What is the difference between a duck?

1 ANSWERS

1. Leonardo
   

   A normal follow-up question would be: What is the difference between a duck and a (what) -------? Click on the related questions below to find out the differences between a duck and a: goose, platypus and seagull As phrased, the question is also one of many variants on a surrealist joke. One phrasing of the joke proceeds in this vein as follows: Q: "What is the difference between a duck?" A: "Because ice cream has no bones." The joke deliberately plays upon the fact that there is no second direct object in the framing of the question and therefore nothing to which the duck is compared. Further, the answer to the question is framed in a way that is only superficially responsive, and the substance of the response is nonsensical. Thus, the appeal to humor within the joke is based on absurdity rather than, for instance, a play on words or a reference to a taboo subject such as human sexuality. Not all people find humor in jokes of this nature. Surreal humor as exemplified by the "duck joke" is most frequently favored by college students, a particular subset of professional comedy writers, and voracious readers of Douglas Adams novels. A standardized set of surreal jokes of this nature circulates around such communities in much the same manner as in-jokes or "response" scripts supplemental to B-movies such as the Rocky Horror Picture Show, and in a manner similar to other similar kinds of alternative subcultural phenomena, evolve over time and with retelling.

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