- Hello, lovely students and welcome back to English with Lucy. I've got a really fun lesson for you today because we're going to delve or dive into the world of jokes. This is a really important
part of British culture. It's how we connect
and follow social cues. We're going to talk about
play on words, puns, all that good stuff. Now, I know that jokes tend
to be silly, but trust me, this is actually quite serious business because understanding jokes and nuance is a really important aspect of the advanced levels of fluency. Familiarising yourself
with multiple meanings of words is important at any level, so practising with the
flexibility of words and sentences is a great way
to put your brain to work and increase your comprehension skills. Something that might help you even further is that I have created a
free PDF for today's lesson. It contains everything that
we're going to cover today, plus a quiz so you can
test your understanding. If you'd like to download that,
all you have to do is click on the link in the description box, you enter your name
and your email address. You sign up to my mailing list and the PDF will arrive directly in your inbox, and after that, you'll automatically receive
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updates and course offers. It's a free service and you
can unsubscribe at any time. Right, let's get started with the lesson. So I think the most common
form of wordplay is the pun and there is so much
pun-related content circulating around the internet. Now, they're often
referred to as dad jokes and I personally love them. A pun uses the multiple meanings of a term or similar sounding words for
an intended humorous effect and puns often rely on homophones,
homographs or homonyms. "But what are homophones,
homographs and homonyms?" I hear you ask from
your tiny little screen. Homophones are words that
have the same pronunciation but different meanings,
origins or spellings. They can cause confusion in spoken language because
they sound identical. So context is extremely important. Here are some examples. We have pair, a set of two, and pear, a type of fruit. We have flour, the
ingredient for baking cakes, and flower, a blooming plant. Break, to separate into pieces and brake, a device for slowing a vehicle. Now, homographs have the same spelling but different meanings and they may have
different pronunciations. For example, bow, to bend at the waist, and bow, a decorative knot. Tear, to rip something and tear, a drop of liquid from the eye. We also have lead, a type of metal, and lead, to guide or direct. So as you can see, they can
cause confusion in writing because of their identical spelling. And finally, we have homonyms, which are words that
have the same spelling and pronunciation, but different meanings. Homonyms can be considered a combination of homophones and homographs and thus, cause confusion in
both speaking and writing. So much fun. Here are some examples. We have bark, the outer
covering of a tree, and bark, (dog barking) the sounded dog makes. Bank, a financial institution and bank, the side of a river. Bat, a flying mammal, and bat,
a piece of sports equipment. Okay, now that we have all of that background info out of the way, let's see how you do with
some of these play on words. If you don't understand them, that's okay. Let's just see how you do. Okay, firstly, did you hear about the guy whose whole
left side was cut off? He's all right now.
(Lucy chuckling) Do you get it? Do you get why it's funny? Okay, jokes are never as funny
when you have to explain them but that's why we're here, right? And that was a total dad joke. This absolutely hilarious pun plays on the homophones alright, and all right. The joke is that the man who
had his left side cut off would be in a terrible state,
but the punchline reveals that he is alright,
meaning he's doing well. All right also means only the right side, no left because he's had
his left side removed. He consists only of his right
side, so he is all right. Wow, that is so unfunny
now that I've explained it. Okay, another one. Did you hear about the bicycle that couldn't stand on its own? Yeah, it was too tired. Okay, this is a certified
dad joke right here. Here we have the homophones
too tired and two-tired. We need to understand that
too tired means exhausted while two-tired means having
two wheels or two tyres, the rubber bit on the wheels. The bike couldn't stand on its own because something with two
tyres will obviously fall over and something that is very,
very tired will also fall over. So doubly funny, hilarious. Editors, please can you
insert a laugh track. (people laughing) Thank you.
(Lucy chuckling) Okay, next. Love this one. Why are postmen so unhappy all the time? Because they're given
the sack every morning. (Lucy chuckling) My husband's in the background and he actually laughed a little bit. It was like a (Lucy snorting). Do you ever do that when
you see a funny video on your phone and you
don't laugh, you just go. (Lucy snorting) (Lucy chuckling) Now we can see how homonyms
can also be used to make puns. Here we're playing with the double meaning of the phrase give the
sack or given the sack. In this context, to be given
the sack means to be fired or dismissed from a job, but the joke is that the postmen are
given the sack every morning because they are provided with a bag or a big sack to carry the post in. (Lucy clapping) Okay, next one. I love this one. My mum tried to make a joke about the TV but it wasn't remotely funny. (Lucy chuckling) Okay, I guess rather than being
a dad joke, this one's more of a mum joke, but here we're
using the double meaning of the word remote. In this context, adding -ly or -ly to remote makes the adverb remotely, which means not at all. If something is not remotely
funny, it's not at all funny. However, remote is also
a shortened informal way to say remote control. This, the device used to
change channels on a TV. That is pure comedic gold if you ask me. Not remotely funny. (Lucy chuckling) She tried to make a joke about the TV, but it wasn't remotely funny. Maybe I should stop
teaching and go into comedy. Are you ready for our final
and most difficult one? Our most difficult dad
joke, it's a big one. There is a fine line between
a numerator and a denominator. It's okay if you didn't get that. Only a fraction will understand. (Lucy chuckling) Okay, this is actually a
two for one, two pun alert, double pun alert. We have two puns in this joke. First, in mathematics, a fraction is a numerical
quantity that represents a part of a whole expressed as a
numerator over a denominator. Part of the joke is that there
is a fine line which refers to the horizontal line that
separates them in a fraction but a fine line also means
a very small difference. For example, there's a very fine line between confidence and arrogance. Well, here we're saying
there's a fine line between a numerator and a denominator because they're part of a fraction. The second part of the joke is that the word fraction
means a small number outside of its mathematical meaning. Only a fraction will understand. Only a small number of
people will understand. Okay, I know these are pretty challenging but learning English should be enjoyable so don't forget to download today's PDFs. We have lots more examples in there and we have a quiz to
test your understanding. The link is in the description box. Also, you can connect with
me on my social media. I've got my Instagram and my Facebook. I've also got my website where
we've got lots more lessons and an interactive pronunciation
tool where you can click on phonemes and hear me pronounce them, and you can also check
out all of my courses. We have now released our B1
programme, our B2 programme and our C1 programme. They're all available for enrollment now. They are amazing if I do say so myself. I'm incredibly proud of
them and incredibly excited for you to take them and experience them. I will see you soon in another lesson. (Lucy kissing) (lively music)
