Bad joke might endanger the teller

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on August 22nd, 2008

An AP article by Nicholas Geranios tells of a study by researcher Nancy Bell that found, among other things, that…

…jokes that fail to deliver humor are a violation of a social contract, so punishing the teller can discourage similar behavior in the future.

The article is very kitchen-sinky. (It even references Maxim’s “12 Worst Comedians of All Time” article that we commented on two years ago yesterday. They call it recent!) And the “study” seems very rickety by scientific standards.

But, at the heart of it, there’s something that we here have always maintained– folks get very hostile when their sense of humor is assaulted or their funny bone isn’t tickled to their liking.

This social contract of which Bell speaks is taken very seriously. Ever more so when the contract involves actual cash– a cover charge– and certain other provisions, real or implied– offering “professional” comedians at a comedy club, for instance. Of the dozens or hundreds (or perhaps even thousands) of micro social contracts we enter into– and perhaps break– on a daily basis, none engenders such strong feelings as that between attempted humorist and audience, whether at the water cooler or at the comedy club.

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