News You Can Bruise for 2003 October 15 (entry 1)

Wed Oct 15 2003 17:15 Jokes You Can Only Tell Once:

"Why is this joke so funny?"
"I give up, why?"
"Because the punchline is completely novel!"

You can only tell that joke once, but you could coast on this for a while:

"Why is this joke so funny?"
"I give up, why?"
"Are you kidding? It's a classic!"

But eventually you would have to switch to this one:

"Why is this joke not so funny?"
"Because the punchline is so stale."
"Yep."