History Main / LateToThePunchline

->''"The thing about childhood is that nothing makes sense. You have no idea what half the jokes on sitcoms are about, WesternAnimation/BugsBunny keeps making references to WWII-era European dictators you don't recognize, and Hot Wheels always manage to go around the loop-the-loop just fine on the commercials. So you just relax and go along with it, and fifteen years later you look back on the things that confused you and say 'Ah! Yes! It makes perfect sense now!'"''

* Dane Cook has a standup routine where he's talking about the really annoying sort of car alarms, and coming up with lyrics to go with the alarm noises. He says that it might seem stupid now, but the next time you hear a car alarm, you'll stop and think to yourself, "Ha ha, that Dane Cook is a silly bitch."

* "In Blackest Night", a story by Creator/AlanMoore from ''Tales of the Franchise/GreenLantern Corps'', has a variation where it's not that she doesn't get the joke but that, because of who made it, she initially fails to realize there was a joke at all:

* Matt Groening's ''ComicStrip/LifeInHell'' has a very cute one. Milhouse Mouse is telling all his friends (including Bongo the Rabbit) a dirty joke about a lady who owned a little dog named "Freeshow." The punchline is that one day the lady was in the bathtub and realized that Freeshow had gotten out, so she jumped out of the tub and ran out the front door, tearing down the neighborhood street completely naked while screaming: "Freeshow! Freeshow!" All the kids laugh except for Bongo, whose face remains expressionless. Then he goes home, does his homework, eats dinner, etc.....before finally climbing into bed for the night, and ''then'' he gets the joke and starts laughing.

* In the ''Fanfic/SorrowfulAndImmaculateHearts'' story "AUX", Franchise/WonderWoman is bemused when Flash and Green Lantern make a double entendre about balls. Four pages and several changes of topic later, she suddenly announces, "Testicles! They were making a joke about testicles. I always forget about those."

* ''Film/WonderWoman2017'': During the five ComicBook/EttaCandy shorts made to promote the DVD release she comes to a rather late realization about the fake surname ComicBook/SteveTrevor came up with for Diana:

-->'''Peter:''' I have more creativity in my whole body than most people do before 9:00 A.M..
-->'''Lois:''' The only thing you create before 9:00 A.M. is exactly what you've turned my show into.
-->'''Peter:''' I think my work will speak for itself. ({{beat}}) I just got that. A poop joke? [[SarcasmMode That's real creative, Lois.]]

** Another time Phoebe talks about walking from Central Park to the Central Perk coffee shop, then stops and adds, "Hey, that's the first time I got that joke."

* ''Series/FTroop'': A running gag was that Sergeant O'Rourke wonders how to get out of a situation when Corporal Agarn would come up with a solution. O'Rourke would turn to him and say, "I don't know why people say your dumb." At the start of the next scene (usually), Argarn would retort, "Who says I'm dumb?"

** In another episode, Peter, hosting a children's variety show, is mauled by a mountain lion during a failed comedy sketch based on the classic "Who's on First?" comedy routine by Abbott and Costello. Peter is later visited in the hospital by the same mountain lion, bearing flowers and stating "I get it now: 'Who' is the guy's NAME!"

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' Bill and Dale tell Hank and Peggy a joke about them ordering nachos with cheese and the punchline is they tell the waitress "if it's nacho cheese then who's is it" and everyone enjoys a good laugh except Peggy, later much time has passed and Peggy says "oh I just got that nacho cheese joke it's funny!".