Humor

 

I Started A Joke

I started a joke
Which started the whole world crying
But I didn't see
That the joke was on me, oh no

Tain’t funny, McGee

So what is funny? Humor is an incongruity, e.g. between a statement and an action, which is unintentional, or not intended as harm. A stuffy individual walking with dignity and slipping on a banana peel is funny. An insult that is not meant as an insult is funny, or at least that is what Don Rickles always said. An insult that was meant as an insult using the catch phrase from the Fibber McGee and Molly radio show, Tain’t funny. It is an insult.

Saying that an insult was not meant an insult but as a joke, does not make it less of an insult, It also does not mean that the insulted person can not take a joke. The ability to get a joke may be a way to discern whether someone is lying or telling the truth.

When Jonathan Swift wrote his book A Modest Proposal, he was intending humor, not writing a cookbook for the elimination of Irish children. Those who viewed it as a cookbook had to be reminded that it was humor. Unfortunately, this recently had to include Donald Trump’s lawyer in the E. Jean Carroll defamation lawsuit, where the judge felt compelled to remind Donald Trump’s lawyer that when E Jean Carroll called her book What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal she was obviously writing humorously, not stating a personal opinion. When Marjorie Taylor Greene banged the gavel calling for order in the House chamber, the laughter that resulted was the incongruity of someone who flaunted House decorum, now calling for order. Saying that something is a joke does not make it a joke. Saying that a joke is a fact does not make it a fact. Being contrary to the facts is a lie, so reacting with laughter instead of anger, is being more than kind.