Not getting a joke (He brews it) then suddenly getting it (hebrews it) — describing what is really going on there.
Question: how does Moses make his tea? Answer: He brews it. Is it that the mind, when it does not get the joke, hears he brews it and when it does get the joke hears hebrews it; or does it hear, when it gets it, hebrews it and he brews it at once? Or does it hear hebrews it, and hears two nouns, and thinks the statement makes no sense, two nouns, and trying to make sense of it discovers this alternate meaning. Does it hear “he brews it” and think “why is that even a joke?” then discovers the pun. Why should the discovery of the unexpected provoke laughter?
Question: to deliver the joke properly, on which syllable of the punchline should the teller place the accent? The question is whether to pronounce it as two unrelated words, “hebrews” and “it”, or as the phrase “he brews it”. (Or the question is whether to put the accent on the antepenult or penult, which is perhaps to say the same thing.) I tended to mix it up without about equal results.
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