The Art of Jokes

I love jokes, don’t you? They’re the kind of thing to bring a smile to your face, laughter to your ears, and a warm chuckle to your heart. They’re like portable Kodak commercials.

Warm fuzzy feeling face.

Sometimes I sit around all day wondering what the best jokes are, and who I’m going to tell these jokes to, and who’s going to tell these jokes to me. I wonder about this stuff more often than is necessary. La la la.

Dramatic reenactment.

Some of the best jokes though, are inside jokes. Most of the time, inside jokes are between two people. It could be a word they both find funny, a phrase from something they both heard, or even a memory shared between the two of them. The whole idea though, is that there is something that these two are sharing that others don’t know about, and that’s part of the allure. Words like “organic” and “mumble” can suddenly turn into hilarious turns of phrase, but you don’t understand because people think you're an idiot “you just had to be there.”

Now, like I said, I love inside jokes. I have thousands with maybe a hundred people. Think about it. That’s at least ten per person. Probably more. The “s” placed after “thousand” implies pluralization, (which may or may not be a word?) so I have something like twenty to thirty inside jokes with the hundred people I interact with, most likely on a daily basis. Chances are if you’re reading this, we have an inside joke or twenty. In fact, we could all make the agreement that “pluralization” is a word, and now our inside joke. When you hear someone else say it, or read about it on the internet, or use it on a crossword, just giggle, because you get it and only few people other than yourself do, too. 

Tee hee.

The point unfortunately, is not so that we all have something to giggle at the next time we all get together for a word party where we discuss the authenticity of words. (I still think we should check on priceless.) Apparently, people are confused about inside jokes and we need to break down how they work to better function smoothly as comedic people.

Here’s the breakdown:

There are two people directly involved in an inside joke, Person A and Person B. After they have shared an experience, the two of them are forever bound by a joke, (let’s say the joke is “mumbled the professor.”) Every time one of them says that, they have a memory and they both laugh.

Next, usually only one person initiates laughter from an inside joke. Think about it. It’s either you, or your friend, but it probably isn’t both. For this breakdown, we’ll say Person A initiates. This could be for thousands of reasons, but it’s probably because Person A really isn’t that much fun to be around, so they bring up old jokes to keep the friendship alive. Person B hears the joke, chuckles, and they both resume their lives.

HOWEVER! All this changes when we add the indirect component, Person C. Person C overhears the inside joke, hears the laughter, and is instantly confused. Person C has a few options:

Option #1: The polite option. Hear the joke, laugh quietly along, and steer the subject towards better navigable territory.

Option #2: The mildly annoying option. INVESTIGATE AS TO WHY THE JOKE IS FUNNY

Option #3: This one is the most invariably evil. Person C can steal the joke, and instantly become a harbinger of chaos, doom, and annoyance. Person C can become the initiator of the inside joke, even though THEY WERE NOT THERE AND HAVE NO IDEA WHY IT’S FUNNY.

That third option, my dear friends, is bullshit.

So if in the future, if you're a boring person, don't rely on inside jokes. And when you hear a joke you don’t understand, don’t be a harbinger of evil. Thanks.