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Anonymous Posted 17 years ago
Grammar

Tense change in the middle of a joke?

HI. I was looking at a joke named "Lost in the Middle of Nowhere" at The Joke yard site under its "Silly Jokes" category and want to know why tense changes at the third sentence. Please look at the word "says." I copies four lines from the joke with its title. I think normally we see all past tenses or all present tenses.

Lost in the Middle of Nowhere

One day three guys were driving in the middle of nowhere when their car broke down.

They got out and looked around at their surroundings.

Finally, the first guy says, "I'm gonna go look for some food."

The other two guys say, "Why?".
  

Top answer

You could do the whole thing in present tense. But the advantage in switching is that you can make a contrast between "setting the stage" and the actual dialog. The audience listens more intently when you suddenly switch to present.

— Avangi

  • You could do the whole thing in present tense.
  • But the advantage in switching is that you can make a contrast between "setting the stage" and the actual dialog.
  • The audience listens more intently when you suddenly switch to present.
  • They sense something is about to happen.
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1 Answers
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You could do the whole thing in present tense.

But the advantage in switching is that you can make a contrast between "setting the stage" and the actual dialog. The audience listens more intently when you suddenly switch to present. They sense something is about to happen.
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