Cantoning

[Magaret]

To utterly and totally destroy the punchline of a joke so as to make it completely devoid of any sort of humerous value. Often, the act of [CantonING] (the verb form) is funny, because the person who catoned the joke often is not aware they have done so.

This term comes from the town of [Canton] in Central Illinois where people have a tendancy, due to life in such a provincial area, to miss [high-brow] humor and explain simple jokes with what they see as...jokes.