Humour is an essential human trait. We laugh to be noticed, to make ourselves laugh, even to convey abstract ideas. But the question is: How funny are jokes, really? That’s a goofy but intriguing question, and it intersects with what we do with laughter, what it does in the world and how we see funny.
We’ll be talking about what humour is, why jokes are (funny) and whether all jokes need to be (funny) in order to be (funny). Let’s get to the nuts and bolts of jokes, and whether or not there is more to a joke than just its ability to get people laughing.
What Makes a Joke “Funny”?
It is then perhaps a good moment to know what makes a joke funny in the first place, in order to ponder whether jokes should always be funny. Comedy can be a loaded word, too, because there’s no single person for whom the same things are funny, no two people for whom the same things are funny in the same way, enough to share a laugh, to see a live show or even stick around to consider what might be funny. But these are the kinds of things that come up all the time in jokes:
- Surprise – Humour always comes from a surprise, as in punchline which surprises the listener.
- Delivery – How a joke is told can make all the difference. Timing turns a joke from mildly funny to hilarious.
- Adaptability – The best jokes are about everyday life or universal truth.
- Scare tactics – The key is to push things to the extreme.
- Puns, double entendres and wordplay – (Puns, double entendres, etc.) get the laughs.
These are things common to every funny joke, but they don’t suggest that all jokes will be funny. Funnyness is cantankerous and factious and what tickles one person may not tickle another. And that brings us back to the initial question: Do jokes have to be funny?
The Sinner of JokesJokes of the SinnerJokes with a Meaning
The joke is, of course, that jokes are largely about humor and humor but jokes can be for more than just to make you smile. Let’s explore a couple reasons why jokes don’t have to be funny in the literal sense:
- Social Bonding – Humor through funny jokes can create a sense of togetherness. A joke can get an audience talking or create the fact of an experience — and if some of them don’t laugh.
- Ideas to Express — Not all jokes are LOL funny. Insurance is a small possibility, a slim jab at astrologers. Laughter by humour in, say, satirical writing has begun to point in the direction of more than entertainment.
- Coping Mechanism – Jokes could also just be used to cope with the bad in life. They can be a little relieving, even if they are not so funny. Black humour, say, might not always be good for laughing at, but it helps the people who are experiencing something painful or unwanted.
- Surrealism and Absurdity – Not always funny but some jokes are built on absurdity or surrealism. They may not be, well, comedy, in the traditional sense, but even so, they may have you thinking or laughing simply because they are so absurd.
When Was The Last Time A Joke Was Funny?
Not every joke is a keeper, you know. The reasons that a joke might fail are legion: poor delivery, cultural misunderstanding, or a simple failure for the joke to be heard. But that didn’t mean the joke wasn’t still a joke. The joke that’s greeted with silence is likely doing what it’s meant to do — challenging a social norm or calling us to greater consideration.
And not even that, really, some jokes are meant to be more meditative than funny. This is the kind of joke that might be clever slang, subliminal allusions, or what is essentially philosophical comedy that asks you to contemplate something instead of laugh.
Humor or Hate: The Tough Choice?
The other key determinant of whether jokes should be funny is the divide between humour and offence. There is a joke some would find hilarious and some would find equally offensive, and there are attempts to define the type of joke you can tell. In these situations, the punchline will be less likely to fulfill its job of uniting and more likely to afflict.
You could be like, oh well, jokes don’t always have to be funny to work but you have to think about the scenario and who you are dealing with. Humour that is sensitive or unfocused risks trivialisation even in jest.
Conclusion
But do jokes need to be funny all the time? Depending on how you define humor and what you expect from a joke, the answer is: it depends. Jokes are of course meant to be funny but they can serve other purposes, like building friendship, conveying a message, challenging another example of conventional wisdom. Not every joke has to actually be funny to be useful.
Funny is a subjective thing, and what’s funny to one is not necessarily the other’s funny. Jokes, after all, need not be a hoot. They might get us thinking, talking or just make our skin crawl, and that’s the funny business.
And when we understand the bigger purpose of jokes, we may enjoy that jokes aren’t just for getting people to laugh, they are about sharing, connecting, even critique. So the next time you hear a joke that doesn’t hit the mark, remember that joke might still be in use — and it may not be funny all the time.
