A man goes to the comedian's banquet . . .

A man goes to the local comedian's annual banquet with a friend who is a professional comic. The dinner begins and pretty soon a man rises to his feet, gets everyone's attention and says "32."
The room erupts in laughter and the man sits back down. A while later, another comic rises at another table, the crowd quiets down to hear what he has to say, and he announces "17" and the place goes crazy with laughter.
This happens a few more times with assorted numbers killing the audience when finally the non-comic attendee leans over to his friend and asks, "What the heck is going on? What's so funny about numbers?" The friend explains, "We're all comedians here and we've all been in comedy so long, and all know the same jokes so well, that we've numbered them in order to save time. So, now instead of telling a long, drawn-out joke with a setup and punchline, we just say the number of the joke we want to tell and everyone here knows it."
The new guy thinks about this and thinks, this is great, I can say a number and make a whole room full of professional comedians laugh. I can't pass up this opportunity.
After a reasonable lull, the new guy rises, clears this throat and says "24." There is a stony silence and he sits back down. He takes a drink and leans over to his friend and asks, "what happened?!"
His friend just shakes his head and says, "That joke's a classic, but your timing stinks."