Jokes written by AI

With the presence of AI growing ever greater with every passing year, some people have claimed it may be only a matter of time before many people see their jobs replaced by AI.

One question I personally couldn't help wondering was, 'Will AI ever replace the jobs of stand up comedians?' To test it out, I asked AI to write a number of jokes on a variety of subjects. For each joke, I gave AI a prompt based on the theme from one of my previous blog posts.

A liar takes questions from other liars.

Have a read of the results and then decide for yourself whether stand up comedians have anything to worry about from AI.

1) Joke prompt: Liars

Why do liars always seem to be good at math?
Because they can always make the truth add up to whatever they want!

Not a bad start. Admittedly, I'm not rolling on the floor with laughter, but at least it makes sense.

2) Joke prompt: Paradoxes

Why did the paradox cross the road?
To get to the other side, and also to stay where it was.

As a fan of nerd jokes, this is another one which I quite like. It's not amazingly hilarious, but it is kind of stupid in a mildly amusing way.

"Feeling ruff! Ha, ha, ha!"

3) Joke prompt: Dogs

Why did the dog go to the vet?
Because he was feeling ruff!

This very cheesy joke won't have any stand up comedians feeling threatened, but to be fair, it could have a few Christmas cracker joke writers feeling nervous about their future job security.

4) Joke prompt: Fruit and veg

Why did the tomato turn red?
Because it saw the salad dressing!

The prompt for this joke was, 'Write a joke about fruit and veg.' However, you could be forgiven for thinking the prompt was, 'Travel back in time forty years and 'borrow' a really old corny joke from the past,' because that's what the AI has apparently done.

Remember, always keep your menus fresh and exciting.

5) Joke prompt: Menus

Why did the menu break up with the restaurant?
Because it didn't get enough variety and it was bored of the same old puns. It wanted to spice things up and try new things but the restaurant just couldn't deliver, so it decided to leave and find a more adventurous establishment. Moral of the story? Keep your menus fresh and exciting or they might just walk out on you.

Er ... what?

6) Joke prompt: Birthdays

Why do candles always feel at home on a birthday cake?
Because they're always the light of the party!

This is another cheesy contender which would look perfectly at home in a Christmas cracker.

7) Joke prompt: Passwords

Why did the password go to the gym?
To get stronger encryption!

Of all the jokes so far, this is the one which to me stands out as most obviously written by AI. It would probably make sense to a robot, but most humans understand that simply sticking the word 'stronger' in the punchline doesn't magically make it a joke.

Yoda: "Fear leads to the dark side."
Charles: "Shouldn't that be, "To the dark side, fear leads."?"
Yoda: "Up, shut, Charles!"

8) Joke prompt: Star Wars

Why was Yoda such a good gardener?
Because a green thumb, he had.

The prompt for this joke was, "About Yoda, write a joke."

9) Joke prompt: Idiots

Why was the idiot fired from the M&M factory?
He kept throwing away all the Ws.

I have to admit, I quite like this joke, although I vaguely seem to remember hearing it before, so this may be another joke which AI has 'borrowed'.

"I demand more pay for robots!"

10) Joke prompt: Nerd jokes

Why did the programmer quit his job?
Because he didn't get arrays.

I think it's safe to conclude that AI joke writers won't be getting a raise either, because:

i) Although some of the jokes were reasonably amusing in an okay sort of way, there's still quite a way to go before they can rival the best stand up comedians.

ii) The other reason why AI joke writers won't be getting a raise is because computers and robots don't get paid!

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Personally, I think it's safe to assume that stand up comedians have nothing to fear from AI just yet. However, we could perhaps soon see Christmas cracker joke writers being replaced by AI.

That said, you'd still need to employ someone to check the AI jokes to filter out the ones which don't make sense, so AI wouldn't be replacing jobs. It would simply be transferring them to alternative roles.

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Credit: All of the above jokes were written* by Deep AI. You can try it out for free at the following link:
Deep AI text generator

* Or 'borrowed'.

You can find more jokes, this time written by real people, in my previous blog posts:
Jokes that work better when spoken aloud
Nerd jokes (part 7)