Like a clown funny?
Children and men appreciate slapstick more than women, according to information cited in Paul Grobman's "Vital Statistic,'' a book filled with interesting facts like this.
Certain women of my aquaintance have pointed out that there are certain redundancies in the categories of those who think the Three Stooges are a hoot. These women think they're funny and that nothing is funnier than Shakespearean cross-dressing hijinx.
I also read that people laugh about 15 times a day, and often laugh not in response to a joke or a guy slipping on a banana peel, but after some innocuous remark like "It's good to see you again.'' In other words, people chuckle over absolutely nothing. Which, I suppose, is better than crying over nothing. And, frankly, I've known a member or two of "The Three Stooges Are Just Stupid'' brigade to do just that.
My question is, what makes a person funny? Not a professional jokemeister, mind you, but the average Joe and Janie. And what about folks who think they are funny but manifestly are not? What blinds them to their own unfunniness?
Certain women of my aquaintance have pointed out that there are certain redundancies in the categories of those who think the Three Stooges are a hoot. These women think they're funny and that nothing is funnier than Shakespearean cross-dressing hijinx.
I also read that people laugh about 15 times a day, and often laugh not in response to a joke or a guy slipping on a banana peel, but after some innocuous remark like "It's good to see you again.'' In other words, people chuckle over absolutely nothing. Which, I suppose, is better than crying over nothing. And, frankly, I've known a member or two of "The Three Stooges Are Just Stupid'' brigade to do just that.
My question is, what makes a person funny? Not a professional jokemeister, mind you, but the average Joe and Janie. And what about folks who think they are funny but manifestly are not? What blinds them to their own unfunniness?
posted by Michael Riley at 11:41 AM
1 Comments:
I think whether a person is funny has more to do with how HE is perceived, and less to do with the joke or story he is telling. If Fidel Castro told us a joke, no matter how clever, we would not laugh because we know Castro is not sincere, not self-deprecating, not humble, and not even decent.
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