As far as making a good joke is concerned we need a lot of good stereotypes to be tossed in. Absent stereotypes or cultural, racial, gender tendencies you’ve got a bad joke. It’s much harder to envision yourself in a situation that makes NO sense vs. a situation you’ve been in before.
Let me be clear, a bad joke is one that does not make “sense”. In this case, the ‘socially acceptable sense’.
Here are a few weird examples of jokes that DO NOT make sense based on cultural norms:
Joke Starts:
“I was in line behind a Jewish man at KFC”
WTF #1:
Jewish guy at KFC…hummm that’s strange.
Joke Continues:
“I mistakenly step on the back of his Timberland boot…”
WTF #2
Why was this Jewish guy wearing Timberland Boots? Seems strange…
Joke Concludes:
“He turns around and yells, OH NO YOU DI’INT. You just scuffed my new kicks! Damn and I’m on my way to the club to pick up some phat shorties!”
WTF #3:
I’m all out…but the Joke is FUNNY BECAUSE it makes NO SENSE. That’s why the joke IS funny, because of the correlations to Jewish people that are NOT FORMED.
Breakdown:
Why is a Jewish guy in KFC?
Why is he wearing Timberlands?
Why did he go off on me about stepping on his boots?
It’s unexpected that he’d be headed to the club to pick up women!!
That Joke above is NOT funny because it makes NO SENSE. The joke above IS FUNNY because it makes no sense.
Let’s try again…
“I walked into the bagel shop 20 minutes after they opened, and they were all out of matzah balls!!!….”
Breakdown:
Often times Jewish people own bagel shops.
It’s frustrating when a place that specializes in something is out of stock so early in the day.
Matzah Balls go in soup! So, expecting them to have Matzah balls so early in the morning is ridiculous. Just because it’s a Jewish bagel shop why did I expect them to have Matzah Balls?
Now that joke is funny because the joke teller is ignorant, a store was out of stock and maybe they shouldn’t have been, and there’s an element of “We’ve all been there.”
That’s what makes a joke a good joke right?
So what about:
Black People and Fried Chicken
White people and comb-overs
Asian People and the martial arts
Jewish people and fiscal responsibility
Southern people and a perceived lack of intelligence.
These ‘more-often-than-not’ FACTS (generalizations/stereotypes) are what make a joke a funny joke. We’ve gotta be able to “see” it, so to speak.
Is comedy dead? Are we so Politically Correct now that, these fact-based jokes can no longer be made?
