What's worse than a bunch of dead babies nailed to a tree? / not much
A Anti Joke Chicken post.
A close-up of a red-brown hen with a bright red comb, on a pink-and-orange background. The image nods to the oldest anti-joke there is: "Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side." An anti-joke sets you up for a punchline and then hands you the plain truth instead. The surprise is that there is no surprise. The chicken delivers it with a slightly unhinged stare. The top line is a classic joke setup. The bottom line is reality. "What's red and bad for your teeth?" / "A brick." "A man walks into a bar" / "and orders a drink. He's an adult; that's legal." "Knock knock" / "Who's there? It's the police, ma'am. Your son was in an accident." That last style is a genre of its own: anti-jokes that suddenly turn sad. It's comedy for people who have heard every joke and now enjoy watching them fall flat on purpose. **Why it caught on:** it turned groaning at a bad joke into the joke itself.