5:36:01 PM EDT
Originally published in Mensa Bulletin, March 2005
What Makes Us Laugh? I don’t know why we laugh. (It was Asimov, I think, who said humans are the only animals with a sense of humor. The main android in A.I. had none, but he laughed when others did in order to blend in.) It’s not hard to explain what pleases us. But why do we laugh? Non-verbal things are basic. Seeing pratt falls satisfies our enjoyment of the discomfort of others. Funny faces: who knows? Jokes are richer sources of study.
What we joke about tells us a few things about ourselves. Our pattern of jokes shows our antagonisms, our taboos (including sex,) and that we like to raise ourselves by demeaning others. One particular joke, by itself, tells something interesting:
Bob tells Bill, “You’re going to New York? There’s a great bar you should go to. You get a free beer and get laid in the back room. Have another beer and get laid again. As many times as you want. I swear.”
“G’wan. It happened to you?’
“No. To my sister.”
This is funny to me and to others, because even if we agree that women have the same right to sexuality as men there is a contrary realty. If a man and a woman have sex with each other, the almost universal perception is that the woman is giving the man something of value and the man is taking. We realize this, subconsciously at least. (Other evidence of this dichotomy is that in the South it had been considered evil for a black man to have sex with a white woman, but the reverse was winked at by many. (I don’t know to what extent this still is true.)) The joke raises this to a higher level of consciousness. The humor is in the realization of the familiar and in Bob’s ignorance.
***
Ignorance and stupidity are the focal points of many jokes. The audience feels better, knowing that they are smarter than the butt of the joke. (Diseases affecting movement can be the subject of non-verbal attempts at humor. Strike “attempts at” as long as we realize that humor can include cruelty.)
We frequently find our taboos funny. Like the man in the theatre who got lost at intermission. Desperately needing to urinate, when he spied a potted plant he relieved himself in it. Returning late to his seat, he asked his wife, “How was the third act?”
“You ought to know. You were in it.”
***
Brevity is not the soul of wit. It merely assists when another factor is there. For instance, “Thank you for calling American Airlines. How may I help you?”
“Can you tell me the flying time from New York City to San Diego?”
“Certainly. Just a minute, please.”
“Thank you very much.” Click.
But good comedians know how and when to draw out a joke, as in this one of the women bragging about their sons. Since this is an intellectual discussion, I’ll shorten it a bit.
“My son is such a great surgeon, blah, blah, blah.”
“Blah, blah, rich, blah, blah.”
“But mine has a wonderful sense of humor. That gift is blah, blah. Just the other night he was at a nightclub. He had to get up in the middle of Don Rickles’ act, and Rickles made fun of my Johnny’s weight. Johnny has a good appetite, knock on wood. Why should he deny himself?
“So my son came back, right away, with a remark that had everyone rolling in the aisles. Rickles was sorry he picked on my Johnny, I’ll tell you.”
“So what did Johnny say?”
“He said -- quick as a wink, mind you -- ‘F—k you, Don Rickles.’”
Dirty words, the taboo against them, stupidity, and another factor, human foibles, such as an unwarranted pride in one’s child.
***
Illogic is funny. (Consider Gracie Allen.) Rothschild was in a town where all the shop sign were pictures without words. He went into the small shop that displayed a sign resembling a watch. “How long would it take to clean my watch?” he asked
“Forever. This is not a watch repair place. My business is circumcising Jewish baby boys.”
“Then why do you show a watch as your sign?’ the rich man asked irately.
“Nu. What kind of sign do you think I should put up?”
Of course he shouldn’t depict a watch. Nevertheless, the rich man is a fool in the eyes of the other. More important, the possibility of an organ of sex and urination, prominently displayed, is brought to mind.
Sex is often the staple of jokes. A woman comes home, finding her butler in her bedroom. “What are you doing here,” she asks.
“Annie said she had a family emergency. I told her she could take care of it and I’d do you room. I hope that’s all right. The room is done, and I was just about to leave.”
“Fine. But before you go, George, please take off my shoes.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And now, take off my stockings.”
“Blah, blah, blah, dress, slip, bra.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“George, you like you position here, don’t you?
“Oh, yes, ma’am.”
“And you know that if I asked Master to let you go, he’d do so, without any questions?”
“I’m sure he would, ma’am.”
“So listen very carefully. Take off my panties, and don’t you ever put on my clothes again.”
Sex, unexpected ending, and variation from the sexual proclivities of the majority.
***
“What sticks out of a man’s pajamas that he can hang his hat on?----His hat”
I’m not telling dirty jokes. If you think it’s dirty, that’s your problem. Like the man who goes to the psychiatrist and is shown simple geometric figures, but they all look like forbidden parts of a woman’s body to him. “You’re obviously obsessed with sex,” says the doctor.
“Me? You’re the one with all the dirty pictures.”
***
Circumstances can create funny situations. In the classic misunderstanding, two people are think they are talking about the same thing, but they are not. (“Ruthless People” has an example.)
***
For more analysis and jokes, visit http://journals.aol.com/jdmar55 and look for humor.
Donald Marcus
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jdmar55
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