Feeling like some writing today, so one of my friends helped by suggesting me with this short topic. Thanks Crul
Time: 30 minutes, short, messy, wont be spell checking this one.
Topic: Humor, what is it? How is it funny? And why is yours offensive? What, where, when is the line?
Honestly this is quite a social oritented topic that I myself am not well versed in, and I am not feeling like writing a full social commentary on what society likes to be “normal” and not, so this should just be a burst of my opinions on such and such.
For me humor is completely, what do you say? Subjective, meaning that is is something blurry that only you and you yourself can trully understand and grasp. It is also multifaceted, meaning is is not monochromatic, it is multi-colored, multi-faced, in short terms, your humor is a big bag with multiple components, each for different flavors of humor that you yourself find, well, funny.
To take a step back and see some common types of humor, let’s brainstorm for a moment. We usually have
- The memes, we all know these
- The funny sounds
- The “faces”, the “poses”
- The relatable ones: “I used to do this thing in school and … you probablly did something similarly stupid also”
- The jokes, usually a word play, a riddle, story, expericence, … so many variants
- On second thought I don’t know lots of types of funniness, so i guess I’m not that funny.
And in those types there are “topics” or categories that are being conveyed, these topic usually does not matter, but what I find is that the more niche your topic of funny might be, the more “hit” it creates, the more specific, the more relatable, the higher the burst that the receipient receives. But of course, this comes at the cost of controversy, like every thing else in life, not everyone is equipped with the same standards and receptiveness to everything they could hear. And how can your funny be funny, when the first feeling that your mates encounter when hearing it is uneasiness? It needs to pass the social barrier before it can be processed as, well - funny stuffs.
For me, my funny is quite simple. I dabble here and there as an english user so i really like word play, when it comes to clever word swapping and usage, i derrives entertanment from just hearing quirky sentences constructed out of thin air. But what about the topic? Let’s see.
Well to be absolutely transparent, my “topics” are not all too, well, civilized, I’m nothing more but a simple male, i like the funny s*x jokes and the occational (or sometimes more) mean comments that could be insulting to many demographics. They have simply been a topic of interest for me and my circle; we have been quite aquianted to using these. We have good laugh here and there, as long as it does not goes to the wrong audience, I dont find harm in being a bit loose around your closer relatives.
And to add on, yes i do like dad jokes, what a shame, but some times i just burst our LOLing at the stupidest shit, not sure if i’m humor sensetive, or just unfunny. But again, to re-iterate, it is suppose to be subjective, so laugh away, why hold back, if you find it funny, it just is.
Then what about our audiences? We went over the fact that laughing at one’s joke is your personal privilege. No one can judge you for being dark, edgy, flashy or queer or even progressive about laughing. But when you’re not on the receving end, how does the script change?
From my view it’s a matter of purpose, and usually i feel like the purpose of telling one’s funny jokes is usually not to humor yourself (not mainly anyways), but rather to share and cater a laugh to the audience. So in this sense, you are the creator, but your work needs to be publically evaluated.
So filter you must, if it is to please others, you must see it from their perspective.
- Is it your girlfriend your telling the funnies to? Be wild as long as she’s doesn’t leave you on the couch
- Is it your parents that you’re sharing a talk over meal with? Better not insult old people or meme about intercourse.
- And what about a bigger public club? a get-together?
This is the harder part, the more the merrier, but the narrower you must aim your jokes to be effective. Society is a weird thing, it is an average of all humans, not the best, not the worst. The average of funny things are usually not that funny, so there’s little to no room for quirky stuff.
It’s more about your perspective and your target audience. Know your people. Are they young? Are they your generation? Are they progressive? If so maybe you can be bolder.
What more is, what is your aim? If 100% of the room is what you’re trying to win over, you cannot win, but if it is 40% of the people there who might resonate with your dad jokes from 10 years ago, trully, go for it. Personally it is better to hit with less, than to not win with more. Pick your people, smell the air, do the humor, anticipate the win, or loss, but never 100%.
And what that you might forgot during these conversation is that people, most people have tollerence, meaning your first few jokes might not land, but take your time, they’ll laugh sometimes, use the bad jokes, make some giggle, then use some other bad one, for the rest of the crew. Don’t shy away from a funny if you think it won’t land, shoot it, see it, change your amunition, try again.
Note, don’t do the same joke over and over again, at least not in short intervals, i hate that. The ‘repeat’ is a delicate art of funny that I haven’t grasp well, there’s a line some where that you need to feel.
Like all things, read the room, feel the emotions of the ones you’re conversing with. Be kind, be cringe. Be brave.
Thanks for reading, come back sometimes - Prodz