Q: Why are elevator jokes the best?
A: Because they work on so many levels!

Explanation: What goes up, must come down, says the old adage.  (Blood, Sweat and Tears sang about that, too.)  The same is true for elevators: Elevators (called a lift in England) go up and down to bring people to different floors in a building.  The floors in a building are sometimes called levels.  Just like in a video game where you move to the next level, elevators can take you up or down one or more levels.

“Works on many levels” is an idiom that means something works in many different ways.  For example, the story of Alice in Wonderland could be read, on one level, as a silly adventure.  On a different level, it could be about children trying to understand the adult world.  Others say it is about drugs, or eating disorders.  If you do a search for different interpretations, you will find many.  Many Disney movies that are made for children, have themes or dialogue that adults will better understand–They work on different levels.  Has that ever happened to you?  Have you seen a movie as an adult and you understand it differently than when you were a child?

This joke is funny because it plays with the phrase “it works on many levels.”  By the way, things can be wrong on may levels too.

Take a look at the world’s tallest elevators–