Of all the embarrassing things we do in our lives, there’s nothing quite as embarrassing as telling a bad joke — something, like having a mustard stain on your shirt or being caught with your zipper down, are embarrassments usually cost be absent-minded behavior. Even the distress caused by those involuntary bodily noises we sometimes make is relatively short-lived and soon forgotten. But, landing a lousy joke. Now, that something that tends to stick in people’s minds. There’s no feeling like when you realize your joke had bombed. Sometimes we know it as soon as we start telling the joke, other times we may think it’s funnier in our head and be surprised by the pained expressions on people’s faces.
For a standup comic, telling a bad joke, or “bombing” can be devastating. Just imagine being up on stage dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of people stare at you blankly after you tell a bad joke? It must feel like you would like to implode and disappear right then and there, however, many comics press on, sometimes saving their set with a few good comebacks. Some may even joke about how badly they bombed. In this 2013 video, we see Jimmy Fallon address the topic of bad jokes in a hilarious spoof of the hit AMC TV show “Breaking Bad.”
Image via YouTube
In the video, Fallon’s being told by an NBC executive that his show only has six months. This sends Fallon on the seedy path of the joke underworld, where he starts writing and selling jokes on street corners. The entire misadventure takes a bizarre turn when Fallon ends up selling every joke he had except his “purest” joke, one which was said to be so funny that it would make a person laugh their butt off (literally).
Image via YouTube
Watch Fallon venture down the bad joke path in the video below.