I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn’t it.

[güey]

Hello there,
Could you pelase tell me what this joke mean? My best guess is he has had (in his life) a perfectly wonderful evening (perhaps only one), but this one (at the time of speaking) is not a perfectly wonderful evening. But I doubt I'm correct.

One-liner. “I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn’t it.” That one-liner was delivered by Groucho Marx.

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/the-10-most-popular-types-of-jokes

 

[5jj]

You are correct.

 

[Tarheel]

Hello there,
Could you pelase tell me what this joke means? My best guess is he has had (in his life) a perfectly wonderful evening (perhaps only one), but this one (at the time of speaking) is not a perfectly wonderful evening. But I doubt I'm correct.

One-liner. “I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn’t it.” That one-liner was delivered by Groucho Marx.

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/the-10-most-popular-types-of-jokes

The first thing to keep in mind is that it's a joke. That means the intent is humor. Therefore, it's going to be said in such a way as to be a little different from normal. Groucho says, "I've had a wonderful evening" then he ends with the tag line, "but this wasn't it.' That's the unexpected (and funny) part.

Groucho was very good at one-liners.

 

[güey]

The first thing to keep in mind is that it's a joke. That means the intent is humor. Therefore, it's going to be said in such a way as to be a little different from normal. Groucho says, "I've had a wonderful evening" then he ends with the tag line, "but this wasn't it.' That's the unexpected (and funny) part.

Groucho was very good at one-liners.

Frankly, maybe this joke relies on knowing context (why "this" is not it), because as a stand-alone joke, I still don't know what's funny about it. Unlike the other one-liner in that quote, which is obvious:
“Why do they call it rush hour when nothing moves?”

 

[tetrahall]

Could you pelase tell me what this joke mean?

Should it not be "means":-
Could you please tell me what this joke means?

 

[Tarheel]

@güey Yes, cultural context. Specifically the kinds of things people say to each other, and the kinds of things you expect to hear. While a native-speaker might instantly "get it" a nonnative speaker might find the same joke very hard to understand. It's about context.

 

[emsr2d2]

You have to first understand that after two people have enjoyed an evening together, a classic line from one would be "I've had a wonderful evening. Thank you so much". The joke here is that the line starts as you might expect, and the listener would expect it to continue as I've shown, but instead Groucho's line changes tack completely to say (as you understood), "I've had a wonderful evening ... but it wasn't this evening. It was some other time".

 

[güey]

You have to first understand that after two people have enjoyed an evening together, a classic line from one would be "I've had a wonderful evening. Thank you so much". The joke here is that the line starts as you might expect, and the listener would expect it to continue as I've shown, but instead Groucho's line changes tack completely to say (as you understood), "I've had a wonderful evening ... but it wasn't this evening. It was some other time".

Oh, now it's clear, I didn't guess the double meaning of "I've had a wonderful evening."!

 

[emsr2d2]

Oh, now it's clear. I didn't guess the double meaning of "I've had a wonderful evening no full stop here"!

 

[Tarheel]

Oh, now it's clear, I didn't guess the double meaning of "I've had a wonderful evening."

There isn't one. In fact, you're supposed to take the first part as an ordinary statement. That is followed by the twist. It's not that there are two possible meanings to it. It's that he takes the regular meaning and makes it mean something else.

 

[güey]

There isn't one. In fact, you're supposed to take the first part as an ordinary statement. That is followed by the twist. It's not that there are two possible meanings to it. It's that he takes the regular meaning and makes it mean something else.

Maybe I expressed myself badly - I meant the "double meaning" of the present perfect. I immediatelly assumed the "past experience" sense, and the sense of the "unfinished time period" didn't occur to me.

 

[Barque]

I'm not sure you've got it yet.

When someone says "I've had a wonderful evening" after an evening out, the listener would think he meant that particular evening.

But the joke is that he was referring to another evening, because "I've had a wonderful evening" could also mean (in theory), "I've had a wonderful evening, which was two years (or six months, or five days) ago".

I've had a wonderful evening. But it was two years ago. Tonight wasn't wonderful.

 

[probus]

The most effective way to kill the humour in a joke is to explain it.

 

[Barque]

My best guess is he has had (in his life) a perfectly wonderful evening (perhaps only one), but this one (at the time of speaking) is not a perfectly wonderful evening. But I doubt I'm correct.

You got the intended meaning (as intended by G. Marx). You perhaps didn't get the conventional meaning immediately.

 

[SoothingDave]

The most effective way to kill the humour in a joke is to explain it.

"Jokes are like gossamer. One does not dissect gossamer" is how it was once expressed on Seinfeld. (Context: editor of Vanity Fair attempting to avoid trying to explain why a cartoon was funny.)

 

[güey]

I'm not sure you've got it yet.

I wonder why? By "unfinished time period" I meant the day of the event, before they go to sleep to wake up to the next day.

 

[probus]

Jokes are almost impossible to understand in a language that is not your mother tongue. I once heard of a lowlife bar in Mexico called "el higado no existe"; meaning "the liver does not exist". I thought it was very humorous, and evidently the owner thought it was funny enough to name his business after it, but my Mexican friends didn't find it funny at all.

 

[Tarheel]

Maybe I expressed myself badly - I meant the "double meaning" of the present perfect. I immediatelly assumed the "past experience" sense, and the sense of the "unfinished time period" didn't occur to me.

A lot of native speakers wouldn't know what you meant by that. (I'm not at all sure I do.) However, you can look at it this way: either you get it or you don't. (That's a common expression.)

 

[güey]

There could be the cultural barrier to understanding jokes in a foreign language, and the language barrier. I sometimes struggle with the latter, as far as jokes in English (specifically - wordplays, puns) are concerned. But I do get the majority of them.

but my Mexican friends didn't find it funny at all

Meaning did they find it inappropriate, or simply did not understand it? I'm not sure I do (I guess - if you don't have a liver you can drink all you want not being affraid of cirrhosis).

However, you can look at it this way: either you get it or you don't. (That's a common expression.)

I did after the first sentence of emsr2d2's explanation in post #7.

 

[Tarheel]

By "get it" I mean the person understands the humor (not the explanation).