Use of English

A Numerical Joke

It is often the (0) CASE that the simplest jokes prove the most durable, and the old line about why ten is afraid of seven is a good example. On the (1) .......... of it, the joke is absurd: numbers are abstract symbols and therefore incapable of fear, appetite or criminal intent. Yet the punchline somehow (2) .......... because it exploits a neat ambiguity in English pronunciation. The phrase 'seven ate nine' sounds identical to 'seven eight nine', allowing the listener to (3) .......... between a harmless counting sequence and a miniature story of numerical violence. Much of the joke's appeal also (4) .......... in its economy. There is no elaborate set-up, no cultural knowledge to draw (5) .........., and no need for explanation once the hearer has grasped the sound pattern. In that sense, it belongs to a long tradition of wordplay that depends less on logic than on the mind's willingness to (6) .......... along with an obviously impossible premise. Even so, the joke has been repeated so often that some people dismiss it as painfully (7) ........... Others, however, would argue that its very predictability is part of its charm, since familiar jokes can still (8) .......... a smile precisely because they are so well known.