Surprise is a fundamental joke mechanism. Most punch lines rely on an element of surprise for their effect ― that’s why they’re not funny the third time you hear them. The joke-teller’s skill lies in judging exactly how much of a surprise the audience is prepared to take. He must make a series of assumptions about what they will understand, what their reference points are, and how relaxed they appear to be. Jerry Seinfeld once compared telling a joke to attempting to leap a metaphorical canyon, taking the audience with you. The setup to the joke is the near-side cliff, and the punch line is the far side. If they’re too far apart, the listeners don’t make it to the other side. And if they are too close together, the audience just steps across the gap and doesn’t experience a thrilling leap of any kind. The joke-hearers get far more pleasure from the joke ________.