Halloween Jokes for Kids, Sorted by Age, With Every Answer

Halloween Jokes for Kids, Sorted by Age, With Every Answer

The best Halloween jokes for kids depend on age: 3- to 5-year-olds laugh at silly sounds and wrong names, 6- to 8-year-olds at knock-knocks and puns, and 9- to 12-year-olds at riddles and words with two meanings. Below are 54 original Halloween jokes and riddles for kids, every one with its answer, and none with a punchline about blood, guts or being dead. Each of the five top-ranking lists we checked includes at least one.

Many will be read on a phone. On SubhSandesh, 48.3% of shared pages are opened on a phone and the average page is viewed 11.1 times: platform-wide figures, not Halloween ones. Below: why each age laughs differently, the jokes by age, lunchbox notes and a make-your-own template.

Why does a 4-year-old laugh at different jokes than an 8-year-old?

A joke sets up a surprise, then lets you work out why it fits. Children manage the surprise years before the working-out.

Psychologist Paul McGhee described humor developing in stages, and a 2022 Developmental Psychology study of 110 first-born children playing dress-up with their siblings summarises those stages: toddlers invent nonsense words, and by around age 7 children produce puns and riddles of their own.

A 2021 PLOS ONE brain-imaging study of 35 children aged 6 to 8 explains the gap: preschoolers mostly find a joke funny because it makes no sense, and real resolution does not appear before about age 6. That is why a ghost cow saying "moo" delights a 4-year-old and bores a 10-year-old.

The line can move. In a 2021 Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis study, four "pre-riddle" children aged 5 to 6.5 were taught to understand double-meaning jokes. All four kept the skill at follow-up, so explaining a pun to a 5-year-old is not wasted.

Ages 3–5: 13 silly Halloween jokes that need no wordplay

At this age the funny part is the mistake itself. Say the answer in a big, silly voice.

Silly-sound jokes

• What does a ghost cow say? "Moo-boo!"
• What does a ghost say when it bumps its toe? "Ow-ooooo!"
• What does a little bat say at bedtime? "Night-night! Now hang me upside down."
• How does a skeleton say hello? "Clickety-clack, hello back!"
• What does a ghost keep up its nose? Boo-gers!
• What sound does a pumpkin make rolling down a hill? Bumpkin, bumpkin, bumpkin!

Wrong-name jokes

• Is that a pumpkin? No! It's a big orange... balloon!
• What is the little ghost's teddy called? Mr Boo-Boo Bear.
• What does a witch say to start her broom? "Vroom, broom!"
• What do you call a monster with no teeth? A gummy-wummy!
• Why is the ghost hiding under the blanket? Because it IS a blanket!
• Where does a pumpkin sleep? In the pumpkin patch, in its pumpkin pajamas.
• What does a jack-o'-lantern eat for breakfast? Pumpkin pancakes, with a candle on top.

Ages 6–8: 18 knock-knock jokes and Halloween puns with answers

From about 6, children can resolve a joke built on one sound-alike word. The knock-knock format hands them the rhythm, so they can tell these before they can invent them.

Knock-knock jokes

• Knock, knock. Who's there? Boo. Boo who? Don't cry, it's only Halloween! (traditional)
• Knock, knock. Who's there? Ghoul. Ghoul who? Ghoul-d you open the door? It's chilly out here!
• Knock, knock. Who's there? Owl. Owl who? Owl swap you my raisins for your chocolate.
• Knock, knock. Who's there? Gourd. Gourd who? Gourd-geous costume! Is that candy for me?
• Knock, knock. Who's there? Broom. Broom who? Broom-broom! Move over, I'm parking my broomstick.
• Knock, knock. Who's there? Mummy. Mummy who? Mummy says one more house, then bedtime!
• Knock, knock. Who's there? Bat. Bat who? Bat you can't guess what I'm dressed as!
• Knock, knock. Who's there? Hoot. Hoot who? Hoot-ever opens this door gets a high five!

Question-and-answer puns

• What's the only word a ghost can spell perfectly? B-O-O!
• Why was the jack-o'-lantern picked as line leader? It's the brightest in the class.
• Why did the bat go to the library? To find a book about hanging out.
• Where do little ghosts jump at birthday parties? On the boo-ncy castle.
• Why does the witch's cat sit on the computer? To keep an eye on the mouse.
• What's a monster's favorite lunchbox snack? Ghoul-dfish crackers.
• How does a witch check her homework? With a spell-checker.
• What did the black cat do in gym class? A perfect cat-wheel.
• What's a ghost's favorite fruit? Boo-nanas.
• What do skeletons say before dinner? "Bone appétit!" (traditional)

Ages 9–12: 14 Halloween riddles and wordplay jokes

Older kids want to be stumped, then to stump someone else. Reading researcher Marcy Zipke reported in The Reading Teacher in 2008 that 7- to 9-year-olds taught words with several meanings improved on standardized reading comprehension tests, with riddles among the most successful parts. In a 2009 experiment with 46 third graders, the group taught multiple meanings, including in riddles, beat the control group on one of two comprehension tests.

Riddles with answers

• I get a face in October, I smile with a hole, and I glow from the inside. What am I? A jack-o'-lantern.
• A trick-or-treater visits three houses. The first gives 2 candies, and each house after gives double the last. How many candies? 14 (2 + 4 + 8).
• What has eight legs, spins all night and never gets dizzy? A spider.
• Fog is taller than Mist, and Wisp is shorter than Mist. Which ghost is smallest? Wisp.
• What gets bigger the more you carve out of it? The hole in a pumpkin. (traditional)
• A witch lines up her cat, her bat and her toad. The cat won't stand next to the toad. Who is in the middle? The bat.
• I fly without feathers, "see" with my ears and sleep upside down. What am I? A bat.
• Which word starts with "boo" and holds every spooky story? A book.

Wordplay jokes with two meanings

• Why do skeletons stay so calm? Nothing gets under their skin.
• Why did the ghost's joke flop? The audience saw right through it.
• Why did the mummy go on vacation? It needed to unwind. (traditional)
• Why do vampires skip the class photo? They never show up.
• Where does a bookworm bat keep its favorite novels? In the best-cellar.
• Why did the pumpkins call a meeting? To squash a rumor.

Lunchbox notes and a make-your-own joke template: 9 more lines

A lunchbox joke gets read alone and retold at the table. Zipke's 2008 paper had primary-grade students write their own riddles, hence the template.

Lunchbox notes

• What's a mummy's favorite lunch? A wrap, just like yours today!
• This sandwich is under a spell. It disappears when you eat it.
• Riddle: I'm in your lunchbox, I'm orange, and I'm not a pumpkin. Answer: your clementine!
• Knock, knock. Who's there? Lettuce. Lettuce who? Lettuce hear all about your day after school!
• What's a bat's favorite fruit? A bat-nana. Eat yours!
• Who left this note? A ghost. Boo! (Okay, it was me. Love you.)

Make-your-own joke template

1. Pick a Halloween word: ghost, bat, witch, mummy, pumpkin, owl or fang.
2. Find an everyday word hiding in its sound: boo and book, witch and which, bat and bet, fang and thank, owl and I'll.
3. Drop it into a frame: "What does a ___ ___? ___!" or "Knock, knock. Who's there? ___. ___ who? ___."

Made with the template:

• What does a ghost wear on its feet? Boo-ts!
• Knock, knock. Who's there? Fang. Fang who? Fang you for laughing at my joke!
• Why did the witch bring a map? She forgot witch way to go.

Which Halloween joke type fits which age?

This table compares the four joke sets by age, with the study behind each.

Pick by what the child can resolve, not by grade. A 7-year-old not yet getting puns still enjoys the 3–5 list.

Sending a Halloween joke to a child who lives far away

For a grandparent or parent sending the joke, the Halloween greeting page has a Kids tone: spooky-cute, round blushing ghosts, no blood, no gore, no jump scares, and nothing goes dark. The child knocks three times to get in, a knock-knock joke waiting to happen, and you choose the word they carve on the pumpkin, so the punchline glows.

Your letter is read by flashlight in a dark attic, which suits a riddle with the answer saved for the last line. The No button waits as "maybe later?". Across the platform, 90.9% of started pages are published and shared.

To tell the joke in your own voice, the premium Halloween page adds a voice note of up to 60 seconds. For kids, its No button never appears.

When a joke page is the wrong choice

For a 3- to 5-year-old in the same house, a joke told at the door beats any link. They can't read it alone, and the laugh comes from your silly voice anyway.

It is a one-person greeting, not a party tool, so for a class party, print the lists above. The interface is English only. And 48.3% of pages open on a phone, for a young child usually a parent's, so sit with them.

Sources

• Paine et al., humor with siblings in middle childhood, Developmental Psychology, 2 June 2022.
• Mayseless & Reiss, fNIRS study of humor appreciation, PLOS ONE, 8 December 2021.
• Jackson et al., teaching double-meaning jokes, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 12 April 2021.
• Zipke, riddles and reading comprehension, The Reading Teacher, 2008 (abstract read).
• Zipke, Ehri & Cairns, semantic ambiguity instruction, Reading Research Quarterly, 2009 (abstract read).