What is a shaggy dog story, and what are some examples?

One kind of American humor is the "shaggy dog story" a longwinded tale
that gradually works up to a surprise ending - an ending that is outside
the limits of reality or logic.

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English language defines a
shaggy dog story as "a long, drawn-out anecdote depending for humor upon
an absurd or anticlimactic punch line."  The World Book Dictionary
describes a shaggy dog story as a "story which relates, usually at great
length, a number of unimportant incidents in building up to an
unexpected or ridiculous climax."  One writer has compared life to the
pattern of a shaggy dog story: both have a lead-in, build-up, and
let-down.  "Nothing turns out as expected, and in the end, the joke is
on us" (Botkin, Treasury of American Anecdotes, p. 256).

Shaggy dog stories were reportedly told as long ago as the days of
ancient Greece, but Americans tend to think of them as their own because
people like Abraham Lincoln and Davy Crockett told so many of them.

A. The Intelligent Dog

I'm going to tell you about an extraordinary thing that happened the
other day.  The day before yesterday, about eight o'clock at night, a
young woman approached the box office of the best movie theater in the
city.  She had with her an enormous dog with a beautifully groomed coat.
She bought two tickets and went toward the door, followed by her dog.
The manager of the theater spoke to her, saying:

Manager:  I'm sorry, miss, but dogs aren't allowed in this theater.
Girl:     But I have a ticket for him.
Manager:  I'm very sorry, but animals aren't permitted.
Girl:     You don't understand.  This is a very special case.  My dog is
          so well trained and so intelligent that he's almost human.
Manager:  I see that you have an exceptional animal, but...
Girl:     I promise you that if there is any problem we'll leave the
          theater immediately.  I assure that this dog isn't like any
          other dog you've ever seen.
Manager:  Well, all right.  I'll let you go in, since the theater is
          almost empty tonight.  Nevertheless, your dog will have to
          behave himself, or you will have to leave.

Several hours go by, and now the people are leaving the theater.  The
manager sees the girl with her dog.

Manager:  I congratulate you.  You were right; your dog behaved very
          well.  I've been watching him, and it's amazing how quiet he
          was.
Girl:     I told you that he's well trained and very intelligent.
Manager:  He certainly is.  It even seemed as if he was enjoying the
          movie.
Girl:     Oh, he did enjoy it.  He liked the film very much.  However,
          he liked the book much better.

B. The Poker Game

A man went away for the weekend.  He arrived rather late, after dinner.
The other members of the house party were all sitting around in the
living room.  At one end of the room a game of poker was in progress.
One of the players was a dog.  After he had been introduced all around,
the man said to his host: "What a wonderfully intelligent dog to be able
to play poker!"  "Well, he's not a very good player really," replied the
host.  "Whenever he gets a good hand, he wags his tail."

C. The Donkey

A professor tried to train his donkey to get along without eating.  Each
day he reduced the amount of hay he gave the animal.  From one bale of
hay a day, he reduced the donkey's intake to nothing.  The donkey dropped
dead of starvation.  "What an irreplaceable loss!" the professor
lamented.  "Just when he had learned not to eat, he died."

-- U. S. Information Service, American English & Culture page (Gregory
   John Orr, English Language Office/USIS, Moscow, 1996)

[ Editor: the page presented B and C as "strip stories" for language
classes, one sentence per student; its vocabulary notes are omitted. ]

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The shaggy "horse in the bathtub" joke I know goes like this:

Chris asks Pat, "Why are you leading that horse up the steps to your
building?"

Pat says, "Come on, help me and I'll tell you."

They get the horse into the building and into the elevator.  They ride
up to Pat's floor, lead the horse into Pat's apartment and into the
bathroom, where they manage to make the horse lie down in the bathtub.

Chris says, "Okay, what's going on?"

Pat says, "My brother is the world's greatest know-it-all.  No matter
what interesting fact you discover, he always says, 'I knew that'.  He's
coming over later today.  When he eventually needs to use the restroom
he'll come out screaming, "There's a horse in your bathtub!" and I'm
just gonna look at him and say 'I knew that'."

-- Mel Rosen (Quip) <quiprosen@naplesnet.com>, npl-folk mailing list,
   1997