Why we love it:
When we write and edit jokes, we obsess over the ‘leap’ we’re asking an audience to make. If the link between setup and punchline is too straightforward, i.e. only a small leap, there’s no surprise and the joke won’t be funny. But if the leap is too big, most of your audience won’t get the joke. Here, RyanAir created just enough distance for the audience to leap from the setup (an ironic statement about an island famed for its party culture) to the punchline (a man who’s aged beyond his years), making this a properly satisfying gag.
What you can learn from it:
This is a widely used joke format that can easily be adapted for any brand. Simply swap the quote out an ironic statement about something that might prematurely age your audience (e.g. “Training for the marathon wasn’t as hard as I expected”) then recreate the punchline by labelling a photo of an elderly person as a young person. Done.
