“What’s the difference between a jeweler and a jailer?”/“One sells watches, one watches cells.”
A classic riddle about a jeweler is:
Q: What’s the difference between a jeweler and a jailer?
A: One sells watches, one watches cells.
“WHAT is a difference between a jeweler and a jailer? One sells watches and the other watches cells” was printed in the Leavenworth (KS) Daily Conservative on December 16, 1865. “What is the difference between a watchmaker and a jailer? One sells watches and the other watches cells” was printed in Harper’s Bazar (New York, NY) on December 14, 1867.
16 December 1865, Leavenworth (KS) Daily Conservative, pg. 4, col. 1:
WHAT is a difference between a jeweler and a jailer?
One sells watches and the other watches cells.
Google Books
16 November 1867, The Family Herald (London, UK), “Random Readings,” pg. 464:
What is the difference between a watchmaker and a gaoler? —The one sells watches, and the other watches cells.—Judy.
Google Books
14 December 1867, Harper’s Bazar (New York, NY), pg. 112, col. 4:
What is the difference between a watchmaker and a jailer? One sells watches and the other watches cells.
Google Books
28 June 1873, Harper’s Weekly (New York, NY), pg. 555, col. 4:
What is the difference between a jailor and a jeweler? —One watches cells, and the other sells watches,
GOogle Books
Encyclopedia of Comedy:
For Professional Entertainers, Social Clubs, Comedians, Lodges and All Who Are in Search of Humorous Literature
By James Melville Janson
Philadelphia, PA: David McKay, Publishers
1899
Pg. 153:
What is the difference between a watchmaker and a jailer?
One sells watches and the other watches cells.
Google Books
10,000 Jokes, Toasts & Stories
By Lewis Copeland and Faye Copeland
Garden City, NY: Doubleday
1965
Pg. 871:
What is the difference between a watchmaker and a jailer?
The one sells watches and the other watches cells.
Google Books
A Book of Puzzlements:
Play and Invention with Language
By Herbert R. Kohl
New York, NY: Schocken Books
1981
Pg. 153:
Finally, here are some riddles collected by the Opies which involve homonyms, double puns, and in some cases rhymes: What is the difference between a jailer and a jeweler? — One watches cells and the other sells watches.
Twitter
Thuy Nguyen
@betoneko
Replying to @showhostapp
@Playradiouk I can recall one joke: What is the different between the jeweler and jailer? - One sells watches and one watches cells.
10:14 AM - 13 Mar 2009
Google Books
Jokes:
Have a Laugh and Improve Your English
By Adrian Wallwork
Cham, Switzerland: SPringer
2018
Pg. 125:
In a what’s the difference between joke, two nouns with apparently no connection are juxtaposed.
For example:
What’s the difference between a jeweler and a jailer?
One sells watches, the other watches cells.
Reddit—Cleanjokes
Posted by u/mk3211226 June 12, 2019
What’s the difference between a jeweler and a jailer?
One sells watches, while the other watches cells.