I Hope You Have a Sense of Humor…

Posted on August 18th, 2005 by Christine.
Categories: Pissed Off & Proud of It.

Funny blogs are sometimes not all that funny. We (Christopher and I) think Chris vs. Chris is a very funny blog-hilarious in fact-but others (a few) might not… er, uh… okay… definitely don’t agree. I can understand why people might not get such a kick out of our humorous little blog. Our posts can be a bit crude, a tad sarcastic, politically incorrect at times… and maybe even sexist, racist, elitist, crass, trite, and completely intolerant. A few visitors have even been offended by us (well, by Christopher for sure) and some regard us as yucky, dirty, filth-mongers… or worse. But oh well.. Lucky for our very fragile self-esteems, most of you think Chris vs. Chris is a funny blog… or at least entertaining enough for you to want to chime in… and we appreciate that. But the whole thing got me thinking (of course it got me thinking… did you just assume I sit around all day doing nothing?)… What makes a funny thing funny? I mean, why do Christopher and I laugh our asses off at the T-shirt Hell slogans, and Dennis Leary, and “Couplings,” but we’d rather watch gerbils gnaw off our fingers than be forced to watch “Napoleon Dynamite” ever again? Why did my sister fall on the floor laughing at “Jackass” (which I stared at like Xanax-addicted rich housewife), but she didn’t think “Old School” (one of the best movies ever put on celluloid) was all that good??? So, where do you think I went to find the answers to these plaguing philosophical questions? The internet of course… And here’s what I found: Adult humor is characterized as more subtle than the poop and fart jokes you found hilarious as a child, and the overt sex jokes you laughed at as a teen. It appears to scholars that the things we find funny as adults are related to stressors we experience at the our current developmental stage (this explains why Christopher still laughs at fart jokes). So, in short, we find our stressors funny. Makes sense… The most common topic for male comedians is their problem with women (either not getting dates, breaking up with girlfriends, or dealing with their wives). And the reverse is true for female comics. So the fact that every other post Christopher writes tends to be about how crazy I am… I guess my insanity stresses him out (finally… it’s working). The other factor that affects what is perceived as funny or not, is whether people can relate to the subject because they share the same culture or community. When a comedian makes a joke about how painful it is to see a rhythm-less white guy dance, everyone laughs. Why? Because we’ve all seen it and we can all relate. Now, if someone in Tanzania made a joke about the size of ants in Tanzania, most of us wouldn’t laugh. We don’t really understand the effect that ants have on the lives of Tanzanians, and it’s not really a stressor to us, so it ends up being sort of irrelevant you can read more about how f’d up Tanzania is by clicking here if you want). But (according to the article I read) that appears to not be the case for situations in the United States. The United States is so observed by other countries, that jokes about our politics, our culture, or celebrities, our way of life are understood by non-Americans as well ( if you want proof, you can click here to be taken to a comment from a non-American who reads our blog, but you don’t have to).When people don’t think something is funny, they are really saying one of two things. (1) That they don’t understand the joke because they don’t relate to it; or (2) they’re offended by the joke because they have some attachment to the person or people being made fun of. That’s the scholarly reason. In my opinion, they just don’t have a sense of humor.

That’s what thousands of dollars in grant money and years of graduate education at top universities have yielded… the answer to why a funny blog is considered a funny blog by some and not by others. So now you know… and you’re the better because of it. Now, let’s put it to the test… Ladies, if you want to read something funny, click here. Guys, if you want to laugh til ya piss your pants, click here. And if you didn’t fall into either of those two categories, then just relax and don’t take life too seriously. ’

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