Early French joke? (5,2,4)
I believe the answer is:
crack of dawn
'early french joke?' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'french joke?' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'french' could be 'dawn' (comedian Dawn French) and 'dawn' is found within the answer.
'joke?' could be 'crack' (a crack is a joke or quip) and 'crack' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'of' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for crack of dawn that I've seen is " First light".)