Ha Ha Halloween, George Street (2009 – 2026)
The shop sold Halloween jokes to children who had forgotten theirs. It closes after schools started teaching jokes for free.
Halloween decorations, which once came with a joke attached. Photo: Silar, “020191019 Halloween decorations in Poland”, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Ha Ha Halloween, the George Street shop that sold jokes to children who had forgotten their own, has closed after 17 years.
The shop’s business model was simple. Children who arrived at a door with no joke could pop in and buy one for 20p, or three for 50p. Premium jokes, with “a proper twist at the end”, cost a pound.
Its bestseller was “What do ghosts eat for dinner? Spook-etti”, which the owner said “never failed, and was laughed at by every gran in Perth for 17 years”.
Business dropped this year after schools began holding Halloween joke rehearsals. “They’re giving them away for nothing,” said the owner. “How can I compete with free jokes? Well, I could make my jokes funnier. But I won’t.”
The shop’s leftover stock, including a box of jokes about pumpkins, will be donated to the Perthetic, which is very grateful, and will be using them in this newspaper for years to come.
The real story: Perth and Kinross news (The Courier)
Letters to the Editor
The views expressed are those of the reader, and frankly that's on them.
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Spook-etti got me every time. Every single year.
— Moira L., Perth, 31 October 2026 -
I bought a premium joke in 2012. It wasn’t premium. I want my pound back.
— Craig D., Scone, 31 October 2026
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