A Website That Offers A Joke Explanation Can Perform A Social Service

By Lakisha Barton


A person who offers a joke explanation might seem pedantic, or even absurd if he offers to explain himself after his audience has not laughed at his words. Sadly, there are many utterances which are intended to be amusing but are not. The reason for this may lie with the sender or the receiver. If a persons says something which he thinks people will find amusing but does not get the sort of response that he wants it is usually best to carry on as though one did not mean anyone to laugh anyway.

On some occasions a person may hear a joke which he thinks is funny. After carefully remembering each detail he might repeat it but his audience might just look at him in an embarrassed way instead of falling about as everyone did when it was first told.

Groups of people often coalesce around common interests or activities. When five people have knowledge of one person's idiosyncrasies they might find it amusing to hear allusions to the odd things about one group member and laugh uproariously. A stranger in the group who does not follow the allusion will be nonplussed. Perhaps a beautiful person will draw near and explain the allusion, to the stranger so demonstrating tact, compassion and social perfection.

Good manners are not always evident in stand up comedy shows or TV productions. The standard of humor in popular culture is often so dismaying that it is impossible to watch certain shows that are apparently wildly popular. One has to suspect that rating are artificially manipulated and that banality and vulgarity replace true humor, which is difficult, clever, or both at once.

Much of popular culture is coarse, vulgar and banal. Unfortunately television channels are cluttered with shameful displays of forced and awkward utterances that are intended to evoke laughter but are actually impossible to watch, so that viewers must switch to a different channel. Fortunately the English language is rich in true wit that has been recorded in writing so that the works of Shakespeare, Johnson, Wilde and others will always remain as benchmarks.

Rhetorical devices such as hyperbole, euphemism and double entendre make up the anatomy of humor. Irony, wit and timing are the life blood that fill the skeleton with the essence that make people give way to the impulse to laugh. This laughter that comes from language is one of the most important attributes of being a human being.

Oscar Wilde was confronted in the foyer of a theater after the successful premier of one his plays. His enemy thrust a bunch of rotten cabbage leaves at him instead of a bouquet of flowers, intending an insult. 'Thank you, my Lord', said Wilde, 'whenever I smell these I shall think of you.' The essence of humor in such an utterance is wit. That s a quick, sharp choice of words that tickle or bite in their context.

Wit and irony flash like lightening between people. They may not be the subject of a joke explanation but jokes may be the thought of as the struts that keep humor aloft and suspended in society. If they are understood and appreciated wit will flow more easily through society to the benefit of all. Since the Internet is now one of the most important social struts better understanding of humor will benefit it immeasurably.




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