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I'm looking for an expression or a verb describing the feeling you get or the situation when you tell a joke and nobody laughs.

Oh man, last night I cracked a joke and no-one even smiled at it. I [the expression/verb]

I think it will be OK if I say, "I got embarrassed" (although I'd like to make sure it's OK to be used here) but I'm interested in a kind of informal and casual way to say that.

I thought I goofed up might work but it seems it's more about a mistake but when you tell an old joke or simply your joke is not that funny as you thought can't be really a mistake.

ColleenV
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Yuri
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    There is a specialised intransitive verb for approximately this situation, but it's only really used of/by stand-up comics and other stage performers, for whom *to die (standing up)* means to get silence from the audience, rather than laughter or applause. – FumbleFingers Jan 26 '17 at 18:35
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    @FumbleFingers, in North American English, the idiom is to bomb. It could be used in a colloquial context, too. – S. G. Jan 26 '17 at 23:31
  • I just came across have egg on one's face. Can it also be used in this context? "Oh man, last night I really had egg on my face" – Yuri Jan 27 '17 at 05:17
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    This wasn't your question, but I wanted to let you know that to most American English speakers, "noone" looks like a spelling error. It may not be strictly incorrect, but it's very uncommon and may raise eyebrows. The more common usage is to separate the two words "no one". English can be such a confusing language! For example, we do write "nobody" and "nowhere" instead of "no body" and "no where", but we don't write "noone" instead of "no one". Go figure. :-) – Michael Geary Jan 29 '17 at 08:52

10 Answers10

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The idiomatic expression is "fell flat", to mean that nobody laughed at it.

Oh man I told this joke last night and it totally fell flat.

If a professional comedian repeatedly "falls flat" during his "set", we say he "bombed", or he "died on stage".

There are various ways to describe your reaction to telling a joke that falls flat, but you might say something like, "I felt like an ass." Other options:

I told this joke but totally blew the punchline and no one laughed.

I told this joke and no one laughed. I just wanted to go crawl under a table (I was really embarrassed).

I told this joke and when I got to the end no one laughed. I guess they all have sticks up their butts (lack a sense of humor).

[Disclaimer] The expression "I felt like an ass" may not be appropriate in "polite" company. A more socially acceptable expression might be "I felt like a fool", or "I felt like an idiot".

The expression "they must have sticks up their butts" is a graphic metaphor that is definitely not appropriate everywhere. Instead you could say something like,

Their sense of humor must be broken.

or use an even more playful and evocative expression like,

They wouldn't know a good joke if it mugged them in an alley and stole their wallets.

Andrew
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  • Brilliant, thanks a lot. Now that you're here, can I use fell flat or any of those expressions that you mentioned here, too? Context: B overhears A and jumps in the conversation A: I really liked the way he jumped over that thing B: Thanks A: No, I didn't mean you. I meant Chris. – Yuri Jan 26 '17 at 18:10
  • @Yuri I'm not sure of the joke? – Andrew Jan 26 '17 at 18:33
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    @Andrew: If there was one, it fell flat on me too! :) – FumbleFingers Jan 26 '17 at 18:36
  • @Andrew it's not a joke. I'm describing a defferent context which A and C are taking about D and admiring D, while B overhears and thinks they're admiring him ( B). Then B awkwardly jump in telling A, "thank you ( for admiring me)"... A looks at B and says, " I wasn't talking about you. I was talking about D"... I wonder if in this context B can later say, " Oh man I just wanted to go crawl under a table." or any of those expressions that you put up there. – Yuri Jan 26 '17 at 18:49
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    @Yuri Oh yeah, sure. "I felt like crawling under a table" just means you were really embarrassed, so any context is fine. – Andrew Jan 26 '17 at 18:51
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    While the rest of the answer is really good, I'm not really a fan of (suggesting) the use of unnecessary expletives. Suggesting things like feeling like an ass and stick up their butts adds complexity in deciding whether the context is right for such a phrase, while wanted to crawl under a table or something like don't know fun when it stares them in the face can be used in practically any situation – Jasper Jan 27 '17 at 12:40
  • @Jasper while I understand your concern the language is nothing that wouldn't appear in a PG-rated movie. "Expletive" doesn't mean what it used to. – Andrew Jan 27 '17 at 18:41
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    I agree with @Jasper that talking about "sticks up their butts" is usually inappropriate here. It's not just because of the expletive: in the right situation, it may be very funny. (But be careful to know your audience!) The real reason is that this phrase shifts the blame for the failed joke from the joke-teller to the audience. If you want to be a successful comedian, or a successful communicator of any sort, don't blame your audience if they don't get the joke, or the story, or whatever your message is. Instead, look at how you could tell it better next time. – Michael Geary Jan 29 '17 at 09:00
  • "Stick up their butts" is (at best) extremely informal. On the other hand, if someone says, "I felt like an ass," I think of the legitimate English word for the animal, not of the slang word for the body part. – David K Jan 29 '17 at 15:32
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    @Andrew I don't care about arbitrary rating systems for movies (I think they are broken to begin with). I do care about whether something is inappropriate in some situations. An example of a situation where this wouldn't be acceptable would be a meeting with a representative of a firm that is a customer of the company where you work. (Or depending on where you live, even just talking to your manager.) – Jasper Jan 29 '17 at 16:18
  • @Jasper I can't help if you, personally, "don't care", but the actual point is that this is a common expression that can appear in a family-oriented movie deemed suitable for children. Like the ubiquity of "fart jokes" in children's movies, standards have changed whether you like it or not. – Andrew Jan 29 '17 at 16:22
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    @Andrew you're missing my point. Sure, it may be used a lot, and you may consider it okay to use with children. That does not mean that you can use it in any situation: you can't. Providing a phrase that has a problem of not being usable in (some) professional situations is laying a trap for the language learner, especially if there are perfectly valid alternatives that do not have the same problem. – Jasper Jan 29 '17 at 16:46
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    @Jasper I understand your concern, I just don't agree with it. But it's probably better to discuss this in /meta instead. – Andrew Jan 29 '17 at 18:45
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    Know your audience is a great maxim and as the adage says: Can't please all the people all of the time http://www.azquotes.com/picture-quotes/quote-y-know-you-can-t-please-all-the-people-all-the-time-and-last-night-all-those-people-mitch-hedberg-12-83-14.jpg and that goes for English language sites too. Someone, somewhere will be offended,and that is a certainty. I don't find "I fell on my ass" or its derivatives (e.g. I felt like an ass [donkey]) to be offensive in the slightest. – Mari-Lou A Jan 29 '17 at 19:18
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A common idiom is crickets, meaning that instead of laughter, there was a silence deep enough for crickets to be heard chirping. All the tropes wiki explains:

A character says or does something intended to elicit an enthusiastic response from a group watching him, such as the audience in a theatre or a band of comrades. But instead of the reaction he expects, he hears nothing but the sound of crickets chirping, suggesting that not only is nobody responding, there's nobody there to respond.

The site also gives several examples of the trope in visual media. Slang Vocabulary also lists the term, and there's a Reddit thread about it. And here's an example of MSN using the term.

verbose
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Aside from the other expressions, you can also say that the joke went down like a lead balloon.

It can be used in other contexts suggesting some form of communication has taken place and was not well received.

I couldn't find a single word for it, but here's the page from Wiktionary where I found the full expression and the alternative version (go over instead of go down): Go down like a lead balloon (Wikitionary).

In addition some less specific words can be used with your original sentence.

You could, for instance, say that "[you] missed with that joke".

Ken Graham
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htmlcoderexe
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    I thought the preposition used was over rather than down. I checked Google Ngrams and while down is attested, over is both older and more frequent. – verbose Jan 27 '17 at 05:54
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    @verbose overall over... is more prevalent, but restrict it to British and down... wins -- so a transatlantic difference. I'm in the UK and the version with over -- if I ever heard it -- would seem either foreign or dated, depending on context. – Chris H Jan 27 '17 at 09:15
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    Lead balloons definitely go down, it's the ones full of air that go over. – Michael Kay Jan 28 '17 at 00:25
  • @MichaelKay it might be the humorous implication that it, indeed, did go over like a lead balloon would - it didn't – htmlcoderexe Jan 28 '17 at 18:59
  • "go over" is the general expression for something's being received. It can go over well or go over badly. Going over like a lead balloon is just a figurative way to say it went over badly. You could probably substitute any catastrophic or unpleasant image and be understood, like, "go over like an atomic bomb," or even "go over like a hot tub in July." – broccoli2000 Jan 29 '17 at 19:02
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It seems like you're looking for something like "[...] I bombed". Usually you can probably address the joke rather than yourself - and say "[...] I bombed it", or "[...] It bombed".

A possible variation - if the joke was ruined by a... lack of grace... in telling it, you can address yourself like: "[...] I totally floundered while telling it". That implies that you were speaking clumsily

galois
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You could say the joke (or the performance/rendition of it) flopped.

(of a performer or show) be completely unsuccessful; fail totally.

For example:

Oh man, last night I cracked a joke and no one even smiled at it. The joke totally flopped.

Or

Oh man, last night I cracked a joke and noone even smiled at it. My timing totally flopped.

Casey Kuball
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I might just say "tumbleweed" while sweeping my hand along an imaginary barren vista. It's pleasingly evocative of deserts and dusty western ghost towns.

e.g. Oh man, last night I cracked a joke and noone even smiled at it - tumbleweed.

Of course you then run the risk of nobody laughing at that and I don't think there's even a word for that kind of meta awkwardness.

Roger Heathcote
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To describe the situation, you could say the listeners are a tough crowd.

Urban Dictionary has a nice example:

what someone would say after telling a joke or other humorous anecdote, and then getting deadpan looks and no verbal acknowledgement from the people listening.

"Yeah, so I heard Dave got a pet cat, oh well, probably the closest thing to pussy he'll ever have in his place, huh guys? hahaha!" 

<p>(silence and blank stares from everyone) </p>

<p>"Geez...! Tough crowd, man....tough crowd!!"</p>
muru
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The request is about the feeling of telling a joke that bombed. So it's not a case of understanding what happened to the joke, it's what happened to the joke-teller.

Oh man, last night I cracked a joke and noone even smiled at it. I died of embarrassment.

You could also used died on it's own, but for clarity, if you're not necessarily speaking to an English native you may need to clear up it's metaphorical use. It also largely depends who you're talking to.

Richard
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A term you might also use to describe your feelings and this situation is awkward:

embarrassing or inconvenient; caused by lack of social grace

in your example:

Oh man, last night I cracked a joke and noone even smiled at it. It was awkward.

The word itself is also something usually said by younger people in response to such events, usually with stress on both syllables with a bit less stress in between and lingering somewhat on the r.

Nzall
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I think a reasonable way of explaining is that "they didn't get it". That is, move the blame from yourself (for telling a bad joke) to the audience (for not understanding it). eg.

Last night I told my favourite joke but the people I was with didn't get it.

Try searching for "they didn't get the joke" and you'll find quite a few references, memes, etc.

Nick Gammon
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