn. Morning came. It dawned on me. And to dawn on someone is a common idiomatic expression. It dawned on me means I suddenly realized. I suddenly understood. The answer finally came to me. I had a moment of realization. You can say the truth finally dawned on him.

[00:16:28]It dawned on me why my friend was so angry. Let's listen to some native speakers use to dawn on someone.

[00:16:35]>> And it dawned on me that maybe I should take my own advice.

[00:16:39]>> And it dawned on me right then and there that this group was at a structural disadvantage.

[00:16:43]>> And it dawned on me, maybe we're looking at this the wrong way.

[00:16:47]>> It just never dawned on me.

[00:16:48]>> And here's the joke again. I stayed up all night wondering where the sun went.

[00:16:54]Then it dawned on me. And that means the speaker stayed up all night looking for the sun. And then in the morning, two things happened. The sun finally appeared and the person suddenly understood where the sun had been. It finally dawned on him. Let's look at the next joke. And this one is also a play on words. Did you hear about the restaurant on the moon? Great food, but no atmosphere. The joke is funny because the word atmosphere has two different meanings. The first meaning of atmosphere is air, the gas around the planet. That's a scientific meaning. The moon has almost no air or atmosphere. So if you open a restaurant on the moon, there is literally no atmosphere. You can't breathe. But atmosphere has another meaning. It means the feeling or mood of a place, the ambiance. And when we talk about a restaurant or a hotel or a party, we talk about the atmosphere.

[00:17:56]Is it romantic? Is it lively? Is it fun?

[00:17:59]Is it relaxing? Etc. We can say this restaurant has a great atmosphere. And that means it feels nice. It feels pleasant to be there. And if we say this place has no atmosphere and that means the decor or the design is boring or cold and you don't want to be there. Did you get it? Did you hear about the restaurant on the moon? Great food but no atmosphere. How did you do? How many of the jokes did you understand? Let me know in the comments below. Thanks for watching and keep practicing your English.