"It's not funny" or "there's nothing funny about (fill in the blank.) These phrases are so often used to convey that something has caused pain and is therefore off-limits.
The problem is that humor is, at its core, a method of dealing with pain and anxiety. If you limit it to only jokes about anodyne subjects it's kind of a waste.
Sure, I understand the need for tact at some times. But if I don't find something funny, you're probably telling it wrong.
2 comments:
What is green, has 8 legs and will kill you if it falls from a tree?
A pool table.
Sorry, not just anodyne but silly. Still, the sheer unexpectedness that makes it funny (so long as you're not standing under that tree) is exactly the quality that makes us laugh. The pratfalls of clowns are amusing because we know the clown is a skilled acrobat, but seeing someone fall down a staircase is shocking. A general rule might be not to joke about something serious or at least wait until they stand up and dust themselves off.
Then there's one like this:
What do you call a dead blonde in a closet?
A 1997 World Hide-and-Seek champion.
While stereotyping different races is cruel, a joke about 'dumb blondes' doesn't mean we find all blondes stupid. Of course, if you're sitting at a dinner table with an oversensitive blonde it might be best to keep the story to yourself. People are so easily offended these days, aren't they?
In the big pcture humor is a very good thing for the simple reasons that laughter feels good and lowers tensions. Sometimes we just need to laugh at the absurdity of life.
Well, I do have fun visualizing that joke. Don't know how the pool table got in that tree, but now that it's there it's not gonna go quietly.
Unexpectedness. I guess I failed to mention unexpectedness. Now that's a surprise. But yes, I believe humor does thrive on the defiance of expectations, or otherwise playing with them. Say if you knew something was going to happen, but not when and what it would coincide with. As for clowns, it's a good thing they are gifted acrobats. You wouldn't laugh at one actually hurting himself, unless he owed you money.
Someone asked a blonde which is closer, Arizona or the sun. She said, "The sun, because I can look up and see it."
That one's got an unexpected twist, because you could argue that the blonde is an existentialist.
Stereotyping can be a thin ice patch because you need to be sure you're not actually dismissing people because they're different from you. And if you're in the presence of one or more of those people they have to be convinced of it as well. But just because it's risky doesn't mean that it should be banned at all times, although some now seem to disagree.
Laughter is therapeutic. And it can be wise when our choice of what to take seriously turns out to be foolish.
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