You can follow that situation if you imagine a German person, who is trying to understand an English joke. That person might have learned English very well, but he does not have the language skills of a native speaker, which he needs, to understand double meanings or sound differences (e.g. hair - hare).
As an example, you could take that cartoon. The first speech bubble is just easy to understand. The woman is asking the man, why the golfer is wearing two pairs of trousers. Of course you have to recognize that she is talking about the golfer, because that is important for the joke, but you can also see a man playing golf in the cartoon. The second speech bubble contains the joke. It is based on the double meaning of the word group "hole in one". The difference between both meanings is the rhythm of speaking. The first meaning just says that the golfer might get a hole in one of his trousers - because of that he is wearing two pairs. The second meaning refers to a special golfer term. A "hole in one" is, when a golfer gets the ball in the hole with just one turn. Now you have to get those two meanings in your brain and put them together. Very difficult for a person, who is not a native speaker.
(by Elisa)
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