RING-A-DING

What do you call a sea creature who is too shy to knock on doors? – The Knock Less Monster

What’s so funny about this? We haven’t done a spoonerism in quite a while. Remember, this is a reversal of sounds in two or more words, accidentally or on purpose; usually with humorous effect. This joke is worded in riddle form too, just to complicate matters. In typical fashion it asks a question to which an answer is not really expected. The answer is supposed to be “I don’t know” or “I give up”. Then the person asking can lay the joke on you. So, the answer is a spoonerism of the Loch Ness Monster. Actually, the spoonerism only works if you are not using Scottish pronunciation, because the CH at the end of “Loch” has that guttural scraping sound that’s found in Arabic and German but not in British or American English. That’s why we pronounce it as if the sound were LOCK. With that pronunciation the spoonerism works quite well. Loch Ness becomes Knock Less. BTW, Loch is Scottish Dialect for “