History Main / OrphanedSetup

* In ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'', to explain away Alyson Hannigan's maternity leave, the show has Barney tell Lily a "hilarious boy joke", i.e. a dirty joke, that causes her to shun Barney for several weeks. The setup is "What's the difference between peanut butter and jam." It's a real joke with a punchline far too risque for network television: "I can't peanut butter my dick up her ass."

* ''ComicStrip/HagarTheHorrible'' once had the jester start a "cute ethnic joke." First he asks if there are any Burgundians in the audience - "no use offending any sensibilities." Hearing no answers, he starts his joke. "Everyone knows how slow Burgundians are, right? Okay, so there's a Burgundian who wants to peel a fig..." He gets a few lines into the setup, only to be interrupted by an audience member: "Hey, wait a minute...''I'm'' a Burgundian!"
* ''ComicStrip/PearlsBeforeSwine'' has a RunningGag where they'll [[OverlyPrepreparedGag spend the whole strip to build up to a pun]], then in the last panel Rat will give a LamePunReaction to [[NoFourthWall author Stephen Pastis]]. On one occasion we got the first panel of a pun strip, then Rat [[RageAgainstTheAuthor went and clobbered Pastis with a baseball bat]].

* In ''TheBreakfastClub'', Bender tells a long complicated joke [[spoiler:to himself while crawling through an air duct,]] but then [[spoiler:falls through the ceiling]] before he can finish. - No real-life punchline, Judd Nelson ad-libbed the setup.
* In 1978's ''Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers'', Matthew starts telling a joke to Elizabeth, but she cuts him off before the punchline. Director Philip Kaufman explained the joke on the commentary:

Compare and contrast BrickJoke. Often overlaps with RiddleForTheAges.

Most commonly a limerick ("There once was a man from Nantucket"), a knock-knock joke, uses NoodleImplements, or crosses two elements.

* ''The National Lampoon Radio Hour'' once did a skit about an audition for comedic "straight men", with one setup line after another being delivered in rapid-fire fashion. Finally one guy blurts out a punch line by mistake ("You're a cab"), prompting the derision of everyone else in the room.

* ''The National Lampoon Radio Hour'' once did a skit called "Straight Man Auditions", in which the auditionees spit out one straight line after another. Finally one guy blurts out a punch line by mistake ("You're a cab"), prompting the derision of everyone else in the room.

* On ''{{Series/Alice1976}}'', Mel's mother comes to visit and on multiple occasions tries to tell Alice's young son the Nantucket limerick but gets cut off by Alice after the first line.

* In ''Series/{{Mash}}'':
-->'''Col. Blake:''' There was a young lady from Kent, who took off her...\\
'''Hawkeye:''' Steady, Henry.

* On the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "A Pest In The House", DaffyDuck bursts in on a sleeping hotel guest to tell him a joke he just heard, which takes too long because he's laughing so hard. During the set-up, the guest goes down to the lobby to punch manager Elmer Fudd on the face (a RunningGag throughout the cartoon) and comes back just as Daffy is getting to the punch line... which he had forgotten.

* In ''Film/FindingNemo'', Marlin, because he's a clownfish, is often being asked to tell a joke. He tries, but he keeps getting the set-up wrong and has to backtrack, never getting to the punchline. In the end he finally gets the joke right, but that time [[OrphanedPunchline we only hear the punchline]] ("With fronds like these, who needs anemones?")

* In ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'', to explain away Alyson Hannigan's maternity leave, the show has Barney tell Lily a "hilarious boy joke", i.e. a dirty joke, that causes her to shun Barney for several weeks. The setup is [[spoiler:"What's the difference between peanut butter and jam."]] While it's a real joke, and dirty, it's not as funny as they make it out to be.

* In ''Discworld/ReaperMan'', Ridcully, making a speech at Windle Poons's "going away party", starts out "You know, seeing old Windle sitting here tonight puts me in mind, as luck would have it, of the story of the cow with three wooden legs. It appears there was this cow, and --" at which point the Bursar stops listening because he's heard it before and the Archchancellor always gets the punchline wrong anyway.
** If you were wondering, the punchline is, "Well, a cow like that, you don't eat all at once!"

* In "The Naked Now" episode of ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', Data is cut off before he can finish a limerick about a woman from Venus.

* ''ComicStrip/PearlsBeforeSwine'' has a RunningGag where they'll spend the whole strip to build up to a pun, then in the last panel Rat will give a LamePunReaction to [[NoFourthWall author Stephen Pastis]]. On one occasion we got the first panel of a pun strip, then Rat went and clobbered Pastis with a baseball bat.

** In another Simpsons example, after a newly-sober and very competent Barney proves his newfound fitness by doing several athletic feats while reciting a few lines from the MajorGeneralSong, Homer tries to prove his worth as well by doing a cartwheel and beginning "There once was a man from Nantucket" but [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar he falls over and hits his head before he can finish.]]

* In ''Film/FindingNemo'', Marlin, because he's a clownfish, is often being asked to tell a joke. He tries, but he keeps getting the set-up wrong and has to backtrack, never getting to the punchline. In the end he finally gets the joke right, but that time [[OrphanedPunchline we only hear the punchline]] ("With friends like these, who needs anemones?")

[[AC:RealLife]]
* Once a clay tablet from ancient Sumer has been unearthed, that apart from several exchanges euphemistically described as riddles, bore a damaged fragment of text ending in "...your mother". Was it the world's oldest YourMother joke? Lacking the setup, we will probably never know.