Jokes - how do they work?

[Flame]

You are thinking why is Flame making this thread? right. well, sometimes i make a post thinking I'm going to get 10 like easy.... lets just say i hear crickets every time i see that posts.

and other time i just post my unconformable thought and i get 10 likes in seconds. and i think to myself "well that went better than planned."

or are you the type of person like @FAST6191 who think that's smart and moves on and doesn't like the like button.... cause his hipster.



so for me I'm thinking organic thoughts are better then planned thoughts, which means nature is better then nurture. but I've always been taught that nurture is the way to go.



So my question to you is what makes a good joke? and here im talking about jokes... not memes.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Flame, you're my favorite joke.

;O;

 

[SAIYAN48]

Something that gives a good laugh.

 

[VinsCool]

Something that could be well thought, absurd, a pun, a tongue twister, a scene, or basically anything that would make someone laugh.

To me, a good joke is short, and out of nowhere.
Stretch it and it becomes boring.

 

[WiiHomebrew+Snes]

Jokes. From what I know, they gotta be original, natural, confident. It helps to go just over the top enough with description. or something like that.

 

[Veho]

1: Analyzing a joke is like dissecting a frog, you get a better understanding of how it works, but the frog ends up dead.

2: There are no rules on how to write a good joke because the point of a joke is to subvert rules.

 

[wormdood]

So my question to you is what makes a good joke?

well i have always been told i look like a joke so i guess the answer is a middle aged gamer . . .

 

[kuwanger]

ELI5 (or 6-7)

 

[SAIYAN48]

Puns in another language are also good.

 

[FAST6191]

I wrote a guide to it many years ago
https://gbatemp.net/threads/presenting-the-humourless-bastards-guide-to-humour.338285/

 

[SG854]

If you want to know how to make a joke then go to wikihow.com

 

[Kioku]

What makes a joke funny? It's relatable..

 

[notimp]

The best jokes are based on misunderstanding. (Thats gapped. Or jumped.)

It seems to be some sort of social catalyst function - that goes something like this.

Two people talk with each other, they arent entirely sure if they are on the same wavelength, then one makes a joke, then the other one laughs - then they know.This "taking the edge off" (= not my enemy) from acting socially appropriate towards "the injoke" maybe is the source of pleasure. imho. Maybe. Not sure..

Take a few examples:

Poo humor. Never got it, never will.
"Dumb blond jokes" I have to admit. Work.
Old TV joke telling people, literally just repeating 10, 15 jokes they memorized, and that was their act. Doesnt. Work.

Rowan Atkinson getting in front of a crowd of 40 people, just pulling faces and making noises, having them in tears after three minutes. That apparently happened during his college years.

Its something about being socially awkward, recognizing the familiar in the other/absurd of the situation, but in a shared fashion, then being relieved, and growing closer - from then on comedians can take audiences anywhere (reflective, absurd, topical, banal, ..).

Interestingly enough, that "bond" that gets created isnt one of high status or power, its almost a momentary "laps" that lets people shed social hierarchies, but they are then willingly picking them up afterwards. And the ones who dont (comedians) usually are marked as "lower social status". "The funny guy."

Also people can be bullied to laugh (in Germany thats called "Fasching" *sarc*), and laughter also is contagious/a high. See f.e. the job of a warm up comedian.

Still one of the best skits of my generation, imho:


Plays with social taboos.

 

[DavidRO99]

They usually don't really work, unless it's a really funny joke or the person you are telling it to is in a really bad mood.

 

[Laghum]

I think jokes more or less work like this:

You build up an expectation with a little pre-story and then you go in a different direction than the expectation by something absurd or at least out of the ordinary.

What a good joke makes is hard to tell though. It very much depends on the audience i guess, because humor often works binary, if that makes sense. You either find something funny, or you just see the absurd part of it and can tell, what is the punchline but you don't find it funny.

 

[Fates-Blade-900]

I'm not sure, but I think a joke is something that makes sense (or follows a normal pattern) then it just changes (doesn't follow a normal pattern) for someone to laugh, so it builds an expectation for something that doesn't happen.

 

[notimp]

You mean like the huge blue wave in the midterm elections? *baddamtsching* (the joke is on me, btw)

Going a bit more into the social function of jokes again - watched the current 60 minutes recently - about a pair of brothers, twins, playing in the NFL, one with only one hand.

They have a strong bond, and basically made a pact (at 8 years old), that they wouldnt separate for career reasons.

Now to the interesting part - the one with only one hand, would frequently joke about the reason why it was missing, or disarm peoples awkwardness or outright malice towards him with a joke. The other brother wouldnt let that fly, and never allowed for those situations to be dissolved with a joke - because (my interpretation) he basically got the second implication, where gapping the akward moment with a joke - lowered perceived social value, which hurt him more than his twin brother.

Details..
--

But then it also works without social implications. Can remember a time in my youth, where some of us had a collective laughing fit for 15 minutes straight, about the most dadaist of jokes imaginable. ("A pig goes around a corner ... - and is gone" - announced as "the best joke ever", spoken with various intensities and degrees of sinserity, ...) To this day - I dont know why that worked - and it wasnt spoken to diffuse any situation - apart from maybe boredom... )

 

[Ghost]

I find anti-jokes rather interesting.

 

[H1B1Esquire]

Jokes work like this:
you read the room, you say the thing no one wants to say, but they're thinking, then twist it until it drips comedy.

Or just fart.

 

[mariopepper]

I ll try to explain using as example relationship with girls. If your jokes are nice and funny you will have sex, if no - you also will get sex, but on your own.