Shadowing Practice: 2686 - Joke, Pun, or Prank? What’s the Difference? - Learn English Speaking with Video

Hey, Lindsay, how are you today?

Doing good, doing good.

Aubrey, how's it going?

I am great.

I'm excited to talk about jokes, puns, and pranks today.

How fun.

I know.

Aubrey, do you know any good jokes?

I mean, do you got anything off the top of your head you could share with us?

I've got one that my son loved.

The first time I told him this, he laughed so hard.

So maybe it's better for little kids.

But it is, what do you call a fish with no eyes?

Oh, that's a good question.

What?

What's the answer?

Fish.

that's good right love it so

if you remove the i in the word fish right

so you say that fsh so that's kind of a pun

and a joke it's a little language joke yeah i love language jokes i love a play on words

and it's always fun when you tell a kid

and it takes them just a second to figure it out

and then they get it and they're like thrilled

and then they die of laughter right this is unfiltered laughter

so cute um so this episode was inspired by a student

and who was that student Aubrey

so Geneviève from France in in our open conversation club one

of our live speaking events asked you know what is the difference between a joke a pun

and a prank great question we talked about it in this open conversation club

and I immediately was like this is going to be a

fun episode of the podcast yeah this is really fun I

mean I I listened to this one podcast um the Wall Street Journal podcast and the host Ryan something, he's always doing puns.

Like anytime he's interviewing someone from the airline industry, he's always like, I don't know.

There's always puns that I find really funny, but some people find them annoying.

I know not everybody loves puns, but I always point them out if I accidentally make a pun, right?

I think they're very fun.

Especially sometimes they're really clever.

Sometimes they are more like a dad joke, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It depends on the quality of the pun, but they can be really fun for sure.

Guys, we're getting into this topic of jokes, puns, pranks today, but hit follow because we get into so many different things on this podcast.

Aubrey, earlier last week, we were talking about following our intuition.

We've talked about some great stuff lately.

Yes, exactly.

Wherever you listen to podcasts, just search All Ears English and hit follow.

We've got so many fun episodes that if you're not following the podcast, you might be missing them.

You're missing out.

And if you're over on YouTube, you prefer to watch this podcast.

We are on video right now.

You could do that.

If you prefer to learn that way, go over to YouTube and type in All Ears English and hit subscribe.

All right.

Absolutely.

That's also the best place to leave comments, leave questions for future episodes.

Leave us a comment right there on YouTube.

All right.

Good stuff.

All right.

Let's break it down for our listeners to make it super clear.

What is a joke then?

What is a joke?

So a joke is anything someone says that is intended to make people laugh.

It can be a story, a question, a funny comment.

This is pretty loose and flexible.

Lots of things can be a joke, right?

Yeah.

So for example, he told a funny joke during lunch that made everyone laugh, right?

Or she always has a joke ready when meetings get boring.

Yeah.

And yeah, I love a joke.

You know, of course, when you go to a stand-up comedy, a comedian has five to 30 to an hour of jokes ready.

And some of them are long.

There's a buildup.

There are callbacks, which is where it's referring to something earlier.

So there are all kinds of different jokes and all kinds of different humors, depending on, you know, there's more dry humor,

which is very typical for the UK slapstick humor, dad jokes.

There's all these different types of jokes, right?

There's so much you could study it really.

I mean, I think the best comedians are the ones that do the callbacks.

I didn't know what the term was, but they make it feel at the end, they make it feel like the whole thing has come full circle

and it just feels like pure art by a really good comedian.

It's incredible.

Really fun and clever that brings it all full circle.

I agree.

And as a bonus here, I want our listeners to know the phrase jokester, right?

You're a jokester, right?

You're always telling jokes.

He's kind of a jokester, kind of a rare slang, but do you use that ever?

I do.

I'll say what a jokester.

We might say like, what a comedian, but it is a term of endearment at least in the

states we really appreciate a sense of humor we love

if someone can be clever can make us laugh

but it is there's like there's the dad jokes where we might say

that to like some dad telling a lot of corny jokes we might be like what a jokester

but it's still playful it's not like mean and pretty soon, actually very soon in the next coming weeks, we're coming out with our brand new course,

which I'm super excited about Aubrey, socializing in English, right?

How to socialize in English.

100

We will be covering humor in there because it has to be covered.

101

So look for that guys.

102

Yeah.

103

We'll tell you more about that soon.

104

Yeah.

105

Yeah.

106

Yeah.

107

All right.

108

This is part of it, to be able to tell a joke in a second language is extremely difficult.

109

In your first language, I'm sure you've got it down, but that is tough as you're learning English to be able to tell a joke, the timing, the wit to know.

110

There's so much that goes into that.

111

How to tell a joke, how to react to a joke, everything around humor.

112

There's so much there and it does vary cross-culturally.

113

So we'll get into that in the course.

114

Keep your eyes and ears open for more information about that, guys.

115

But Aubrey, what is a pun then?

116

So this is our second term.

117

Very different, right?

118

So not all jokes are puns, but all puns are jokes, right?

119

Because a pun is wordplay.

120

It's a specific type of joke that plays with multiple meanings or maybe similar sounds of words.

121

So yeah, the one I said, it depends because it's usually is more about a play on words, two words that might have the same meaning.

122

Yeah.

123

Now here, okay.

124

I think we just need to give some examples, Aubrey.

125

This is a good one.

126

I used to be a baker, but I couldn't make enough dough.

127

But I'm ching.

128

You got to have some kind of joke.

129

Why is that a pun?

130

Yeah.

131

So the word dough, of course, is yeast and bread and flour, you know, flour and water that is dough that we use to make all these baked goods.

132

And we also use the word dough to mean money in English.

133

And we say, I couldn't make enough dough.

134

That's the play on words, the double meaning of the dough a baker would need to actually make food and money.

135

Yeah.

136

It's kind of interesting.

137

You kind of have to think quite flexibly to understand a pun, right?

138

You have to kind of open your mind to maybe I'm missing one of the meanings of these words, right?

139

Exactly.

140

And I actually have a good friend from Puerto Rico that one of the things I respect the most about her, there will be puns, there will be wordplay, and she is savvy enough she can pick up on.

141

There was some kind of joke here that I missed and she's not afraid to ask.

142

She'll be like, okay, wait, what was the double meaning that I missed or like, what was the innuendo that I missed?

143

And we're happy to like, Oh, because it also means money or whatever.

144

Right.

145

She's very fluent.

146

So a lot of it she'll pick up on, but if ever there's something she missed, she asks.

147

And I love that about, cause then she can be in on the joke.

148

She doesn't want to just like pretend she got it.

149

Right.

150

Oh, that's the worst feeling.

151

Try to pretend.

152

Yeah, exactly.

153

And we've all been there.

154

I've done that in Spanish and French.

155

I'm like, I'm just going to pretend I understood.

156

I know.

157

Yeah, but don't do it because it could be an opportunity for connection right there.

158

Like this one, the calendar factory fired me because I took a day off.

159

How is this a pun, Aubrey?

160

So a day off, right?

161

Of course, if you take a day off of work, that means that you are not going to go to work for the day.

162

But then because on a calendar, if you literally take a day off, that would mean like removing Monday or Wednesday, like removing a day.

163

Physically, yeah.

164

If you were to do that, you might not work long for the calendar makers.

165

Calendar factory.

166

Exactly.

167

So this is often how a pun works is you have the literal meaning, like if you're literally to take a day off a calendar.

168

And then we have the more idiomatic meaning of taking a day off meaning not going to work for a day.

169

Yeah, that's a good formula for a pun, right?

170

So if you know, you understand the literal meaning like dough, right?

171

We know literally it's dough.

172

It's the stuff that goes into creating bread.

173

think about what could be the metaphorical or what could be the non-literal meaning.

174

Exactly.

175

Yeah.

176

So whenever you find words or phrases that have two separate meanings, you can create a pun to use them both.

177

Exactly.

178

The humor comes from the language itself, which is clever, right?

179

Yeah.

180

Really clever.

181

Let's do a role play, Aubrey.

182

Here we go.

183

I'll start us out.

184

Ready?

185

Okay.

186

Yeah.

187

Which animal gets the best scores on exams?

188

Oh, I don't know, Aubrey.

189

Which one does?

190

The cheetah.

191

That's a dad joke for sure.

192

That's a dad joke.

193

I like it.

194

This was one I did because we had to send words of encouragement

195

or jokes with our kids on the exam day and all mine were puns and my kids love them.

196

Oh, that's adorable.

197

That's adorable.

198

I love that.

199

But yeah, so we have the animal, a cheetah, right?

200

Which you might see in a zoo or a big cat.

201

Yeah, a big cat.

202

And then of course, cheater in English is someone who would cheat on an exam.

203

And this is also kind of playing with accents because you wouldn't say cheater, but some people in their regional dialect, they drop the R at the end of the words.

204

You can say a cheetah and it still sounds like cheater in English, right?

205

Yeah.

206

You might find that in, for example, we've talked about a Boston accent, right um east coast new york maybe philadelphia yeah exactly all

207

right then we have pranks abri how are they different totally different

208

so this is very different right this is an action

209

or a trick that's played on someone for amusement

210

so it's not something

211

that you're just saying to someone it's something you're going to

212

do right it involves doing something yeah are you a prankster

213

lindsey ever do you play pranks in high school i think

214

i i was you know we did play pranks on our friends in high school like I don't know

215

but I never thought they were very funny they were just always like I guess funny

216

because you think about the person walking to the parking lot

217

and discovering their car has been toilet papered or you know things like

218

that but it's not actually funny it's just like you bring up a really good point

219

that sometimes pranks are funny like they're silly sometimes it's funny

220

but sometimes it's not it can be mean-spirited or if you like scare someone or let it go on too long,

221

then it's the kind of humor that like the person being pranked probably won't think it's funny.

222

And it's more people laughing at them.

223

So there's sort of an art to this and it's not easy.

224

Sometimes we see this on April Fool's Day, right?

225

April 1st, we see this a lot.

226

We play pranks on April 1st. So for example, my brother hid all my shoes as a prank.

227

Like that's a harmless, funny prank.

228

All your shoes are hidden.

229

He's laughing somewhere.

230

You'd probably laugh too, but you'd be like, okay.

231

It's not like a joke funny, but it's just kind of, you know, you might laugh about it later if you tell the story.

232

So when I was in college, you were saying you did this younger.

233

When I was in college, we created all of these fake parking tickets and we would put fake parking tickets on our friends' cars.

234

And I haven't grown out of it because I did that to my husband not that long ago.

235

But I'm better now as I get older of like letting, you know, letting them in on the joke quicker.

236

Like as soon as they believe it and they're like panicking, then I let them know it's a prank.

237

Whereas once upon a time, I probably would have left it for a while.

238

See how long before, like make them go, make them go to the office to dispute it and then find out it's not real.

239

Oh, you took it too far.

240

I was always afraid that someone was going to, this is sort of a mean and disgusting, but sometimes I've heard people have put like saran wrap on a toilet.

241

So when you go to the bathroom, I was always afraid someone was going to do that to me but no one ever like checking every time.

242

Yeah.

243

Yeah.

244

Kind of still do still do.

245

Um, yeah.

246

So this is different.

247

So very different from puns and sort of a joke, but kind of not sort of a practical joke is another way we, we might call that.

248

Right.

249

There's a TV show called impractical jokers.

250

My kids like watching it sometimes where they're playing pranks, they're playing pranks on people just to catch the video, their reactions.

251

And so it's funny and you have to be able to take a joke, right?

252

If someone's playing a prank on you, if you get really upset, that's true.

253

Like you'd have to just, you know, be able to take a joke.

254

And there was also the classic when we were kids, we used to do prank calls.

255

We had a babysitter would be like, let's prank call.

256

Like it's so bad if you think about it now.

257

Right.

258

It's so funny, but I still, we used to do that all the time.

259

And there's a TikToker now who does it.

260

And she, a lot of people out there will probably know who I'm talking about.

261

She, um, disguises her voice and calls herself Sue and she pranks people constantly and videos them.

262

And so I'm like, prank calls are still alive and well.

263

They're still alive and well.

264

The classic one we used to do, I'm sure they don't do it anymore, but we would call a random person in the phone book and say, oh, excuse me, ma'am, is your refrigerator running?

265

Right.

266

And then they'd say, yes.

267

And then you say, well, you better go catch it.

268

And then you'd hang up and laugh.

269

And you know, did you actually do that one?

270

I saw that one on TV once, but I didn't know anyone who ever really did that.

271

I love it. So fun. So fun.

272

All right.

273

Here we go.

274

Hey, quick question.

275

Do you want to feel more confident when you speak English?

276

If so, we made a free guide for you.

277

It'll help you avoid those common mistakes and start speaking more naturally in real conversations.

278

Go grab it in the description below.

279

And if this is helpful for you, make sure that you like and subscribe.

280

We're here five times a week to help you connect in English.

281

All right, Aubrey, we're back from break.

282

So now our listeners understand the difference between prank, pun and joke.

283

Let's get into a role play, shall we?

284

Yeah, you and I are co-workers in this role play.

285

I'll start us out.

286

Okay.

287

Did you hear the joke Ryan told earlier?

288

Uh, yeah, about the scarecrow winning an award because he was outstanding in his field.

289

Yes, I have to remember that one so I can tell my son.

290

He loves puns.

291

Does your son like to prank people?

292

Yes.

293

He'll hide my phone, for example, but then he'll let me look for it way too long.

294

He finally lets me in on the joke.

295

What about you?

296

When's the last time you pranked someone?

297

last year Blake and I covered Janet's car in post-it notes I remember

298

that she walked outside

299

and couldn't stop laughing I'm a fan of a harmless prank

300

same it's an art to fool someone without taking it so far

301

that you actually upset them yeah you gotta gotta it's the

302

it's the art of finding the line between without upsetting them

303

right without causing them any problems like being late to work

304

or something right and knowing who to prank

305

because not everybody can take a joke Like some people will just get mad

306

or they'll just know it's not real and roll their eyes and that's no fun.

307

Wasted effort.

308

It's true.

309

Yeah, you have to choose the right person, but it is fun when you can do it.

310

So where did we use our, we use joke at the top of the role play, Aubrey, right?

311

Did you hear the joke Ryan told earlier?

312

And then we have a joke here.

313

What's funny about that joke, Aubrey?

314

Yeah, so the scarecrow won an award because he was outstanding in his field.

315

So this is a pun.

316

It's a joke that it's a play on words, right?

317

We have outstanding, meaning excellent.

318

If you're outstanding in your field, that means you're excellent at your job.

319

But also scarecrows are just outstanding in fields, right?

320

So that's why it's definitely a dad joke, but a good pun.

321

It's a good one.

322

And then you said, I have to remember it so I can tell my son he loves puns.

323

And so that's also a joke and a pun, right?

324

Exactly.

325

And then you ask, oh, does your son like to prank people?

326

And I share, and this was, this is true my son would prank us

327

but he would let it go way too long he would

328

let us like look for something he had hidden till we're like angry and whatever

329

so then i've i've now taught him the art of like letting someone in on the joke right away

330

and i've had him practice i'll have him like i'll help him prep a prank for his dad

331

and then i'll like and then i'm there with him and

332

if he doesn't let him in i'm like okay here's where

333

you need to let him in on the joke that's

334

so fun because it just can't It goes so long that someone's getting angry or super frustrated.

335

It's knowing when to let them in.

336

And actually, that should be a bonus phrase for today, right?

337

To let someone in on the joke.

338

There's a lot of prepositions there, Aubrey, right?

339

Exactly.

340

And it's really tricky.

341

You have to use it word for word, right?

342

You can't say let them on or out.

343

Yes, we let someone in on a joke means we tell them we were pranking them.

344

We tell them it was a joke before it's too late.

345

Yeah, I love it.

346

Great episode today super important for connection.

347

And we're going to have a part two on this episode, right, Aubrey?

348

Yes.

349

Hit follow for part two.

350

We've got a lot of idioms we use about jokes and about sense of humor.

351

So hit follow for that coming up in a few weeks.

352

Yeah.

353

Hit that follow button and go check out episode 2678, why and how to connect over sleep in English.

354

Was that you and Michelle that did that one together?

355

Yes, that was a good one.

356

And we do, we talk about sleep and how little or how much of it we're getting a lot.

357

So you want to be able to connect about that.

358

Yeah.

359

I love it.

360

I love it.

361

Anything that kind of, uh, emphasizes our humanity, telling jokes, sleep, intuition.

362

These are things that we look for here in Allers English, these topics guys, and it's what you need to know to connect.

363

It's not the perfection of the grammar.

364

It's topics like these.

365

Okay.

366

Exactly.

367

It's so true.

368

Tell a joke, right?

369

Get that humor down, play a prank, but then let people in on the joke before they get angry.

370

There's such an art to it.

371

And it is a great way to connect with other people.

372

Yeah, great stuff.

373

All right, Aubrey, you have a good rest of your day.

374

I'll see you back here on the show very soon.

375

All right.

376

Me too.

377

See you next time.

378

Okay, bye.

379

Bye.

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What You'll Learn

This video helps you master three key speaking skills: explaining the difference between joke, pun, and prank in everyday conversations, using wordplay to connect with others, and navigating cultural nuances of humor—critical for IELTS speaking practice. You’ll also learn phrases like "let someone in on the joke" to sound natural in social settings.

Listen For These Sounds

Notice how speakers link words in casual speech, like "gotta" (instead of "got to") and "kind of" (reduced to "kinda"). Pay attention to the stress in puns—words with double meanings (e.g., "dough" for money/bread) are emphasized to highlight the humor. These connected speech patterns are key for improving English pronunciation.

Say It Like a Native

To mirror the speakers’ rhythm, practice shadowing the dialogue. Repeat phrases like "What do you call a fish with no eyes?" with the same playful tone, pausing before the punchline. For puns, stress the double-meaning word (e.g., "outstanding" in "the scarecrow was outstanding in his field") to make the joke land. Use a shadowing app or site to record yourself and compare—this shadowing technique will help you match native intonation and timing, boosting your confidence in real conversations.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
“Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true	used to be · used to do
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	We've talked · has come · I've done
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is unfiltered · was inspired · is intended
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	callbacks, which is · itself, which is · someone who would

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

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