"A priest and a Rabbi walk into a bar... "You have heard this joke put in place a thousand times." Before the joke reaches its punch line that you're smiling and the guy next to you are whining. "Knock, knock? '' Unless the teller of the joke is a student of third year with a lisp you know that this mystery will end with a thud. Of course if you are the proud grandmother, this will be the only ever heard the funniest joke and slip the future actor a little money.
Then why people respond differently to the jokes? How a joke that leads a person to snort and spit and whiz virtually on the floor, not even make someone else smile of crack? Uh, sorry for the reference of the crack.
What makes us laugh?
The success of a joke is between the speaker and the receiver. A giggle is reached when one of the following conditions resonates with our feelings personal and beliefs:
Shared perspective. Stereotypes, aging of organs, from nightmares, etc.An exaggeration of a person, place or thing. Mother-in-Laws, waiting at the doctor, bodily functions (boys like these jokes).A slice of life observance that captures a moment or a bit of truth, so do us feel in communion with our own idiocy. Passing through security at the airport with a Swiss army knife (or more than 3 ounces of fluid) in your hand baggage. Oops.The Science of laughter
There is a real science behind a good joke and laugh. Long before we learn to speak, we laugh. This is part of the universal human vocabulary. Robert r. Provine, Ph.d., Professor of psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Maryland, found that laughter provides a new approach for mechanisms and the evolution of social behaviour, perception and speech production.
Dr. Provine also observed that the speaker laughs generally as the receiver, and that laughter was more frequent in the so-called "in-groupness", strongly suggesting that laughter has an important social role. A middle-aged man speaking to a group of men of similar age about erectile dysfunction hits a home run but lays an egg to a MOM and me nursery. Go figure.
Laughter is contagious!
Laughter is contagious, too. In 1962, an outbreak of laughter contagious broke in Tanganyika. What began as a crisis of laughter among a group of 12 to 18 - year-old schoolgirls rapidly increased in epidemic proportions. Contagious laughter spreads from one person to another, possibly infecting neighboring communities. The epidemic was so severe that it required the closure of schools for six months. Think about a time you were in a group, someone says a joke and the laughter escalated to a roar that could not be stopped.
The "value of the funny bone' a joke is a Computable measure. Many professional actors filming their sets of comedy to subsequently assess individual success or failure, of jokes. There is a computer program designed by Steve Roye actor who measures the number and duration of laughter for every minute of the show. Your teacher is right; know basic math will be always serious.
A good joke, well designed and executed, is only as good as the speaker and the audience who receives it. This probably explains why I stopped telling toc-toc jokes in the third year. Who goes there?
Stephanie Dell is a comedian who writes a blog that is unfair and unbalanced on the experiences of social life and why a dog and a beer are essential for a happier life. Visit his blog at http://www.dogandabeer.com/
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