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Of American-English origin, the noun knee-slapper designates an uproariously funny joke.
In this phrase, the image is of a person slapping their knees in laughter.
The noun knee-slapper occurs, for example, in the following from Dad jokes are great fun, just spare me the Chancellor’s duff delivery, by William Moore, published in the Evening Standard (London, England) of Wednesday 31st October 2018 [page 19, column 3]—the British politician Philip Hammond (born 1955) was the Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2016 to 2019:
I was miffed by the many headlines in yesterday’s press about Philip Hammond’s “dad jokes” in his Monday Budget speech. Sorry, no. Hammond gives dad jokes a bad name. How can there be any charm from knee-slappers when they’re read from a script in monotone? On Phil plodded, reading out pun after pun with the resigned duty of a captain going down with his ship.
“I’m pleased to announce a new mandatory business rates relief for public lavatories so that local authorities can at last relieve themselves… And without wishing to get unduly bogged down on this subject, this is virtually the only announcement in this budget that hasn’t leaked.” Plop, plop, plop the puns splashed down, with no deference to set-up or punchline.
These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the noun knee-slapper that I have found:
1-: From Jr. Chatterbox, by Dinnie Ketchum, published in The Tulsa Tribune (Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA) of Sunday 2nd February 1941 [page 3—C, column 1]:
Seen here and there . . .
JIM ALLISON who breezed up from Austin after mid-year’s at Texas U . . . flashy saying of his when listening to or telling a joke . . . “That’s a knee slapper.”
2-: From Think Nothing Of It: Spookless ‘Ghost’ Yarns: There’s Something Sort Of Eerie About Stories That Elude Your Grasp, about the different types of funny stories, by Earle Dennis, published in the Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California, USA) of Sunday 8th March 1942 [page B-3, column 7]:
The stories we do remember group themselves into three main classifications and a number of sub-classifications. The three major groups are stories for men, stories for women, and stories for mixed company. In the sub-group, are stories for very mixed company, for badly mixed company, 5-highball stories, 12-highball stories, and wind-dings. A wing-ding is usually a knee-slapper.
3-: From Moline Area Smokers Scratch Their Heads, Smoke Them Short and Search, by Lucille Shawgo, published in the Moline Daily Dispatch (Moline, Illinois, USA) of Monday 11th December 1944 [page 13, column 4]:
As yesterday’s “weed” takes on an orchid-like value and smokers draw in right down to the ashes and wonder where their next cigaret is coming from, widespread curiosity and speculation have developed as to the cause for the scarcity. Federal reports after congressional investigation indicate there is plenty of tobacco.
The quad-city district OPA office, believing hoarding to be a contributing factor to the shortage, has urged smokers not to buy more than their daily needs require. The Dispatch asked a considerable number of persons, mainly chosen at random, what they thought of the situation. Here are some of the answers:
“Hoarding!” one man who had just been turned away empty handed from a cigar counter exclaimed, “That’s a knee-slapper! I don’t know any ten men, or for that matter ten woman [sic]—and they’re always better collectors, who have enough cigarets to call a hoard.”
4-: From the column Campus Scout, published in The Daily Illini (Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA) of Wednesday 17th October 1945 [page 4, column 4]—The Daily Illini is the independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign:
KNEESLAPPERS
Prof: “Why are you late?”
Marcel Podeski: “My clock rolled under the bed and I slept overtime.”
5-: From the column Campus Scout, published in The Daily Illini (Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA) of Friday 16th November 1945 [page 4, column 3]:
KNEESLAPPERS
Prof.: What’s the greatest Greek tragedy?
Joe LaPolambara: Fraternities!
Rah, Rah, Nursery Rimes
Paddy cake, paddy cake
Frat-pin man.
Gimme that pin
As quick as you can.
Be it Skull house or Beta
Or Scabbard and Blade
It’s sure to look nice
In my trophy parade.
—Baron.
Dick Creswell: Want a ride, honey?
Mary Schuessler: I’ll bet you’re one of those fellows who runs out of gas and then wants to kiss a girl.
Dick Creswell: Honest I’m not.
Mary Schuessler: Then I won’t go.
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