History Main / LightBulbJoke

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* Creator/SergioAragones once drew a section called [[Magazine/{{MAD}} "A Mad Look at: Racism".]] One strip showed a bunch of white guys laughing as one of their friends told anti-semitic and anti-Mexican jokes. When he told the "How many Poles does it take to screw a lightbulb..." joke, [[HypocriticalHumor the other guys stop laughing and kick him out of the Polish restaurant.]]

** He gets another in the ''ComicBook/BadGuys'' sequel in comic form. "How many mutants does it take to change a lightbulb? Three to sit there and one to hang [around]." [[spoiler:Cue him nearly getting his head cut off because [[DudeNotFunny Yama considers making a joke about traumatised victims, one of whom hanged themselves, of a mad scientist seriously]] ''[[DudeNotFunny not cool]]''.]]

* ''Fanfic/TheNightmareHouse'' has [[WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse Luan Loud]] make the joke "How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb? Only one, but it has to want to change."

* The Literature/{{Discworld}} novel ''Discworld/{{Sourcery}}'' has [[HoldYourHippogriffs lamp-wick jokes]] (no [[Literature/TheAdventuresOfPinocchio relation]]):

* Series/{{Frasier}} starts dating a lawyer and over dinner Martin, a retired police officer, attempts this joke on her claiming they used to tell it all the time at his precint.

* Series/BigLove Margie tells one as a comeback to a possible suitor: "How many male chauvinists does it take to change a lightbulb? It's not the bulb that has to change."

* A rather dark example of playing with this trope occurs in Disney's ''Disney/{{Mulan}}.'' Shan Yu dispatches two captured enemy scouts to deliver his warning to the emperor. After the two have already started to run away, Shan Yu casually asks an archer, "How many men does it take to deliver a message?" The answer the archer gives us is "one" and a drawn bowstring, implying that one of the scouts was murdered because he was unnecessary.

* A FreezeFrameBonus in the ''WesternAnimation/GravedaleHigh'' episode "Frankenjockey" shows that one of the questions on Frankentyke's math quiz is "How many monsters does it take to change a lightbulb".

* ''FanFic/InfightinInsanityAndSocialIneptitude'': Courtesy of Russel- How many [members] of [team] Yarrow does it take to screw in a lightbulb? All four. They can't touch anything without surrounding it first (for context- this is in the Vytal tournament, and the team in question had ganged up on [[CatGirl Blake]]).

* ''Film/RaisingArizona'' has Glen who likes to tell "Dumb Pollack" jokes including the "How many Pollacks does take to screw a ligthbulb..." joke. [[LaserGuidedKarma it comes back to bite him in the end when he tries to talk his way out of a speeding ticket by telling the Polish-American traffic cop that pulled him over one of his jokes.]]

** In "Mad Mod" Starfire asks a {{Brainwashed}} Beast Boy, "How many Okarins does it take to Hogee a morflark?" to which the answer is "Finbar". However, it doesn't wake him up until Starfire mentions "[[NoseNuggets boogers]]".

* ''Machinima/SmashTasm'': "How many blondes does it take to screw in a light bulb? One, because gender stereotypes based on hair color are totally unfair and sexist." ...Trust me, [[ItMakesSenseInContext it's funnier in context.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/DungeonsAndDragons'': Eric asked how many dwarves were needed. His answer was that they weren't needed because they couldn't reach it.

* One episode of ''Series/NCISLosAngeles'' has Callen undercover as a disgraced sailor under arrest by an MP (played by Sam, also undercover). To keep up his JerkassFacade, Callen tells the following joke: "How many MP's does it take to change a light bulb? Fifty. One to change the bulb, and forty-nine to stand guard."

Long ago, this StockJoke involved mocking other groups, but today it is used almost exclusively for playful SelfDeprecation of the idiosyncrasies characteristic or (or associated with) one's own social group or hobby group.

A StockJoke about poking fun at groups with the ridiculous ways they would change a light bulb.

This can sometimes be mocking other groups, but it can also be SelfDeprecation of one's own group.

* ''ComicBook/BatmanWhiteKnight'': Back when he tried to be a comedian, [[SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker Jack Napier]] had one where he asked "how many [=GCPD=] does it take to change a light bulb?". The answer is "it only takes a Batman!".

--> '''Garrus''': How many humans does it take to activate a dormant [[PortalNetwork mass relay]]?

* ''Webcomic/DinosaurComics'' had "Inverse light bulb jokes" to reveal his friends' prejudices. The strip is [[http://www.qwantz.com/archive/001145.html number 1145]].