A Sudoku to keep you in stitches. 

Thanks, Joe. A Goldilocks puzzle (imo). BremSter's solution is nearly perfect. The only thing I would recommend is full, systematic usage of the outside clues at the very beginning, to the maximum extent possible, and then to use a colour spot to indicate which of the clues have been fully processed, or have not. This way, you can immediately see which of those clues still need to be dealt with. The alternative will be to forget to use them, or to have to rescan all of them frequently. As to puzzle difficulty, there are two aspects to it. One is direct difficulty (how hard is the analysis ?), and the other is amount of effort (how long do you have to keep working ?). The second factor does have an impact on difficulty rating, but it's only a second-order effect. This is one reason why at least two numbers are required to state a puzzle's difficulty rating. This is a genuinely approachable sudoku, because even a complete beginner can do it. Lots of simple calculations will be required, but all of them can be done "over the board" by anyone. The main thing that is needed is a systematic application of basic sudoku principles. Of course, strong familiarity with the between lines logic will be very helpful, because then you already "know" what someone else will have to derive. For those who don't know, the main logic of between lines is 1) You can never put 1 or 9 on these lines. Corollary to that, if 1 or 9 is blocked from the ends, then 2 (or 8) cannot be on the lines, and so forth. 2) One end must be high (or medium); the other end must be low (or medium). Two mediums won't work. 3) There must be a minimum separation between the ends, given by the length of the non-repeating parts of the line. 4) Any digit on a line cannot appear on the ends, and vice-versa. Armed with these rules, you can then go to attack between lines directly, rather than being forced to do so when the walls close in on you.

23:48 for me. It is a joy to solve this puzzle.

loved it!

There are so many constraints that are considered standard. Sometimes the solver forgets that not everyone has seen them. Usually in the rules it will tell how that constraint works. Some constraints allow things like repeated digits while others don't. When you solve or set a lot of puzzles you start to take it for granted others will know how those constraints work. I do try to be careful in the rules to put an explanation even a brief one to help with this.