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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/44352
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Jokes are just humor where you provide both the set-up and the punch-line yourself.

A stand-up comedian talking to a room full of people has to reel off jokes one after the other, as they have no input from others (unless they're responding to a heckle or doing audience participation). In regular real-world conversation, you may need to divert to your own set-up in order to tell a joke.

However, in the context of story dialogue, it will seem very jarring to have a character suddenly stop everything in order to tell a joke. Unless that is the point (for example, writing a character that constantly diverts conversations to tell jokes) the reader may be confused as to how that is relevant to the story at all.

The benefit of writing the entire exchange is that you can make a joke out of the back and forth. Consider [this one-liner](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/comedy/comedy-news/11041140/Tim-Vines-vacuum-joke-voted-best-one-liner-at-Edinburgh-Fringe.html):

> I've decided to sell my vacuum cleaner... well, it was just collecting dust.

You can change this in the context of a dialogue by making it:

> "Do you need a vacuum cleaner? I'm getting rid of mine, I don't use it much."
> 
> "Sure, I'll take it. Seems better than it just collecting dust."

Obviously this is based around the fact that one character needs to dispose of a vacuum cleaner. But this works better than someone mentioning a vacuum cleaner, and another character telling a joke about vacuum cleaners.

Putting humor into an exchange isn't the same as having a witty back and forth, it is by definition a joke, as you are controlling both sides of the exchange. You're just allowing one character to provide the set-up and another to deliver the punch-line, as it sounds more organic to the reader.

So whilst writing dialogue, you may either know a pre-existing joke that you steer their conversation towards in order to be able to tell it, or you may have a character say something that naturally sets up a punch-line without it feeling forced. You may even want to have the same character deliver both the initial set up and punch-line by having another character provide the filler (like with a knock-knock joke).

The point is that you aren't required to have one character tell a joke to another in an attempt to make them laugh, because your objective is to make the reader laugh. This means that you can use the tools you have at your disposal to make the most effective joke, one in which you provide both the set-up and the punch-line within the story, even if the characters themselves don't find the situation humorous at all.

Original score: 2