Stories of Suspense with a Sense of Humor
Continuing my earlier post regarding the Five Degrees of Jokes, here now is a brief discussion of second degree jokes. Second degree jokes juxtapose the sacred with the profane. This is fairly easy to explain because it can be shocking, and the shock to the system is what raises tension and elicits laughter. If the … Read more
First degree jokes are puns, wordplay, and overly literal use of words. I breathe these kind of jokes because they are mostly innocent, playful, or silly, and I have raised two children to their teen years, and first degree jokes were fairly safe.If my daughter asks me how my day went, I might reply, “fine.” … Read more
Hearing him discuss jokes in this methodical, analytical method gave to me one of the greatest zen-like moments of my life. Suddenly, all the reasons something I said had been funny made sense.
John Cleese mentioned that he subscribed to the Henri Bergson theory of laughter.
I was the “Jokemaster” at yesterday’s Toastmasters meeting, and I decided to write original jokes rather than read something from the Internet. I bombed pretty thoroughly. My first joke was this: “the Finance Department announced that our retirement money is fine, but if you had a 401K it is now a 5K. If you want … Read more