Joke about European ship (3-5)
I believe the answer is:
one-liner
'joke' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'about european ship' is the wordplay.
'about' becomes 'on' (as in a book 'on' a certain topic).
'european' becomes 'E' (abbreviation e.g. EU).
'ship' becomes 'liner' (as in an ocean liner).
'on'+'e'+'liner'='ONE-LINER'
(Other definitions for one-liner that I've seen before include "Witty remark contained in a single sentence" , "Pithy joke" , "Flat, smooth" , "Witty remark consisting of a short sentence" , "Witty remark in single short sentence" .)