Stand and Deliver

This morning I was telling my kids about last night's episode of Last Comic Standing and debating the ethics of referring to another comic's joke in a showdown and my little one asked me about the difference between doing stand-up and telling jokes. I told him stand-up is like an oral essay where you make funny comments about life and telling jokes is like when you say "Did you hear the one about the elephant that walked up to the zoo...?"

A joke started without a punchline is just not right, so we finished it:

A giraffe, a kangaroo, and an elephant walk up to the zoo. The giraffe says, "Hey, guys, there's food in there!" The kangaroo says, "I'll jump over the fence and open the gate for us." He does and the giraffe walks in the gate. The elephant tries but he can't fit through. So the zookeeper comes out and lets him in the back way.