"Chuckle Stop!"

An old friend of the Abbott of a Benedictine monastery visits him and is invited to stay for an evening meal. The monks eat in silence until one monk stands up and says, "16".
The other monks all laugh heartily and then go back to eating their meal in silence.
A few minutes later another monk stands up and says "32", at which point all the monks collapse into gales of laughter. The Abbott laughs so much that tears run down his cheeks.
When everyone is eating again the visitor says to the Abbott, "I don't understand, father. Why do you all laugh when someone says a number?"
"Well," says the Abbott, "we all love jokes. But we are a closed community, and so all the jokes are well-known by everyone. To save time, we wrote the jokes down and gave each of them a number. So if one of us says a number we all remember the relevant joke."
"Could I have a go?" asks the visitor and the Abbott says that will be fine.
So, a few minutes later the visitor stands up and says "24". But this time no-one laughs. All the monks look at him in silence and then go back to their meal.
"I don't understand it. Why did no-one laugh when I said '24'?" asks the visitor.
"I don't know," says the Abbott. Perhaps it's the way you tell 'em."

Commentary:

This joke depends in part on discoursal deviation and phonological deviation. First of all, the discoursal situation where people laugh at numbers referring to jokes, rather than the punch-lines of the jokes themselves is very odd. Secondly, once the joke is reduced to a numerical reference it is very difficult to imagine how different pronunciations or styles of delivery of the number could possibly be relevant in the way that such performance features can be relevant to the dramatisation of a real joke.

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