"So I went to the Chinese restaurant and this duck came up to me with a red"

Tim Vine’s comedic style revolves around absurdity, wordplay, and the subversion of expectations, and the line “So I went to the Chinese restaurant and this duck came up to me with a red” is no exception. At first glance, the sentence sets up a traditional joke structure: the familiar scenario of “I went to a restaurant,” with the anticipation that a humorous anecdote or a clever punchline will soon follow. However, as the phrase continues, the appearance of a duck approaches the realm of the surreal, pushing beyond everyday experience and edging into nonsensical territory.

The humor lies partly in the collision of mundane and bizarre elements. The setting, a Chinese restaurant, feels ordinary, almost clichéd as a setup for a joke. The sudden entrance of a duck anthropomorphizes the animal, hinting that something out of the ordinary is occurring. Furthermore, the phrase “with a red”, deliberately unfinished, acts as a rug-pull moment. The audience is primed to expect a familiar punchline or a predictable direction, perhaps anticipating “a red bill” (playing on “Peking duck with a red bill” or “red beak”), or referencing the quintessential Chinese dish. Instead, the joke is left incomplete, denying satisfaction and, by extension, laughter in a conventional sense.

This incomplete delivery is a hallmark of anti-humor, where the lack of clear resolution becomes the punchline. It highlights the absurdity, embracing the randomness inherent in many of Vine’s routines. Laughter arises not only from what is said, but from the abrupt way reality and language are contorted and left hanging. The line underscores how simple elements, familiar settings, common animals, an unexpected stop, can produce comedic effect simply by refusing to reach the conclusion people expect, making an art out of frustration and confusion. Vine’s approach questions the necessity of making sense in comedy, finding delight in playful ambiguity.