According to Proffunguy, a regular contributor to Urban Dictionary, a joeke is a joke told by Joe—a legendary character known for delivering ambiguous jokes with (hopefully) humorous puns.
Here is a joeke straight from the Dictionary: “Do you know where the fish keep their money? In the riverbank, of course.”
Many of us, humans, struggle to get the pun behind these joekes. But what about our new AI overlord, ChatGPT? Does it get the puns or does it struggle just like the rest of us?
Let’s test this joeke version of the Turing test—I shall call it the J-Turing Test.
The termite joeke
“A termite walks into a bar and asks, is the bartender here.”
Get it?
It’s okay if you didn’t. You wouldn’t be the first one. It took Joke Explainer three years to figure it out. The initial explanation was that the termite asked the question to make sure that the bartender wasn’t present as they might otherwise prevent it from eating the wooden bar. Not funny.
Fast-forward to 12/31/2019, three years later, Joke Explainer now gets the pun: bartender vs bar tender. Funnier.
ChatGPT vs. The termite joeke
Writing in the New York Times, Farhad Manjoo found ChatGPT to have “a devastating sense of humour”. Okay, but does it understand joekes?
Let’s take ChatGPT through the J-Turing Test by asking it to explain the termite joeke.
ChatGPT wouldn’t get the pun, despite all my efforts. And just like humans, it got cranky and started lecturing about how humor is subjective.
And it went downhill from there. Awkward.
Many humans struggle with the termite joeke
You don’t have to feel too sorry for ChatGPT as many humans struggle with the termite joeke. For instance, you can buy yourself a T-shirt for 22 bucks from TEEPUBLIC that messes up the joeke. “Where is the bar tender?” Seriously? 🧐
Conclusion
ChatGPT failed the J-Turing Test and couldn’t be prompted to understand the lame pun of the termite joeke. But perhaps this makes it more human?
Updates
