Featured Image Credit: NBC
Topics: Celebrity, Johnny Depp, Film and TV
Joe Harker
Johnny Depp was once repeatedly told a joke by Al Pacino and people don't understand how he didn't understand the punchline.
Lots of actors get to do a proverbial spot of rubbing shoulders when working together or just mingling at the sort of events the rich and famous get to go and eat caviar at, or whatever it is rich and famous people do together.
Anyhow, it turns out they, like the rest of us, like to crack the occasional joke to pass the time and Depp once had the honour of being told a funny from legendary actor Al Pacino over and over again until he finally understood it.
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Depp explained that he didn't quite get the joke the first time as he revealed in 2013 when he was on David Letterman's talk show when he said he 'finally figured it out' much later.
Even if he didn't get it the first time Depp told the story to Letterman well, with a very good impression of Pacino thrown in the mix for good measure.
He said: "He likes to tell jokes and he liked to tell me this one specific joke over and over. And, uh, I really didn't understand it."
Depp admitted that 'I didn't get the joke' and Pacino 'absolutely' thought it was his problem that he didn't see the funny side.
So, what was this impenetrable gag?
"A skeleton goes into a bar and orders a beer, and a mop," is how the joke goes and it might be a bit silly but if you didn't laugh (or at least breathe out sharply through your nose), then your funny bone might need checking.
The actor said that after a while he 'finally figured it out', though some are wondering how Depp didn't understand it at first.
Some people who've seen the clip tried to explain why a skeleton might need a mop after drinking a beer, others said the gag 'makes perfect sense'.
This joke actually ended up making it into one of Depp's movies, though neither he nor Al Pacino were the ones to tell it on the big screen.
That honour instead went to Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney, who had a cameo in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales where he delivers the joke to Depp's character.
McCartney's pirate was locked up in jail and asked Captain Jack Sparrow whether he'd ever heard the joke before, being told 'yes you have, many times' but deciding to continue on anyway.
Whether it was Depp's idea to slide the joke in as a tribute to Pacino or it made it into the movie some other way we might never know, but at least we can be comforted by the fact that Depp does now get it.