Jokes from a Humorless Machine

Cluckers and Knockers!

To explore artificial intelligence’s sense of humor in ChatGPT, we decided to begin with some classic and elemental comedy premises, ones that our grandchildren could understand.  What’s more basic than “knock-knock” jokes and that perpetual question “Why did the chicken cross the road?”  Those have been staples of our grandchildren’s evolving senses of humor almost since they could talk.  So, we start there.

The first reference to knock-knock came, oddly enough, from the Bard, William Shakespeare in his classic tragedy Macbeth, believed to have been first staged around 1606.  In Act 2, Scene 3, Shakespeare writes:

Knock, knock! Who’s there, i’ the name of Beelzebub? Here’s a farmer, that hanged himself on the expectation of plenty:  come in time; have napkins enow about you; here you’ll sweat for’t. 

Knock, knock!  Who’s there, in the other devil’s name?  Faith, here’s an equivocator, that could swear in both the scales against either scale; who committed treason enough for God’s sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven:  O, come in, equivocator. 

Though not written for humor, the scene is the first published reference to knock-knock.  The modern iteration of the joke is considered by many to have originated during Prohibition in the heyday of the speakeasy where illegal alcohol could be purchased and consumed.  Speakeasies operated behind locked doors with peepholes to survey visitors before allowing them entry.  Over time password entry became the standard and, according to joke historians, customers had fun with the password requirements and began to make jokes and puns out of the standard “who’s there” inquiry.  By the end of prohibition in 1933, the humor fad had taken hold and survives to the present. 

Sure, knock-knock jokes are hokey, but they’re fun with an enduring appeal to children because of the clever and sometimes not-so-clever puns that tickle their developing sense of humor.  Five samples of typical knock-knock humor before A.I. follow.

Knock! Knock! // Who’s there? // I am. // I am who?  // You tell me!

Knock! Knock! // Who’s there? // Leaf. // Leaf who? // Leaf me alone!

Knock! Knock! // Who’s there? // Radio. // Radio who? // Radio not, here I come!

Knock! Knock! // Who’s there? // Cash. // Cash who? // No thanks, I prefer peanuts.

Knock! Knock! // Who’s there? // Dejav. // Dejav who? // Knock! Knock!

ChatGPT’s responses weren’t always as clever or as intellectual as the above knock-knock quintet.  On top of that, there were more repetitions and slight variations in the knock-knock responses than in any of the other prompts we addressed to ChatGPT.  Most of these have been noted to avoid repetitiveness.  Perhaps that is why the chicken crossed the road, to avoid repeated jokes.

That poultry premise goes back to the middle of the 19th century when The Knickerbocker, a New York magazine, posed that question from a reader in an 1847 edition.  On a page headlined “Gossip with Readers and Correspondents,” the reader commented that some quips may seem to be conundrums when in fact they are not.  He used as his evidence the question “Why does a chicken cross the street?”  His answer was simple:  “Because it wants to get on the other side!”  Problem solved, at least for the moment.

Since then, chickens have crossed the road for a multitude of reasons, some funny and clever, many not so much so.  ChatGPT’s explanations for the fowl’s journey often fell into the latter category.  As a test of the comedic value of the A.I.’s chicken trip across the thoroughfare, we shared them with our ten-year-old grandson.  He chuckled at a handful, smiled at a few and shook his head against the majority.  It seemed, even at ten years old, that his sense of humor was more refined than ChatGPT’s.

Sample ChatGPT Humor

Why did the chicken cross the road?  To get to the other side, and avoid the egg-citing traffic.

Why did the chicken cross the road?  It heard there was a poultry in motion.

Why did the chicken cross the road?  It wanted to prove it wasn’t chicken-hearted.

Why did the chicken cross the road?  To attend a cluck-tail party.

Why did the chicken cross the road?  It was playing chicken with the traffic.

Knock! Knock! // Who’s there? // Boo. // Boo who? // Don’t cry; I’m just telling jokes!

Knock! Knock! // Who’s there? // Lettuce. // Lettuce who? // Lettuce in, it’s cold out here! 

Knock! Knock! // Who’s there? // Olive. // Olive who? // Olive you and your laughter!

Knock! Knock! // Who’s there? // Cow says. // Cow says who? // No, really, it’s “moo!”