History Main / CannotTellAJoke

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* The Man's Daddy from ''Series/{{Digitiser}}''.
* ''Podcast/RandomAssault'': Mitch.
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* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': In "Phantom of the Telethon", Stan ruins the delivery of a ''Literature/Goldilocks''-referencing joke meant to introduce a performing bear act by extending the wrong word ("right" instead of "just").

** After Michael is the face-slapping butt of Dwight's [[http://www.noob.us/humor/the-office-kgb-knock-knock-joke/ KGB knock-knock joke]], he argues with Dwight about answering Jim's "door". Of course, more [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking face-slapping]] ensues. That's because the KGB waits for no one.

-->Hey, I know a joke! A squirrel walks up to a tree and says, "I forgot to store acorns for the winter and now I am dead." Ha! It is funny because the squirrel gets dead.

* Biff Tannen in ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' is constantly, err, biffing his attempts at wordplay with lines like "Why don't you make like a tree and get out of here," and "That's as funny as a screen door on a battleship." Presumably everyone is too afraid of him to correct him. He is [[{{Lampshading}} berated]] for this by his older self in the [[Film/BackToTheFuturePartII second movie]].

* Masaomi Kida from ''{{LightNovel/Durarara}}''. Not that it stops him from trying at every chance.

* Colossus by his own admission in ''[[Comicbook/XMen Astonishing X-Men]]'' #19, after being told of a prophecy that he is destined to destroy the Breakworld:

* [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender Suki]] in ''FanFic/TheStalkingZukoSeries'', but her boyfriend Sokka thinks she's funny so it works out.

* The entire premise of Luann Lockhart on ''Series/MadTV'', the amateur stand-up comedian who has no idea how to tell a joke.

* In ''Videogame/MassEffect2'', Joker is forced to give EDI full control over the Normandy. While he is doing so, he complains about the possibility that he might be starting a trend that will lead to a ''Matrix''-like world, with organic life existing as batteries for the AIs. EDI comments that she enjoys the sight of humans on their knees, followed by a short pause and her saying "That was a joke." Joker's expression right after, of course, is absolutely priceless. However, it's less her being unable to tell a joke and more lousy timing: to anyone not trapped on a ship with homicidal aliens and a questionably sane AI (ie the player) it's hilarious, even without the followup.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'': Beast Boy is often telling jokes that make everyone else groan, especially Raven.

** Katara, who attempted to fill her brother Sokka's role as ComicRelief when he left the group to train as a swordsman for a few days.

** A variation; Homer fails at humorous limericks. He tries to disprove this by saying "There once was a man from, I think it was Nantucket. And anyway, he had this interesting characteristic..." At this point he can't remember the rest, and Lenny and Carl just snicker at him. (There is a RunningGag throughout the series of Homer never being able to finish the "man from Nantucket" limerick, which is ''extremely'' vulgar.)

* Harris Wittels from ''Podcast/ComedyDeathRayRadio''.

* Reed from ''Series/AdamTwelve''. He spends a good portion of the finale of Season 1 trying to tell Malloy a joke about ... a dog... and paint... or something, suffering constant interruptions from calls (not his fault) and his own disjointed retelling (totally his fault), and then he's crushed when Malloy doesn't laugh.

* German political satirist (among everything else) from the 20s, Kurt Tucholsky, wrote the sketch "A married couple tells a joke". It naturally ends in a divorce, GermanHumor and such.

* ''Series/StargateSG1'' had an episode where Teal'c attempts to tell a joke, and fails miserably.
** It's a translated Jaffa joke; presumably, it's hilarious to Jaffa (maybe there's some pun in Goa'uld that makes it work). It goes: "Three Jaffa meet on a strange planet: a Horus guard [worshipper of the hawk-headed Egyptian god Horus], a Serpent guard [worshipper of Apophis] and a Setesh guard [worshipper of a doglike god, long-lost and considered sort of like mythical bumpkins by the others]. It is a tense moment. The Horus guard's beak glistens. The Serpent guard's eyes glow. The Setesh guard's... nose drips!" And Teal'c bursts out laughing.

* In ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', one of Data's many attempts to become more human involves him trying to understand the nature of humor. He enlists the help of a holodeck comedian program, and memorizes all the jokes...then proceeds to completely botch the delivery of every one. [[SoUnfunnyItsFunny It's hilarious to watch.]] In one of the last episodes ("Journey's End"), he actually pulled a joke off ''perfectly'', then explained that it wasn't a serious statement, killing the joke.

* Roger de Bris from ''Film/TheProducers''.

->''"Know the joke. Know it cold. Know it. Know it. Anyone who gets halfway through a joke and says, 'And then, ah...let's see...I think he says something like...' should be [[DisproportionateRetribution stabbed with a dinner knife]]."''

* ''Series/{{Monk}}'' tries a few times, as a part of trying to become more social.

* ''WebVideo/CriticalRoleCampaignTwo'': Essek is an introverted academic whose jokes usually involve telling BlatantLies with [[TheComicallySerious complete seriousness]]. He often has to tell his friends when he was being facetious, and they still take one of his jokes as [[ImposterForgotOneDetail a sign of an impostor]].

* [[HonestCorporateExecutive Aruto Hiden]] of ''Series/KamenRiderZeroOne'' aspires to be a comedian but because his routine is all about [[IncrediblyLamePun half-baked puns]] and [[LargeHam excessive overreacting]] even by Japanese standards, no one laughs at them, save for [[TheComicallySerious Isamu Fuwa]].

* The Italian [[strike: ComedicSociopathy]] SadistShow series ''Series/CameraCafe'' has a sketch named "La barzelletta di Silvano" ("Silvano's joke") that [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin is based on this trope]]. It basically involves Silvano, a nerdy ButtMonkey, while he tries to replace an old (and supposedly overused before the sketch) joke involving a bald man to another one related to the math he usually has to deal with. The problem is, other than the new joke being a ReplacementScrappy of the previous ActuallyPrettyFunny joke, that, for one reason or another, he ''never'' gets to tell it. When a coworker of his ''finally'' manages to get him to return to the previous joke, Andrea the (''bald'') bodyguard comes in. And, as always, given how violent, sadistic and bossy Andrea is, the sketch ends exactly with [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown what happens every time Andrea appears in any sketch.]]

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** Episode 6: