Just for laughs
So what do you laugh at? Its an important question, because the answer to it may be an indicator of many things — like your standards, your emotional intelligence, your personality, your self-respect, the state of your mental health and whether you are a mob. And humour, as we know it, comes in different styles!
Witty, clever or playful humour Cute and light hearted, just for fun, situational jokes. Nothing loaded against someone. Its like Calvin and Hobbes. There is something for everyone. I would even put decent puns in this category. Its a lot like watching an episode of Brooklyn 99, Friends, Modern Family or Mind Your Own Language!
Slapstick Humour This is what happens in Tom and Jerry, or even at a circus. Exaggerated mishaps and violence, things toppling down, slipping over a banana peel, funny chasing between characters. Good for the screen, maybe?
Parody and Satire Humour that highlights the inappropriateness of a situation. Political satire is something we have enjoyed in Laxman’s cartoons and are best seen in today’s memes. For others, think Dilbert!
Dark Humour A niche genre of humor that explores serious, taboo, or distressing subjects with irony and wit. Many web comics are based on dark humour, although not all of them are for everyone!
Sarcastic Jokes When they don’t know if you are funny or serious, maybe like an episode of Seinfeld? In real life, it works with people who know you, and often takes a minute to get before it is actually funny! But too much sarcasm and self-deprecating humour isn’t good for the one making the joke, because it could come from a place of hurt.
Pranks This is your roommate drawing a fake moustache on your face as you sleep or your friend hiding the keys to your car. Maybe someone drops a random Happy Birthday message and you start getting a volley of wishes. These are pranks, harmless and intended to make everyone laugh. Sweet pranks build bonds. A prank should not be arrogant or nasty.
Schadenfreude These are the Cruel Jokes! Schadenfreude is the experience of pleasure, joy, or self-satisfaction that comes from learning of or witnessing the troubles, failures, pain, or humiliation of another. Researchers have found that there are three driving forces behind schadenfreude — Aggression, Rivalry and Justice. Schadenfreude has been detected in children as young as 24 months and may be an important social emotion establishing “Inequity Aversion”. For someone with low self-esteem, someone who is more successful poses a threat to their sense of self, and seeing this person fall can be a source of comfort because they perceive a relative improvement in their internal or in-group standing.
Off-colour Jokes Jokes by people who refuse to grow up from their 6th grade version, constantly dishing out biology jokes out of everything and anything. Beyond a point, it is perversion. Are you sure everyone around you thinks the same way that you do? Or are you forcing your thought process on others? At what point is your joke abusive?
I love my silly, goofy jokes. What about you?
