• Chip_Rat@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    I took that as tongue and cheek supportive. As in, the friend is totally cool with their friend coming out as trans, but cants get over the choice of name.

    Is there a name for that type of swap humour? Where you set up a joke and the punchline plays off the less obvious point in the lead up?

    • EmptySlime@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      15 hours ago

      The actual type of play on words is called paraprosdokian. Where the in this case punchline is surprising in a way that makes you reinterpret the setup.

      In this case “I wanna be supportive but,” is kind of priming the reader to expect they’re gonna say some transphobic shit then you read “fucking Mildred?” and those expectations are subverted by the actual point being essentially “Why you taking names from 2000’s obituaries?”

      To my knowledge there’s not like a widespread name for this as like a comedic genre because it’s just one of the basic ways you can structure a joke. I’ve seen some comics call it a swerve or an anti-climax but nothing widespread.

      • Chip_Rat@lemmy.world
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        14 hours ago

        Thank you. That is so much more accurate than “bait and switch”, which another user helpfully provided, but they didn’t realize how unsatisfying that would be for me.

        I use this form of humour alot so now I have words for it!