updog joke
- noun
- /ˈʌpˌdɔg dʒoʊk/
- Slang
- He always tries to catch new employees with the classic updog joke during their first week.
Examples
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My sister rolled her eyes when her friend used the updog joke at the dinner table.
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He loves telling an updog joke at parties.
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After falling for the updog joke once, I never ask 'What's updog?' anymore.
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Did you hear the latest updog joke?
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He always tries to catch new employees with the classic updog joke during their first week.
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After falling for the updog joke once, I never ask 'What's updog?' anymore.
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My sister rolled her eyes when her friend used the updog joke at the dinner table.
Synonyms
A short funny remark that makes people laugh
Surface Forms
Morphology
updog + joke
The key constituent 'updog' is a nonce/punful item with no conventional compositional meaning, and 'joke' only signals a humorous act; knowing 'up' and 'dog' does not allow a B1 learner to infer the prank of eliciting 'What's updog?'. The sense depends on an English-specific phonological joke and cultural/pragmatic knowledge, so it is unpredictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
The joke updog joke comes from a simple word trick using the made-up word updog: one person tries to make someone ask 'What's updog?' so they can answer 'Not much, what's up with you?'. So, updog joke now means a playful prank that tricks someone into saying that question.