Ran
I don't get the grammar humor here, plz help me out! " the past, present and future walked into a bar, it was tense." I can see there're two meanings here, and I understand the grammatical one. What confused me is the nervousness one, what makes it nerverse exactly? Btw, do you still remember the first time you heard this joke from?
Jul 22, 2014 5:26 PM
Answers · 31
2
It's a reference to old cowboy movies - the classic moment when a cowboy walks into the bar where his rival is drinking, and it all goes quiet. The atmosphere suddenly becomes tense, as everyone waits for the fight to start.
July 22, 2014
"To be tense" means to have tension. In this case, tense nerves - ready to react at any second.
July 22, 2014
Or you could do a political joke with it. The storyteller is a French diplomat (or the President), in come the British Prime Minister, The US President and the Chinese President.
July 22, 2014
See this news story hot off the press about Hollande calling the British hypocrites: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2701158/Cameron-tells-EU-countries-needs-hit-sanctions-against-Russia-banking-energy-defence.html The atmosphere in your apocryphal bar would be very tense indeed.
July 22, 2014
There's no reason for it being "tense", the author of the joke made it that way so that it would be funny.
July 22, 2014
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