supressed information, why jokes are funny. what makes a joke funny

originally posted by: seeker1963
a reply to: mattsawaufo

Why can't a joke just be funny for a person whom hears it??

Have we as a society become so effed up that we need a scientific explanation as to what makes us laugh?

Should myself or anyone else make an appointment with our shrink to get the OK whether or not what we heard is funny?

Think about it!

Absolutely. This is one of the joys of humor. It is an individuals tastes and interests. It is also a group experience.
For me, another joy of humor is watching other people go nuts over something I don't have a clue about. When that happens, I can feel left out, because I like laughing too, or, I can try to learn about what it is that they find so funny.

Have we as a society become so effed up that we need a scientific explanation as to what makes us laugh?

Right again. But like it or not, that scientific explanation is there. It's a science. What is now known about what makes us laugh has been growing at leaps and bounds since someone figured out how to get rich off of it. From Punch and Judy to Comedy Central.

Should myself or anyone else make an appointment with our shrink to get the OK whether or not what we heard is funny?

You just reminded me of something I realized a number of years ago. At a comedy movie. When the flow of the movie arrived at a situation that had been run, over and over and over in previews, I didn't find them funny be cause I had already seen them. But in not laughing, I noticed something else. I noticed that most of the rest of the audience did.
And throughout the movie, even though I found numerous things to laugh at, sometimes embarrassingly, I found that at those times I was often laughing alone. And sure enough, the next previewed segment would arrive and the crowd would whoop it up again. Now I notice it all the time.

So I've thought about it. There are those who know the science of funny, and make fortunes from knowing what it is that makes us laugh. And it isn't anybodies shrink.

I want access to Bob Hopes joke vault! Wanna make a bet there a joke for everyone in there?
Professional humorists practice a lot. Timing is everything.

That's amazing that my jokes get told and retold until someone across the country has heard it. I gotta stop telling jokes to whoever spread it. A joke only works once usually.

originally posted by: caterpillage
a reply to: mattsawaufo

And no, I have never written a single joke, and I laugh at you.

That is a very funny joke. As for this thread, at first it gave me pleasure, then gave me pain. Like a good Indian meal.

All jokes imply or say explicitly that a pleasure is a pain and that a corresponding contradictory pain is pleasure.

I really did love that woman.
I don't think I can stand the smell much longer.

All jokes imply or say explicitly that a pleasure is a pain and that a corresponding pain is pleasure. I had it right the first time.

a reply to: skunkape23
Correspond-very similar; almost matching

I think jokes - being a form of creative pursuit - are much like all artforms, relying on the juxtoposition of unlikely partnered ideas...and the listener is left to reconstruct them, in their own headspace...

...oh, and I think all good comedy has...








Timing.

Å99

a reply to: akushla99
Timing doesn't really matter, they have to be similar in 2 or more ways. The delivery matters but not timing.
Crying is easier to figure out than laughter. Just remove a source of pleasure.

originally posted by: mattsawaufo

I'm going to explain a george carlin joke. "I wouldn't # her with a stolen dick" he implies he wouldn't have sex with her with his own dick (sex/pleasure is pain/unnattractive) he also implies it's possible to have sex with a stolen dick (stolen dick/pain is pleasure/sex)

I can't even imagine how that far out in left field would look like.

a reply to: SLAYER69I'm in group therapy with Evan Williams, jack Daniels and johnny walker.

a reply to: mattsawaufo

I agree...but timing is part of delivery.

Å99

a reply to: akushla99

...otherwise, it's premature evacuation...

Å99

Jokes are funny due to pattern recognition. We see a pattern, anticipate a particular outcome, and when that outcome is changed, we make a barking noise.

Prairie dogs do the same thing. They scan the patterns of the tall grass. If that pattern is interrupted by the shape of a predator, they bark to alert others.

"Take my wife... please." We hear the phrase, "take my wife," which is a common way of saying "consider my wife." We're prepared for a pattern in which we're asked to consider something the man's wife has done or said. When "please" is added, the expected pattern is interrupted and a new one is put in place, wherein we're being asked to remove the man's wife for some reason, assumedly because she's unpleasant or annoying. Often found in spousal relationships. The dual meaning of the word "take" allows the pattern change to happen.

This is why we're able to laugh more than once at the same joke. It's not a matter of surprise, because we already know the surprise. But we're hard-wired to respond to patterns. So we laugh again.

a reply to: Blue Shift

All good and simple, but you can get sick of hearing the same joke over and over again - even if you laughed the first couple of times...

Å99

originally posted by: akushla99
All good and simple, but you can get sick of hearing the same joke over and over again - even if you laughed the first couple of times...

Of course. We're not exactly like prairie dogs. We're smart animals and will learn to anticipate the interrupting pattern after a while. But in general, the more stimulation a person gets from a joke (the more they think it's funny) the longer it will take for them to get tired of it. That's why we still have Seinfeld re-runs.

a reply to: Blue Shift

I don't know how relevant that is...I would say (and because I have the complete series) it is because the humour is so layered that you need to watch it over and over again - to see how clever it really is.

I'm of the opinion that trying to reduce jokes to some sort of formulaic equation, is in fact, a joke.

Å99

a reply to: Blue Shift

By that theory a b c d e f q is funny because we anticipated a g and there was a q instead.in theory it sounds good but it doesn't inspire good writing. When tested by trying to write a joke using it, it fails.