English

Noun

groaner ‎(plural groaners)

1. One who groans or complains

   I don't need to hear from groaners like you.

2. A work of extremely low quality, so bad as to inspire groaning

   That movie was a real groaner.

   • 26 June 2014, A.A Dowd, AV Club Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler spoof rom-com clichés in They Came Together

     Some groaners are converted into running gags, as when Joel and his brother (Max Greenfield) get in a duel of parting, one-last-thing-before-you-go affirmations.

3. A particularly egregious joke, especially a pun.
   • 1993, Peggy O'Brien, Shakespeare Set Free: Teaching Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Simon and Schuster (ISBN 9780671760465), page 127

     From the cleverest repartee to the worst groaner, people use and respond to puns, but sometimes find them hard to define.

   • 2005, Donald W. McCaffrey, The Road to Comedy: The Films of Bob Hope, Greenwood Publishing Group (ISBN 9780275982577), page 2

     In the '40s, I remember ludicrous puns thought to be funny and repeated by teenagers, sometimes to a chorus of laughter. Here is a groaner example: "Mother, get off the rafters. That is no way to get on the beam." Naturally, to understand the joke, it was necessary to know the idiom of the day. "Get on the beam" meant "get with it" or understand the situation.

   • 2010, Deborah Kinnard, Aloha, My Love, Desert Breeze Publishing In (ISBN 9781936000999)

     "Ever heard a Terry sermon?" Delaine wanted to know. "He usually starts with a joke, almost always a groaner. I love his puns! Besides, he's not afraid to tackle any issue, and he makes fun of just about everything in sight."

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