Ding Dong

Warming Up

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On yesterday’s Substack I added a joke title late on, “Did you hear about the World Champion Air Campanologist? He won the No Bell Prize.”

I did not fully expect that to be an original joke, but someone called Pete in the comments wondered it I was the first to come up with it. Obviously others have come up with the idea of Nobel sounding like “no bell” and indeed “no ball”

eg) Did you hear what happened to the guy who invented the knock knock joke? He won the Nobel prize.

In my version the funny bit isn’t the pun (I mean, puns are very rarely funny - only when you hear one that has never occurred to you, which as a comedian is a very rare). It’s a joke that wouldn’t play well in a comedy club because most people probably wouldn’t immediately recognise what a campanologist is and even those who did might take a few seconds to work out what I meant by “air campanologist”. Ah, it’s like playing the air guitar, but with church bells. What a bizarre idea. And if he was the world champion he would have won the No Bell prize. I don’t think it will make anyone laugh out loud. Well only the kind of people who make a show of laughing at jokes in Shakespeare to show how clever they are. It’s more like a crossword clue and works in a blog as you have time to think about it, look up definitions and ponder.

And the funny thing (for me at least) is the idea of there being an “air campanologist”. That someone would mime along to church bells ringing, without having an actual rope. It would make quite a good sketch I suppose - what kind of person would do that? what would miming ringing bells look like? What kind of reaction would he get from the people doing the actual bell ringing next to him? It takes a lot to be low status to a campanologist, but I think the air campanologist would achieve it. It’s a nice flight of fancy and a sketch that would actually be ruined if it ended with him winning the No Bell prize. You’d groan. You’d think, oh that fanciful idea was just an excuse to come up with a shit pun. Though the idea wouldn’t have existed without the shit pun, it’s a better sketch if you dump the original joke and just concentrate in exploring the possibilities of the set up.

You could get to this sketch idea by thinking about what the funniest musical instrument to play an air version of would be and you might not come up with bell ringing. But church bells might be the funniest instrument to play an air version of, given how far away from the bell the bell-ringer has to stand. Sometimes you arrive at great comedy ideas (and I am not saying this is one, but it’s not terrible) by a circuitous route.

Yet if you’re doing it as a joke, it’s better to leave the idea unexplored and let the reader find the humour in it themselves. Comedy is so weird.

I didn’t come up with the pun Nobel =no bell, but am I the first to think of playing the air churchbell?

A google of air campanology suggests that maybe I am. You an add the achievement to my grave stone.

Or at least they could put my joke on a mug… (fucking hell - who would want this?)

RHLSTP Book Club with Emma Doran now up here.

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