batty joke

8.1

A silly, slightly odd joke that makes people laugh

noun
/ˈbæti dʒoʊk/

Informal

: broma tonta

She broke the tension with a batty joke about dancing penguins.

Examples

His batty joke made everyone at the table laugh, even if it was a bit strange.
At family gatherings, Uncle Jim is famous for telling at least one batty joke.
That was a batty joke!
She told a batty joke about a chicken crossing the road.
At the party, she lightened the mood with a batty joke about a talking dog.
Everyone burst into laughter after he shared a batty joke involving a robot chef.
During the meeting, her batty joke about a pirate searching for treasure made everyone smile.

Synonyms

lolrandom joke

vsbatty joke

Slang

9.9

A silly, random joke that surprises and makes people laugh

is odd and unconventional rather than random or purely absurd

hokey joke

vsbatty joke

Informal

6.7

A silly, old-fashioned joke that makes people groan

is odd and unconventional rather than corny or sentimental

Antonyms

conventional

175 2.8

Doing things in the usual way most people expect, not new or original

How Silly

absurdist humor

1 7.6

batty joke

Informal

8.1

funny joke

14 1.0

joke

Offensive

430 4.9

dry humor

1 5.3

Surface Forms

batty joke singular

batty jokes plural

Morphology

batty + joke

The meaning 'a silly or eccentric joke' is directly derivable from combining 'batty' (eccentric, mentally irregular) with 'joke' (an amusing remark); this is a straightforward adjective + noun composition following normal English modification patterns. Although 'batty' is informal, its sense is clear, so a learner who knows both words can infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Batty joke comes from the old image of bats flying in someone's head, so batty came to mean a little 'crazy' or 'odd'. So, a batty joke is a strange, 'silly' joke that is funny because it is a bit odd.