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Stewart Lee, in his Cynical Cash-In BookTM, How I Escaped My Certain Fate, refers to his use of the comedian's trick of immediately following a punchline by launching one word into the next sentence, which is then allowed to atrophy, to general amusement. It lends the material a propulsive quality and somehow makes the joke funnier. Stew erroneously and amusingly attributes the popularising of this trick to the 90s work of Irish comic Dara O'Briain, and claims it is known by the industry name of O'Briain's Truncated Appendage. I say erroneously attributes because I first encountered the trick in the work of Bill Hicks, whom I have been listening to since the age of ten (the only area in which I am precocious is in my absorption of inappropriately grown up filth), and since my description is unclear, here's an example from his material:
"I was over in Australia during Easter. It was interesting to note they celebrate Easter the same way we do; commemorating the death and resurrection of Jesus by telling our children a giant bunny rabbit left chocolate eggs in the night. Now..."
Followed by a long pause for the appreciative laugh which the Truncated Appendage almost always receives.
You see if everywhere though, even in print, wherever funnies are made. This example from Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book. It has been compiled and recompiled many times over many years and under many different editorships. It contains contributions from countless numbers of travellers and researchers.
The introduction begins like this:
'Space,' it says, 'is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly mindbogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space. Listen...'
and so on."
I'm just saying. Deployed properly it's rarely not funny. Use it well.
"I was over in Australia during Easter. It was interesting to note they celebrate Easter the same way we do; commemorating the death and resurrection of Jesus by telling our children a giant bunny rabbit left chocolate eggs in the night. Now..."
Followed by a long pause for the appreciative laugh which the Truncated Appendage almost always receives.
You see if everywhere though, even in print, wherever funnies are made. This example from Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book. It has been compiled and recompiled many times over many years and under many different editorships. It contains contributions from countless numbers of travellers and researchers.
The introduction begins like this:
'Space,' it says, 'is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly mindbogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space. Listen...'
and so on."
I'm just saying. Deployed properly it's rarely not funny. Use it well.
