How to tell jokes in Spanish (part 2).
LESSON 2... and LESSON 3...!!
Here is another very funny joke. This one is a little more elaborate. Note how the imperfect tense (for structure see The Spanish Verb) is used to set the scene of the story before the action begins. However, following the oral style of joke-telling, when the events of the story begin, we revert back to the present simple. I have underlined the verbs in the imperfect so you can identify them. For example, 'caminaba' = 'was walking'. Notice, however, that in descriptive prose the Spanish speaker prefers the simple form 'caminaba' to the compound form 'estaba caminando' (also 'was walking'). My notes at the link above on 'pretérito imperfecto' should clarify this point.
Un Pingüino Afortunado.
El agente Pérez de la policía caminaba por la calle. Era un hombre feliz. Hacía un día espléndido y todo marchaba bien en la vida del agente Pérez. De repente, ve a una pareja de mayores aproximándose y se fija que van caminando junto con un pingüino. Y pregunta el señor mayor al agente:
-Buenos días. Mire usted, encontramos este pingüino en la calle. ¿Qué hacemos con él?- Y el agente piensa un poco y después dice:
-Pues, ¿Creo que será buena idea llevarlo al zoológico-contesta el agente. Y el señor mayor contesta:
-Qué buena idea. ¡Muchas gracias agente!-. Y se van los dos con el pingüino caminando hacia el zoo.
Al día siguiente, el agente Pérez se encontraba una vez más en la calle caminado feliz cuando otra vez ve a la pareja de mayores aproximándose y otra vez junto al mismo pingüino. Pregunta el agente algo enojado:
-Pero, oigan ustedes, ¿no les he dicho que llevaran este pingüino al zoológico?
-Sí, agente-contesta el hombre mayor-, y le gustó tanto que hoy le vamos a llevar al parque y esta noche vamos al cine.
FIN
( Glossary: el agente Pérez = Policeman Plod, caminaba = was walking, hacía un día espléndido = it was a lovely day, todo marchaba bien = all was going well, una pareja de mayores = an old couple, se fija = he notices, pingüino = penguin, encontramos = we found, zoológico (zoo) = zoo, se encontraba una vez más en la calle = he was in the street once again, algo enojado = a bit annoyed, no les he dicho que llevaran... = didn't I tell you to take..., y le gustó tanto = and he liked it so much, le vamos a llevar = we're going to take him.)
OK, so that was hilarious too! Now, what you really want to do is to write your own material and post it to my 'Stories and Poems Forum', don't you? (Why do I want you to do that? There isn't a catch, but it makes it more fun for people visiting this site if there is stuff to read other than my verb tables and grammar phrases! )
Furthermore, this site is about USING your Spanish. You'll find that if you start to write full texts in Spanish, you'll begin to ask yourself questions about the language and investigate how it can be done. As a teacher (yes, I'm a teacher!) I have found that when students carry out practical language tasks with full texts (holistic language) they improve their communication skills more than if they concentrate on grammar exercises (bits of language only - not holistic.) Right, so that's enough of the theory. Now back to the jokes...
LESSON 3.
How to construct your joke.
Writing your joke is very easy. It's made up of two parts: a preamble and the punch line.
The punch lines of the two jokes we have just seen were as follows:
-Pues, es verdad, señor, pero no se queje usted. Esta es una mesa para dos. and...
- Sí, agente- contesta el hombre mayor-, y le gustó tanto que hoy le vamos a llevar al parque y esta noche vamos al cine.
We can see that this is the only part of the joke that is or should be funny everything is leading up to the punch line. So, when writing in Spanish, ensure your ending is well-structured, short and crisp.
This means you only need to write the 'preamble' and then stick it in front of the punch-line. (Make sure it neatly fits together, of course.) You can really be as imaginative as you like when constructing your preamble. Experiment with the imperfect tense as you saw in lesson Two or just make it simple and write everything in the present like in Lesson One. It should all lead up to the big laugh (or at least a smile) at the end. I have noticed that when non-natives tell jokes in a foreign language the linguistic inaccuracy of the preamble does not affect the quality of the joke but where the joke usually falls down is in the punch line. If the accuracy and timing of the punch line fails then the joke just flops!
Well, that's the end of the lesson I hope you got your money's-worth! If you are still unmotivated to write a funny story in Spanish, think of it this way: you owe it to the Spanish-speaking world to bless them with your wonderful sense of humour! Thanks to you, a joke never heard before in South America could spread like wildfire across the country and put smiles on millions of faces - for such a virtuous deed you probably (won't) get the Nobel Prize!
P.S.: Get more ideas on Spanish jokes from this web site from Chistes.com from South America. (frequently updated)
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