Q: Did you hear about the fire at the circus?
A: Yeah–It was intense!!

Explanation: I love the circus! Two of my favorite circus’ are La Tarumba in Lima, Peru, and Circus Juventus in St. Paul, MN.  Traditionally, a circus would move from place to place, carrying everything with it, including a tent where they would perform.

Intense means extreme or very very strong.  You can have intense feelings for something (or someone), like when you really, really like a certain brand of chocolate.  A situation can be intense, like when people are arguing loudly.  A fire can be intense if it is really big and produces a lot of heat.

This joke is funny because “intense” sounds exactly like “in tents.”  In the joke, the fire happened in circus tents and it was intense.

Here is Cirque du Soleil taking down and setting up their circus tent.  It’s pretty intense!

Thank you J. L. for the joke!