“Why did King Kong climb the Empire State Building?”/“He needed to catch a plane.”
In the film King Kong (1933), the ape King Kong climbs the Empire State Building and is attacked by airplanes. A joke was printed in a 1971 newspaper and in other newspapers in the 1970s:
Q: Why did King Kong climb the Empire State Building?
A: To get his kite.
A different punchline was used in Boys’ Life magazine in April 1980:
Q: Why did King Kong climb the Empire State Building?
A: To catch a plane.
“Why did King Kong climb the Empire State Building?”/“He couldn’t fit in the elevator” is a similar joke with a different punchline.
Wikipedia: Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story skyscraper located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on Fifth Avenue between West 33rd and 34th Streets. It has a roof height of 1,250 feet (381 m), and with its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 1,454 feet (443 m) high. Its name is derived from the nickname for New York, the Empire State. It stood as the world’s tallest building for nearly 40 years, from its completion in early 1931 until the topping out of the original World Trade Center’s North Tower in late 1970. Following the September 11 attacks in 2001, the Empire State Building was again the tallest building in New York, until One World Trade Center reached a greater height in April 2012. The Empire State Building is currently the fifth-tallest completed skyscraper in the United States and the 29th-tallest in the world. It is also the fifth-tallest freestanding structure in the Americas. When measured by pinnacle height, it is the fourth-tallest building in the United States.
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Perhaps the most famous popular culture representation of the building is in King Kong (1933), in which the title character, a giant ape, climbs to the top to escape his captors but falls to his death after being attacked by airplanes. In 1983, for the film’s fiftieth anniversary, a huge 90-foot (27 m) tall inflatable Kong was placed on the building mast above the observation deck by artist Robert Vicino. In 2005, Peter Jackson’s remake of King Kong was released, set in 1930s New York City, including a final showdown between Kong and biplanes atop a greatly detailed Empire State Building. (The 1976 remake of King Kong was set in a contemporary New York City and held its climactic scene on the towers of the World Trade Center.)
4 July 1971, Sunday Herald Traveler (Boston, MA), Young Folks Page, col. 6:
Why did King Kong climb the Empire State Building?
From MICHELLE DELABRUERE
Exeter, N.H.
To get his kite.
Google Books
April 1980, Boys’ Life “Think & Grin,” pg. 62, col. 2:
Quiz: Why did King Kong climb to the top of the Empire State Building?
Whiz: To catch a plane. — Blake Dickson, Shaker Heights, Ohio.
26 July 1981, Newsday (Long Island, NY), “Smiles,” Kidsday sec., pg. 1, col. 3:
Why did King Kong climb to the top of the Empire State Building?
He had a plane to catch.
—John Becker, Syosset
12 January 1998, Los Angeles (CA) Times, “Laugh Lines; Pint-Sized Punch Lines,” pg. 4:
Why did King Kong climb the Empire State Building? To catch a plane. (Jonathan Jung, 7, Covina, Collegewood Elementary)
Google Groups: alt.humor.puns
Puns of the Weak 11/15/02
Stan Kegel
11/15/02
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Why did King Kong climb the Empire State Building?
He needed to catch a plane. (Miguel, 10)
Google Books
Barrel of Monkeys Super Silly Joke Book
By Dave Ross
Illustrated by Jared Chapman
New York, NY: Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.
2008
Pg. 46:
Why did King Kong climb the Empire State Building?
He needed to catch a plane.
Twitter
Trang Dong
@typicallytrang
@LittlecBeadles why did king kong climb the empire state building? to catch a plane!!! Haha 😛
9:28 PM - 30 Aug 2010
Twitter
Jeffrey Power
@Hefpow
JOTD…
Why did King Kong climb the Empire State building?
...he had to catch a plane…
6:03 AM - 14 Jan 2011
Twitter
kayla/FUCKING PCD
@xcaptainirwinx
Why did king kong climb the empire state building?
he wanted to catch a plane #CheesyJokesToCheerAshtonUp
8:02 AM - 13 Apr 2014