Wages get stopped as the final part of a joke (3-3)
I believe the answer is:
pay-off
'part of a joke' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are verbs in their base form, I cannot understand how one could define the other.
'wages get stopped as the final' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'wages' could be 'pay' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'pay' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'off' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for pay-off that I've seen before include "Result" , "Return on an investment" , "Final settlement - backhander" , "Deserved reward" .)