The joke is presented in riddle form, beginning with a what question and concluded with a grotesque punch line answer.
[1] According to the folklorist scholar Alan Dundes, the dead baby joke cycle likely began in the early 1960s.
[1] Dundes theorizes that the origin of the dead baby joke lies in the rise of second-wave feminism in the U.S. during that decade and its rejection of the traditional societal role for women, which included support for legalized abortion and contraceptives.
[2][3] It has also been suggested that the jokes emerged in response to images of graphic violence, often involving infants, from the Vietnam War.
You can’t unload bowling balls with a pitchfork.