It's for the birds cheap, cheap, cheap

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

At a furniture store

.
.

Man: Excuse me. I’m looking for some furniture. I’d like to buy some inexpensive furniture and I was wondering if you could help me in.

Seller: My friend, you’ve come to the right place.

Man: That’s what they tell me.

Seller: We’ve good variety and low, low price.

Man: Good, that’s it. That’s what I’m looking for. I was looking
for some bookcases and I’ve already looked at these.

Seller: There we are.

Man: I know; I looked at those before, but little too expensive for me.

Seller: Sometimes you look, you don’t see.

Man: Yeah, OK.

Seller: Whatever you want, we are here to satisfy you.

Man: OK.

Seller: Please.

Man: Well, what I really was looking for was a bookcase in lower price range.

Seller: Right here. We have just what you need.

Man: As I hear, you got the best bargains in town.

Seller: Ah, we’re up to here in bargains.

Man: Yeah… This is more…

Seller: How do you like that?

Man: Normal kind of price, I think. Yeah.

Seller: That’s what I say, it’s for the birds cheap, cheap, cheap.

What does “it’s for the birds” mean?

Thank you

it's for the birds
it's for the birds792×595 90.6 KB

2 Likes
2

This is another attempt at a ”cheap” joke.

Previously, the setup to the joke was “This is a bird of a deal…” which means nothing. The listener is thinking what does he mean by that?”, and then comes the punch line “cheap, cheap, cheap.”

Here, the seller tries to repeat the joke, but his setup line is the familiar phrase “it’s for the birds”, which means worthless, so while it sounds similar, his attempt at a joke is really a joke on himself.

BTW, I said a “cheap” joke above. A cheap joke could also refer to a joke that is just not very good.

2 Likes
3

Thank you so much, Arinker :rose:

Very nice explanation.

2 Likes