It means there will be a lot more to follow

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Note added at 2 mins (2003-10-24 15:18:05 GMT)
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There are already a thousand lawyers chained at the bottom of the ocean and there will be many more in future. Not the most amusing one I\'ve heard all day.

My father is a lawyer with a weird sense of humor, so I've heard this from him many times before. The "narrator", if you will, hates lawyers and wants to see them all die, and chaining a person to the bottom of the ocean, naturally, will kill him/her. And, of course, there are more than one thousand lawyers in the world. But, that's still a lot of people. So, a thousand lawyers at the bottom of the ocean is only a start, but it's a good start [to getting rid of them all].

That joke arose because in the world, especially here in the United States, there is a stereotype of sorts that lawyers are evil people who live to screw over other people. I understand that; after all, in court, there's always at least one side that's trying to screw somebody over, although often it's in the name of justice. What I don't understand is why my father finds these jokes so funny.

Anyway, good luck!!

-Dan

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Note added at 2003-10-24 19:48:01 (GMT)
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In response to Gordon Darroch\'s comment to me on Jacques Saleh\'s answer:

Actually, I had no idea that that is a negative remark. In English (at least in New York), something like, \"No, man, this is English>English only,\" would be considered an informally polite remark. I do not know much colloquial French, but I wanted to include some in my comment, as per the situation. Please forgive the transgression, as I forgive yours; that caveman comment, although funny (I snickered), was uncalled for.


And to Jacques:

I didn\'t know that what I wrote could be considered offensive. Forgive me.

This is a slight variation on Ian's answer. Instead of expecting more to come, this means that this is nothing by itself but better than nothing, a step in the right direction.

The joke itself is not much either IMHO.

c'est la traduction et va dans le sens de la blague...

it's a step in the right direction, i.e. less lawyers, less greenhouse effect, etc.

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Note added at 2003-10-25 07:48:33 (GMT)
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To Dan-Chikara: daijobu means it\'s cool, don\'t worry about it. Besides French is nowhere to be seen in Gordon\'s profile. Probably a misunderstanding, let\'s leave it at that.

I am a non-native English speaker and read this joke for the first time. What I got is that one thousand is a surprisingly huge number of people being chained at the bottom of the ocean, but the description to this *thousand* lawyers is ¡°a good *start*¡±, that implies it's far from enough. It seems to me that lawyers are not only hated but also way too many, at least the joke teller thought that way.

Agree with previous answerers' explanations.

start (in this sense) = 1 the beginning of something eg The event got off to a shaky/poor start with the stage lights failing in the first few minutes 2 when you begin doing something eg We need to make a start on (preparing) the brochure next week.

(to make) a good start = (to make) a good beginning (a strong start)
eg I see you've made a good start (on this job).

'chained at the bottom of the ocean'...

chain vt has two meanings
1 to fasten or shackle with chains
2 to hold down, restrain,confine, etc

so the lawyers are either:
1 chained to each other at the bottom of the ocean,or
2 chained to the bottom of the ocean
-> I think it is the second one.