A joke is a short story or ironic depiction of a situation communicated with the intent of being humorous. Humour or humor (see spelling differences) is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke Laughter and provide Amusement These jokes will normally have a punch line that will end the sentence to make it humorous. A joke can also be a single phrase or statement that employs sarcasm. Sarcasm is stating the opposite of an intended meaning especially in order to sneeringly slyly jest or mock a person situation or thing The word joke can also be used as a slang term for a person or thing which is not taken seriously by others in general or is known as being a failure. A practical joke or prank differs from a spoken one in that the major component of the humour is physical rather than verbal (for example placing salt in the sugar bowl). A practical joke or prank is a stunt or trick to purposely make someone feel foolish or victimized usually for humor

Jokes are typically for the entertainment of friends and onlookers. The desired response is generally laughter; when this does not happen the joke is said to have "fallen flat".

Contents 1 Anthropology of jokes 2 Psychology of jokes 3 Rules 3.1 Precision 3.2 Synthesis 3.3 Rhythm 3.4 Conclusions 3.5 Comic 3.6 Wit 3.7 Humour 4 Cycles 5 Types of jokes 5.1 Subjects 5.2 Styles 6 See also 7 Notes 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External links

Anthropology of jokes

In 1975 anthropologist Mary Douglas noted that "Joking as one mode of expression has yet to be interpreted in its total relation to other modes of expression";^[1] scholar Seth Graham remarked that 30 years later this statement remains largely valid. Anthropology (/ˌænθɹəˈpɒlədʒi/ from Greek grc ἄνθρωπος anthrōpos, "human" -λογία -logia) is the study of Dame Mary Douglas, DBE, FBA ( 25 March 1921 &ndash 16 May 2007) was a British Anthropologist, known for ^[2][3]

Psychology of jokes

Why we laugh has been the subject of serious academic study, examples being:

• Immanuel Kant, in Critique of Judgement (1790) states that "Laughter is an effect that arises if a tense expectation is transformed into nothing. Immanuel Kant (ɪmanuəl kant 22 April 1724 12 February 1804 was an 18th-century German Philosopher from the Prussian city of Königsberg " Here is Kant's 218-year old joke and his analysis:

"An Englishman at an Indian's table in Surat saw a bottle of ale being opened, and all the beer, turned to froth, rushed out. The Indian, by repeated exclamations, showed his great amazement. - Well, what's so amazing in that? asked the Englishman. - Oh, but I'm not amazed at its coming out, replied the Indian, but how you managed to get it all in. - This makes us laugh, and it gives us a hearty pleasure. This is not because, say, we think we are smarter than this ignorant man, nor are we laughing at anything else here that it is our liking and that we noticed through our understanding. It is rather that we had a tense expectation that suddenly vanished. . . "

• Henri Bergson, in his book Le rire (Laughter, 1901), suggests that laughter evolved to make social life possible for human beings.
• Sigmund Freud's "Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious". Sigmund Freud (ˈziːkmʊnt ˈfʁɔʏt born Sigismund Shlomo Freud (May 6 1856 &ndash September 23 1939 was an Austrian Psychiatrist who founded (Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewußten).
• Arthur Koestler, in The Act of Creation (1964), analyses humour and compares it to other creative activities, such as literature and science. Arthur Koestler CBE ( September 5, 1905, Budapest &ndash March 3, 1983, London) was a Literature is the Art of written works Literally translated the word means "acquaintance with letters" (from Latin littera letter Science (from the Latin scientia, meaning " Knowledge " or "knowing" is the effort to discover, and increase human understanding
• Marvin Minsky in Society of Mind (1986). Marvin Lee Minsky (born August 9, 1927) is an American cognitive scientist in the field of Artificial intelligence (AI co-founder The Society of Mind is a book and theory of natural intelligence as written and developed by Marvin Minsky.

Marvin Minsky suggests that laughter has a specific function related to the human brain. The brain is the center of the Nervous system in animals All Vertebrates and the majority of Invertebrates have a brain In his opinion jokes and laughter are mechanisms for the brain to learn nonsense. Nonsense is a verbal communication or Written text which appears to be a Human language or other Symbolic system, but in fact does not carry any identifiable For that reason, he argues, jokes are usually not as funny when you hear them repeatedly.

• Edward de Bono in "The Mechanism of the Mind" (1969) and "I am Right, You are Wrong" (1990). Edward de Bono (born May 19, 1933, in Malta

Edward de Bono suggests that the mind is a pattern-matching machine, and that it works by recognizing stories and behaviour and putting them into familiar patterns. When a familiar connection is disrupted and an alternative unexpected new link is made in the brain via a different route than expected, then laughter occurs as the new connection is made. This theory explains a lot about jokes. For example:

• Why jokes are only funny the first time they are told: once they are told the pattern is already there, so there can be no new connections, and so no laughter.
• Why jokes have an elaborate and often repetitive set up: The repetition establishes the familiar pattern in the brain. A common method used in jokes is to tell almost the same story twice and then deliver the punch line the third time the story is told. The first two tellings of the story evoke a familiar pattern in the brain, thus priming the brain for the punch line.
• Why jokes often rely on stereotypes: the use of a stereotype links to familiar expected behaviour, thus saving time in the set-up.
• Why jokes are variants on well-known stories (eg the genie and a lamp and a man walks into a bar): This again saves time in the set up and establishes a familiar pattern.

• In 2002, Richard Wiseman conducted a study intended to discover the world's funniest joke [1]. Richard Wiseman (born 1966 is Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. The world's funniest joke is a term used by Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire in 2002 to summarize one of the results of his Research
• Humour and Jokes have also been concluded to be logic that is completely random or vice versa.

Laughter, the intended human reaction to jokes, is healthy in moderation, uses the stomach muscles, and releases endorphins, natural "feel good" chemicals, into the brain. In Human anatomy, the stomach is a J-shaped hollow muscular organ of the Gastrointestinal tract involved in the second phase of Digestion, following Muscle (from Latin musculus, diminutive of mus "mouse" is contractile tissue of the body and is derived from the Endorphins are Endogenous Opioid Polypeptide compounds They are produced by the Pituitary gland and the Hypothalamus in Vertebrates

Rules

The rules of humour are analogous to those of poetry. These common rules are mainly timing, precision, synthesis and rhythm. Rhythm (from Greek ῥυθμός - rhythmos, "any measured flow or movement symmetry" is the variation of the length and accentuation of French philosopher Henri Bergson has said in an essay: "In every wit there is something of a poet. "^[4] In this essay Bergson views the essence of humour as the encrustation of the mechanical upon the living. He used as an instance a book by an English humourist, in which an elderly woman who desired a reputation as a philanthropist provided "homes within easy hail of her mansion for the conversion of atheists who have been specially manufactured for her, so to speak, and for a number of honest folk who have been made into drunkards so that she may cure them of their failing, etc. " This idea seems funny because a genuine impulse of charity as a living, vital impulse has become encrusted by a mechanical conception of how it should manifest itself.

Precision

To reach precision, the comedian must choose the words in order to provide a vivid, in focus image, and to avoid being generic as to confuse the audience, and provide no laughter. In Geometrical optics, a focus, also called an image point, is the point where Light rays originating from a point on the object converge. To properly arrange the words in the sentence is also crucial to get precision. An example by Woody Allen (from Side Effects, "A Giant Step for Mankind" story [2]):

“

Grasping the mouse firmly by the tail, I snapped it like a small whip, and the morsel of cheese came loose. Woody Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; December 1 1935 is an American Film director, Writer, Actor, Comedian, and Side Effects is an anthology of 17 comical short stories written by Woody Allen between 1975 and 1980, all but one of which were previously published in

”

Synthesis

As Shakespeare said in Hamlet, "Brevity is the soul of wit". William Shakespeare ( baptised Hamlet is a Tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601 ^[5] Meaning that a joke is best when it expresses the maximum level of humour with a minimal number of words; this is today considered one of the key technical elements of a joke. An example from Woody Allen:

“

I took a speed reading course and read War and Peace in twenty minutes. War and Peace (Война и мир Voyna i mir) is a Novel by Leo Tolstoy, first published from 1865 to 1869 in Russkii Vestnik It involves Russia.

”

Though, the familiarity of the pattern of "brevity" has led to numerous examples of jokes where the very length is itself the pattern breaking "punchline". Numerous examples from Monty Python exist, for instance, the song "I Like Traffic Lights", and more modernly, Family Guy contains numerous such examples, most notably, in the episode Wasted Talent, Peter Griffin bangs his shin, a classic slapstick routine, and tenderly nurses it whilst inhaling and exhaling to quiet the pain. Monty Python (sometimes known as The Pythons) is the collective name of the six creators of Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British Television Family Guy is an animated American television sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane that airs on Fox and regularly on other "Wasted Talent" is an episode from the second season of the FOX animated series Family Guy, guest starring Adam Carolla Peter Griffin is a Fictional character and the Protagonist of the animated television series This goes on for considerably longer than expected. Certain versions of the popular vaudevillian joke The Aristocrats can go on for several minutes, and it is considered an anti-joke, as the humor is more in the set-up than the punchline. The Aristocrats (also known as The Debonaires or The Sophisticates in some tellings is an exceptionally transgressive Dirty joke that has been Anti-humor and anti-jokes (also known as unjokes) are a kind of Humor based on the Surprise factor of absence of an expected Joke

Rhythm

Main articles: Timing (linguistics) and Comic timing

The joke's content (meaning) is not what provokes the laugh, it just makes the salience of the joke and provokes a smile. Language timing is the rhythmic quality of a particular type of speech in particular how Syllables are distributed across time Comic timing is use of rhythm and tempo to enhance Comedy and Humor. This article is about the facial expression For the typographical symbol see Smiley. What makes us laugh is the joke mechanism. Milton Berle demonstrated this with a classic theater experiment in the 1950s: if during a series of jokes you insert phrases that are not jokes, but with the same rhythm, the audience laughs anyway. Mendel "Milton Berle" Berlinger ( July 12, 1908 &ndash March 27, 2002) was an Emmy -winning American Comedian Rhythm (from Greek ῥυθμός - rhythmos, "any measured flow or movement symmetry" is the variation of the length and accentuation of A classic is the ternary rhythm, with three beats: Introduction, premise, antithesis (with the antithesis being the punch line). In Poetry, the meter or metre is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse. In an Essay, article, or Book, an introduction (also known as a prolegomenon) is a beginning section which states the purpose and goals of the Antithesis ( Greek for "setting opposite" from against + position) is a counter- Propositions and denotes a direct Contrast A punch line is the final part of a Joke or comedy sketch usually the word sentence or exchange of sentences which is intended to be Funny and to provoke

In regards to the Milton Berle experiment, they can be taken to demonstrate the concept of "breaking context" or "breaking the pattern". It is not necessarily the rhythm that caused the audience to laugh, but the disparity between the expectation of a "joke" and being instead given a non-sequitur "normal phrase. " This normal phrase is, itself, unexpected, and a type of punchline.

Conclusions

When a technically good joke is referred changing it with paraphrasing, it is not laughable any more; this is because the paraphrase, changing some term or moving it within the sentence, breaks the joke mechanism (its vividness, brevity and rhythm), and its power and effectiveness are lost. Paraphrase ( IPA: /ˈpærəˌfreɪz/ is restatement of a text or passage using other words Douglas Adams described sentences where the joke word is the final word as "comically weighted. Douglas Noël Adams (11 March 1952 &ndash 11 May 2001 was an English author comic Radio dramatist " This saves the "payoff" until the last possible moment, allowing the expectation for surprise to reach its highest point, while the mind is more firmly rooted in the pattern established by the rest of the sentence.

Comic

In the comic field plays the 'economy of ideative expenditure'; in other words excessive energy is wasted or action-essential energy is saved. The profound meaning of a comic gag or a comic joke is "I'm a child"; the comic deals with the clumsy body of the child. Sketch comedy consists of a series of short Comedy scenes or vignettes called "sketches" commonly between one and ten minutes long

Laurel and Hardy are a classic example. Laurel and Hardy were the popular American -based comedy team of thin British-born Stan Laurel (1890-1965 and heavy American-born Oliver Hardy (1892-1957 An individual laughs because he recognizes the child that is in himself. In clowns stumbling is a childish tempo. Clowns are comic performers stereotypically characterized by their Grotesque appearance colored wigs stylistic makeup, outlandish Costumes unusually 2266-Tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl or TEMPO is the Chemical compound with the formula (CH23(CMe22NO In the comic, the visual gags may be translated into a joke. For example in Side Effects (By Destiny Denied story) by Woody Allen:

“

"My father used to wear loafers," she confessed. Side Effects is an anthology of 17 comical short stories written by Woody Allen between 1975 and 1980, all but one of which were previously published in "Both on the same foot".

”

The typical comic technique is the disproportion.

Wit

In the wit field plays the "economy of censorship expenditure"^[6](Freud literally calls it "the economy of psychic expenditure". ); usually censorship prevents some 'dangerous ideas' from reaching the conscious mind, or helps us avoid saying everything that comes to mind; adversely, the wit circumvents the censorship and brings up those ideas. Different wit techniques allow one to express them in a funny way. The profound meaning behind a wit joke is "I have dangerous ideas". An example from Woody Allen:

“

I contemplated suicide again - this time by inhaling next to an insurance salesman.

”

Or, when a bagpipe player was asked "How do you play that thing?" his answer was:

“

Well.

”

Wit is a branch of rhetoric, and there are about 200 techniques (technically they are called tropes, a particular kind of figure of speech) that can be used to make jokes. Rhetoric has had many definitions no simple definition can do it justice See also Figure of speech In linguistics trope is a rhetorical Figure of speech that consists of a play on words i A figure of speech, sometimes ^[7]

Irony can be seen as belonging to this field. Irony is a literary or Rhetorical device, in which there is an incongruity or Discordance between what one says or does and what one means or

Humour

In the comedy field, humour induces an "economized expenditure of emotion" (Freud literally calls it "economy of affect" or "economy of sympathy". Freud produced this final part of his interpretation many years later, in a paper later supplemented to the book. ). ^[6][8] In other words, the joke erases an emotion that should be felt about an event, making us insensitive to it. e. g: "yo momma" jokes. The profound meaning of the void feeling of a humour joke is "I'm a cynic". The Cynics (Κυνικοί Cynici were an influential group of Philosophers from the ancient school of Cynicism An example from Woody Allen:

“

Three times I've been mistaken for Robert Redford. Charles Robert Redford Jr (born August 18 1936) is an Academy Award -winning American Film director, Actor, Each time by a blind person.

”

This field of jokes is still a grey area, being mostly unexplored. A grey area is a term for a border in-between two or more things that is unclearly defined a border that is hard to define or even impossible to define or a definition where the distinction Extensive use of this kind of humour can be found in the work of British satirist Chris Morris, like the sketches of the Jam television program. Christopher Morris (born 5 September 1965 in Bristol) is an English Comedian, Writer, director, producer, Jam is a British comedy television series created by Chris Morris.

Black humour and sarcasm belong to this field. Black comedy, also known as black humor or dark comedy, is a sub-genre of Comedy and Satire where topics and events that are usually regarded Sarcasm is stating the opposite of an intended meaning especially in order to sneeringly slyly jest or mock a person situation or thing

Cycles

Folklorists, in particular (but not exclusively) those who study the folklore of the United States, collect jokes into joke cycles. The folklore of the United States, or American folklore, is one of the folk traditions which has evolved on the North American continent since Europeans A cycle is a collection of jokes with a particular theme or a particular "script". (That is, it is a literature cycle. Literary cycles are groups of stories grouped around common figures often (though not necessarily based on mythical figures or loosely on historic ones )^[9] Folklorists have identified several such cycles:

• the elephant joke cycle that began in 1962
• the Helen Keller Joke Cycle that comprises jokes about Helen Keller^[10]
• viola jokes^[11]
• the NASA, Challenger, or Space Shuttle Joke Cycle that comprises jokes relating to the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster^[12][13][14]
• the Chernobyl Joke Cycle that comprises jokes relating to the Chernobyl disaster^[15]
• the Polish Pope Joke Cycle that comprises jokes relating to Pope John Paul II^[16]
• the Essex girl and the Stupid Irish joke cycles in the United Kingdom^[17]
• the Dead Baby Joke Cycle^[18]
• the Dingo Joke Cycle that comprises jokes relating to the Azaria Chamberlain disappearance
• the Newfie Joke Cycle that comprises jokes made by Canadians about Newfoundlanders^[19]
• the Little Willie Joke Cycle, and the Quadriplegic Joke Cycle^[20]
• the Jew Joke Cycle and the Polack Joke Cycle^[21]
• the Rastus and Liza Joke Cycle, which Dundes describes as "the most vicious and widespread white anti-Negro joke cycle"^[22]
• the Jewish American Princess and Jewish American Mother joke cycles^[23]
• the Wind-Up Doll Joke Cycle^[24]
• Chuck Norris jokes
• Tom Swifties

Gruner discusses several "sick joke" cycles that occurred upon events surrounding Gary Hart, Natalie Wood, Vic Morrow, Jim Bakker, Richard Pryor, and Michael Jackson, noting how several jokes were recycled from one cycle to the next. An elephant joke is a Joke, almost always an absurd Riddle or conundrum and often a sequence of such that involves an Elephant. Helen Adams Keller (June 27 1880 – June 1 1968 was an American Author, Activist and lecturer The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster took place on January 28 1986 when ''Challenger'', a Space Shuttle operated by NASA, broke apart The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear reactor accident in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet Union. Pope " Essex girl " is a Pejorative term used in the United Kingdom, to imply someone is a stereotypically promiscuous blonde unintelligent woman from The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Azaria Chantel Loren Chamberlain (born 11 June 1980 in Mount Isa, Queensland) was a ten-week-old Australian baby who disappeared on the night of 17 " Newfie " is a colloquial, and sometimes pejorative term used in Canada for someone who is from Newfoundland. Newfoundland and Labrador (ˈnuːfɨn(dlənd ən(d ˈlæbrəˌdɔr (Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador is a province of Canada, the tenth and latest to join the Confederation Jewish-American Princess or JAP is a Pejorative characterization of Jewish-American women The Jewish mother stereotype is a common Stereotype and Stock character used by Jewish Comedians usually when discussing (fictionally or not Chuck Norris Facts are satirical facts about Martial artist and actor Chuck Norris that have become an A Tom Swifty (or Tom Swiftie) is a Phrase in which a quoted sentence is linked by a Pun to the manner in which it is attributed Sick comedy was a pejorative term for some Comedy, that was made up by the mainstream weeklies Time and Life to attack the new satire For the football player see Gary Hart (footballer. Gary Hart (born Gary Warren Hartpence, November 28, 1936 Natalie Wood, born Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko, also billed as Natasha Gurdin ( July 20, 1938, San Francisco, California Victor "Vic" Morrow ( February 14, 1929 &ndash July 23, 1982) was an American actor James Orsen Bakker (born January 2, 1940, in Muskegon Michigan) is an American televangelist, a former Assemblies of God Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor III ( December 1, 1940 &ndash December 10, 2005) was an American Comedian, Actor Michael Joseph Jackson (born August 29 1958 is an American musician entertainer and businessman For example: A joke about Vic Morrow ("We now know that Vic Morrow had dandruff: they found his head and shoulders in the bushes") was subsequently recycled about Admiral Mountbatten after his murder by Irish Republican terrorists in 1980, and again applied to the crew of the Challenger space shuttle ("How do we know that Christa McAuliffe had dandruff? They found her head and shoulders on the beach. Victor "Vic" Morrow ( February 14, 1929 &ndash July 23, 1982) was an American actor Head & Shoulders is a brand of anti- Dandruff Shampoo produced by Procter & Gamble. "). ^[25]

Berger asserts that "whenever there is a popular joke cycle, there generally is some widespread kind of social and cultural anxiety, lingering below the surface, that the joke cycle helps people deal with". ^[26]

Types of jokes

Jokes often depend on the humour of the unexpected, the mildly taboo (which can include the distasteful or socially improper), or playing off stereotypes and other cultural beliefs. A taboo is a strong Social prohibition (or ban) against words objects actions or discussions that are considered undesirable or offensive by a group culture A stereotype (from Greek: stereo + týpos = "solid impression" is a generalized perception of first impressions behaviors presumed by a group Many jokes fit into more than one category.

Subjects

Political jokes are usually a form of satire. Satire is often strictly defined as a literary genre or form; although in practice it is also found in the graphic and Performing arts In satire human They generally concern politicians and heads of state, but may also cover the absurdities of a country's political situation. A prominent example of political jokes would be political cartoons. Two large categories of this type of jokes exist. The first one makes fun of a negative attitude to political opponents or to politicians in general. The second one makes fun of political clichés, mottos, catch phrases or simply blunders of politicians. Some, especially the you have two cows genre, derive humour from comparing different political systems. " You have two cows " is the beginning phrase for a series of political Joke definitions

Professional humour includes caricatured portrayals of certain professions such as lawyers, and in-jokes told by professionals to each other.

Mathematical jokes are a form of in-joke, generally designed to be understandable only by insiders. A mathematical joke is a form of Humor which relies on aspects of Mathematics or a Stereotype of Mathematicians to Derive humor An in-joke (also known as an in joke or inside joke) is a Joke whose Humor is clear only to those people who are "inside" a social

Ethnic jokes exploit ethnic stereotypes. Ethnic jokes, sometimes refferred to as race jokes, or racist jokes are Jokes that exploit Ethnic stereotypes. An ethnic stereotype is a generalized representation of an Ethnic group, composed of what are thought to be typical characteristics of members of the group They are often racist and frequently considered offensive. List of racism-related topics|Racism by country Racism, by its simplest definition is the belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that

For example, the British tell jokes starting "An Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman. An Englishman an Irishman and a Scotsman is a form of Joke in Ireland and the United Kingdom. . . " which exploit the supposed parsimony of the Scot, stupidity of the Irish, or some combination. Such jokes exist among numerous peoples.

Racially offensive humour is increasingly unacceptable, but there are similar jokes based on other stereotypes such as blonde jokes. Blonde jokes are a class of Jokes based on a stereotype of Dumb blonde women

Religious jokes fall into several categories:

• Jokes based on stereotypes associated with people of religion (e. g. nun jokes, priest jokes, or rabbi jokes)
• Jokes on classical religious subjects: crucifixion, Adam and Eve, St. Peter at The Gates, etc. Crucifixion (from Latin crucifixio, noun of process crucifixio, from perfect passive participle crucifixus, fixed to a cross from Adam (אָדָם ʼĀḏām, "dust man mankind" آدم; Ge'ez: አዳ and Eve (חַוָּה Ḥawwā, "living
• Jokes that collide different religious denominations: "A rabbi, a medicine man, and a pastor went fishing. Rabbi (pronunciation, although in English usually) in Judaism, means a religious ‘teacher’ or more literally ‘my great one’ when addressing any master " Medicine man " is an English term used to describe Native American spiritual figures such individuals are often viewed by scholars concerned with these A pastor is an official person within a Protestant group of people and related to the positions of Priest or Bishop within the Anglican, Roman Catholic . . "
• Letters and addresses to God.

Self-deprecating or self-effacing humour is superficially similar to racial and stereotype jokes, but involves the targets laughing at themselves. Self-deprecation is a form of Humor in which people or Comedians make jokes about themselves their shortcomings or their culture usually without It is said to maintain a sense of perspective and to be powerful in defusing confrontations. Probably the best-known and most common example is Jewish humour. Jewish humour is the long tradition of Humour in Judaism dating back to the Torah and the Midrash, but generally refers to the more recent The egalitarian tradition was strong among the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe in which the powerful were often mocked subtly. Prominent members of the community were kidded during social gatherings, part a good-natured tradition of humour as a leveling device. A similar situation exists in the Scandinavian "Ole and Lena" joke. Ole and Lena (also Sven and Ole are characters persistent in Jokes by Scandinavian Americans particularly Norwegian-Americans dominantly

Self-deprecating humour has also been used by politicians, who recognize its ability to acknowledge controversial issues and steal the punch of criticism - for example, when Abraham Lincoln was accused of being two-faced he replied, "If I had two faces, do you think this is the one I’d be wearing?". Abraham Lincoln (February 12 1809 &ndash April 15 1865 the sixteenth President of the United States, successfully led his country through its greatest internal

Dirty jokes are based on taboo, often sexual, content or vocabulary. The term off-color humor (also known as dirty jokes or blue humor) is an Americanism used to describe various Jokes, Prose, Poems A taboo is a strong Social prohibition (or ban) against words objects actions or discussions that are considered undesirable or offensive by a group culture An organism's sex is defined by the gametes it produces males produce male gametes (spermatozoa or Sperm) while females produce female gametes (ova or Egg cells; individual

Other taboos are challenged by sick jokes and gallows humour; to joke about disability is considered in this group. Sick comedy was a pejorative term for some Comedy, that was made up by the mainstream weeklies Time and Life to attack the new satire Gallows humor is a type of humor that arises from stressful, traumatic or life-threatening situations such as wartime events hostilities mass murder often in circumstances

Surrealist or minimalist jokes exploit semantic inconsistency, for example: Q: What's red and invisible? A: No tomatoes. .

Anti-jokes are jokes that are not funny in regular sense, and often can be decidedly unfunny, but rely on the let-down from the expected joke to be funny in itself. Anti-humor and anti-jokes (also known as unjokes) are a kind of Humor based on the Surprise factor of absence of an expected Joke

An elephant joke is a joke, almost always a riddle or conundrum and often a sequence of connected riddles, that involves an elephant. An elephant joke is a Joke, almost always an absurd Riddle or conundrum and often a sequence of such that involves an Elephant. A riddle is a Statement or Question having a double or veiled meaning put forth as a Puzzle to be solved Elephants ( family: Elephantidae) are large land Mammals of the order Proboscidea.

Jokes involving non-sequitur humour, with parts of the joke being unrelated to each other; e. g. "My uncle once punched a man so hard his legs became trombones", from the Mighty Boosh TV series. The Mighty Boosh, colloquially referred to as The Boosh, is the collective name for the creators of the British television situation comedy written by and starring

Styles

The question / answer joke, sometimes posed as a common riddle, has a supposedly straight question and an answer which is twisted for humorous effect; puns are often employed. A riddle is a Statement or Question having a double or veiled meaning put forth as a Puzzle to be solved A pun (or paronomasia) is a Phrase that deliberately exploits confusion between similar-sounding Words for humorous or Rhetorical Of this type are knock-knock joke, light bulb joke, the many variations on "why did the chicken cross the road?", and the class of "What's the difference between. The knock-knock joke is a type of Joke, probably the best-known format of the Pun, and is a time-honoured "call and answer" exercise The lightbulb joke is an example of an endless-variations Joke and has possibly thousands of versions covering every imaginable culture belief occupation and special-interest "Why did the chicken cross the road?" is one of the oldest and most famous Joke Riddles still in use in the English language . . " joke, where the punch line is often a pun or a spoonerism linking two apparently entirely unconnected concepts. A spoonerism is an error in speech or deliberate play on words in which corresponding Consonants Vowels or Morphemes are switched (see

Some jokes require a double act, where one respondent (usually the straight man) can be relied on to give the correct response to the person telling the joke. A double act, also known as a Comedy duo, is a comic device in which humor is derived from the uneven relationship between two partners usually of the same Straight Man (New York Random House, 1997 is a Novel by Richard Russo set at the fictional West Central Pennsylvania State University in Railton This is more common in performance than informal joke-telling.

A shaggy dog story is an extremely long and involved joke with an intentionally weak or completely non-existent punchline. In its original sense a shaggy dog story is an extremely long-winded tale featuring extensive narration of typically irrelevant incidents usually resulting in a pointless or absurd punchline The humour lies in building up the audience's anticipation and then letting them down completely. The longer the story can continue without the audience realising it is a joke, and not a serious anecdote, the more successful it is. Shaggy jokes appear to date from the 1930s, although there are several competing variants for the "original" shaggy dog story. According to one, an advertisement is placed in a newspaper, searching for the shaggiest dog in the world. The teller of the joke then relates the story of the search for the shaggiest dog in extreme and exaggerated detail (flying around the world, climbing mountains, fending off sabre-toothed tigers, etc); a good teller will be able to stretch the story out to over half an hour. When the winning dog is finally presented, the advertiser takes a look at the dog and states: "I don't think he's so shaggy. "

Some shaggy dog stories are actually cleverly constructed stories, frequently interesting in themselves, that culminate in one or more puns whose first meaning is reasonable as part of the story but whose second meaning is a common aphorism, commercial jingle, or other recognizable word or phrase. As with other puns, there may be multiple separate rhyming meanings. Such stories treat the listener or reader with respect. (See: "Upon My Word!", a book by Frank Muir and Denis Norden, spun off from their long-running BBC radio show My Word!. Frank Herbert Muir (5 February 1920 - 2 January 1998 was an English Comedy writer radio and television personality and raconteur Denis Mostyn Norden (born 6th February 1922 in Hackney, London) is an English Comedy writer and Television presenter. My Word! was a long-running Radio Panel game broadcast by the BBC on the Home Service (1956-67 and Radio 4 (1967-90 )

See also

• Anecdote
• Comedy
• Comedy genres
• Feghoot
• Funny
• Insult
• Internet humour
• Pun
• Punch line
• Russian jokes
• Monty Python Lethal Joke
• World's funniest joke
• Joke chess problem
• Taboo

Notes

References

• Mary Douglas “Jokes. Dame Mary Douglas, DBE, FBA ( 25 March 1921 &ndash 16 May 2007) was a British Anthropologist, known for ” Rethinking Popular Culture: Contemporary Perspectives in Cultural Studies. [1975] Ed. Chandra Mukerji and Michael Schudson. Berkeley: U of California P, 1991.

Further reading

• Cante, Richard C. (March 2008). Gay Men and the Forms of Contemporary US Culture. London: Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 0 7546 7230 1. Chapter 2: The AIDS Joke as Cultural Form.  

External links

• Jokes at the Open Directory Project – An active listing of links to jokes. The Open Directory Project ( ODP) also known as dmoz (from directory
• Dictionary of the History of ideas: Sense of the Comic

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