My favorite joke of his. - I picked up a hitchhiker. For a while, we rode in silence. Finally, I said "Put your seatbelt on. I want to try something...I saw it in a cartoon, but I think I can do it."
"I was out in the desert and a UFO landed and these three 1 inch tall guys stepped out. They walked over to me and I said 'hey are you really 1 inch tall?' and they said 'no, we're just really really far away'".
>Last year we drove across the country. We switched on the driving... Every half mile... We had one cassette tape to listen to on the entire trip... I don't remember what it was.
The joke is they spent a long time in the car together listening to One cassette driving across country... How is it possible that he can't remember what it was?
I bought a new house. In one of the rooms in the house there's a light switch that doesn't do anything. Every so often I walk through the room and flick the switch just for fun . 3 months later I got a postcard from a lady in Germany saying "knock it off."
That's the joke? I'd say that "switched on driving" apparently meant that they were taking turns at the wheel, but in fact they were turning the cassette.
If you're in a vehicle that's travelling at the speed of light, and you turn the headlights on, does anything happen?
Also, the other night I came home late, and tried to unlock my house with my car keys. It started up. So, I drove it around for a while. I was speeding, and a cop pulled me over. He asked where I lived. I said, 'Right here, officer.
“When I was little, one Christmas, my grandfather gave me a box of broken glass. He gave my brother a box of Band-Aids. Then he said, "Now you two share."
I've always loved, "Two babies are born on the same day in the same hospital and they're placed in the same room together. Coincidentally, 85 years later, both of them are dying and once again they wind up in the same hospital, on the same day, in the same room. The one looks at the other and says, "So. What'd you think?"
I have to believe this is way older than a Steven Wright joke, even though I laughed again. I'm certain I read it in a comic when I was about 10... that's 55 years ago. And I bet it's older than that.
To add on, not having a specific reference in mind is part of the fun. The audience gets to spend a moment considering what he might be attempting to do, which is the same mental space the hitchhiker in the story is in. You're going on the same journey they are for a moment.
Anyone that was born at a time when Duracell/Everlast batteries were not commonly used is not going to get that joke. In the 80's and 90's almost every portable electronic device had to use batteries, for example 2 AAA's (small) or 2 AA's (bigger). Everything from remote controls to flashlights to walkmans or discmans or gameboys etc.. But they had to be put in a very specific direction and it was often hard to tell in which direction each one had to go in first. Sometimes it would take me 1 or 2 minutes of flipping them around in each combination until you either got it to work or figured out they were dead/expired. Maybe that helps you get the joke?
You’re thinking of Mitch Hedberg? He’s not obscure. He’s just part of a comedy world that isn’t podcasting twice a week. A lot of comedians exists just doing their local circuit.
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u/CielRouge74 1d ago
TIL that Steven Wright is still alive.
My favorite joke of his. - I picked up a hitchhiker. For a while, we rode in silence. Finally, I said "Put your seatbelt on. I want to try something...I saw it in a cartoon, but I think I can do it."