A punch line is the final part of a joke or comedy sketch, usually the word, sentence or exchange of sentences which is intended to be funny and to provoke laughter from listeners.

For instance, in the following well-known joke:

A man walks into a bar with a duck under his arm.

The bartender asks: "Hey, where did you find the pig?"

"It's not a pig, it's a duck," the man answers.

To which the barman replies: "I was talking to the duck."

"I was talking to the duck" is the punch line: if people laugh at the joke, it's when they hear that part.

Punch lines generally derive their humor from being unexpected. "Punch line" is probably an Americanism, but the "punch" could be related to biting lines delivered by the "Punch" character in Punch and Judy shows. In previous centuries, a joke was sometimes a "bite" or a "hit."

The classic stand-up punch line sound is a sting (erroneously called a rimshot) on drums.

Not all jokes rely on their punchlines for laughs. Shaggy dog stories are long-winded jokes where the punchline is deliberately anticlimactic, and are not intended to elicit laughter; the Aristocrats joke is arguably the most famous of these types of jokes.

British comedy troupe Monty Python were famous for using very few punchlines, usually ending sketches abruptly. In Monty Python Live in Aspen, Terry Gilliam explains: "Our first rule was: no punch lines.. [some sketches] start brilliant, great acting, really funny sketch, but punch line is just not as good as the rest of the sketch, so it kills the entire thing. That's why we eliminated them."

External links

• Punchlines from greatest jokes
  

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