shaggy\ dog

shaggy\ dog
n. phr.
A special kind of joke whose long and often convoluted introduction and development delay the effect of the punch line.

Uncle Joe only seems to bore his audiences with his long shaggy dog jokes, for when he comes to the long-awaited punch line, he gets very few laughs.


Словарь американских идиом. — СПб., Изд-во "Лань". . 1997.

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