Witty people have a dark sense of humor?

[cletus]

I ran across this (http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=2815) charming little quote from Grant Morrison.I saw Henry McCoy as an incredibly clever, witty, cultured, well-traveled, experienced, well-read character so I brought out those parts of his personality which seemed to me to fit the profiles of the smartest and most worldly people I know - his sense of humor is dark and oblique.I thought about some of my friends of above average intellect and they would definitely qualify. Often times they would laugh at inappropriate jokes or the cruelness of life on others.

So, do you notice the same in some of the smarter people you know? Would you consider yourself or your friends to have a dark sense of humor?

[luluBahrain]

I'm not sure if I qualify as witty (maybe sometimes) but i definitely have a dark sense of humor. And every other member of my family(besides me) is a member of Mensa, we're all sick, sad puppies.

[Alereon]

Dark humor is the best kind of humor.

[Eternal]

If this isn't a trend, it is at least a trend in general opinion. I think most people would agree that the really smart people they know have darker senses of humor.

It's probably because intelligent people tend to be outsiders as they grow up, and so they develop a sense of humor outside the mainstream as well. Very intelligent people who were also cheerleaders or star quarterbacks, perhaps, might be less prone to comedy that pokes fun at the fundamental inanity and absurdity of life, because they haven't experienced it to be so.

[Omnipresent]

Well, I happen to think that comedians are some of the smartest people there are.

Me? I have a 140 IQ and I'll admit, I'm sick, sick, sick. So.....

[LifeOnWry]

Well, my IQ is pretty high too, and while I occasionally veer into twisted humor, I'm much more prone to wordplay and flat-out slapstick.

[jjimm]

I have been known to be witty.

I have a (relatively) high IQ.

I have a very dark, sick and heinous sense of humour (way too sick for the sensitive souls of the SDMB, so I never display this side of me here).

[lieu]

Roadkill makes the most best frisbee.

[Doomtrain]

I'm fairly intelligent, or so I think, and I love dark humor.

[jellen92]

I have been told many times that I am very witty, but I have a pretty average IQ. I consider myself to have a dark sense of humor, although most people refer to it as simply "pessimistic".

[Uvula Donor]

You know what they say: It's not funny until someone puts an eye out.

[Hellboy37]

I'm stupid as hell and afraid of the dark......

[Zenster]

Originally posted by Uvula Donor
You know what they say: It's not funny until someone puts an eye out. And then it's HILARIOUS!

The secret source of all humor is sorrow.Mark Twain
We are given the choice of laughing or crying when confronted with this world's trials and tribulations. As the kitschy T-shirt slogan says:

"We are all born crying, some of us learn to stop."

Mark Twain is absolutely correct. In order that we not collapse from grief, we instead construe comic relief from sorrowful situations. I find a strong connection with one's "dark side" to be an extremely healthy outlet for negative emotion and antisocial inclinations. It permits an individual to reconfigure unacceptable thoughts and desires into communicable ideas and (often) extremely funny material. What's more, I routinely find those who avoid or flee from their own darkness to be some of the most vapid, vacuous and (sometimes) dangerously stupid individuals I have ever met.

I've seen it said at these boards that many comedians are extremely dark and bitter people. This is not entirely surprising when one considers how frequently truly sorry specimens of humanity nonetheless rise someway to prominence or notoriety. Making fun of them is much more sensible (however less satisfying) than killing these morons outright, no matter how deserving they are of such a fate. Channeling such tendencies into a way of brightening our lives with the gift of humor is at times almost miraculous in its healing properties.

As an example, I'LL provide you with one of my own jokes. It was made up after a prolonged period of involuntary celibacy. In the contex of these boards, we shall call it "Zenster's Second Law."

NEVER EAT OYSTERS WHEN YOU'RE LONELY.

[rjung]

I use a lot of sarcasm these days, does that count?

[criminalcatalog]

What qualifies as dark humor? Would Steven Wright be considered "dark"? His jokes are deadpan and dry, and he doesn't even smile when he tells them. I'd call that dark.

Maybe intelligent people use dark humor because it often has multi-layered meanings (my opinion of a good joke). That, and dark humor is unnerving for light-hearted folks.

[Trigonal Planar]

I'd consider myself fairly intelligent and witty...and yes, I too have a very dark sense of humour. Most of my intelligent friends are the same way.

I think (dare I say) that "more intelligent" people realize that much of what happens in our day-to-day existance is really quite trite and insignificant. This causes us to find humour in those who make a big fuss about it.

[sultana of slash]

Maybe intelligent people get too bored with humor that isn't twisted. Maybe they can't laugh if they saw the punchline coming before the teller got there.

Or maybe they're just a bunch of dark, evil bastards.
I can unfortunately think of about 100 examples from work, but if I told you any of them, I'd have to kill you.

[Cervaise]

I have a fairly dark sense of humor. I don't indulge it very frequently because it's so easy to give people the wrong impression.

I also have a reputation as an intellectual. I leave it to others to decide if said reputation is deserved. All I know is, I live the life I live, the only way I know how. That's just a little more than the law will allow. Uh... no, wait a minute.

The "laughing so you don't cry" thing makes a lot of sense. People who don't spend a lot of time thinking about how the world works don't seem to understand that there aren't any rules and life isn't fair and sometimes good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people because the universe isn't designed to make sense. It isn't designed at all, really, in my view.

As I said in a recent GD thread, "The world seems mad and cruel only because we have an unreasonable expectation that it should be otherwise."

So either you bewail the injustice inherent in an unstructured universe, or you cultivate a dark sense of humor as a coping mechanism. By contrast, if you think the world is a warm, comforting place that takes your personal needs and feelings into account, then it makes sense that you'd find big-eyed kitten greeting cards to be the height of good humor.Originally posted by lieu
Roadkill makes the most best frisbee. For best results, back up and drive over it again a few times. Especially if it's a big-eyed kitten.

[ultrafilter]

Is that rigor mortis, or are you just happy to see me?

[SkipMagic]

Originally posted by ultrafilter
Is that rigor mortis, or are you just happy to see me?

Dead on.

[Johnny Bravo]

Does that mean they don't tell light bulb jokes?

[SkipMagic]

Watt? :confused:

[cletus]

Sometimes all you can do is laugh or cry. Laughing just happens to make you seem a little bit less crazy then crying. :) It's nice to know I'm not the only twisted bastard here.

Originally posted by Alereon
Dark humor is the best kind of humor. Absolutely.

[DreadCthulhu]

Well, I tend to test quite high on IQ test, and I do have a pretty twisted sense of humor, that has gotten me pitted here once.

[Rashak Mani]

Dark Humour fellow here too... but I thought I had picked up that habit in England... :)

In fact I do know some very intelligent people who arent into dark humor... but are into other forms of humor. So I would say that humorless translates to non-intelligent for sure...

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Zenster
It permits an individual to reconfigure unacceptable thoughts and desires into communicable ideas and (often) extremely funny material.

To me, a dark sense of humour is a self-protection mechanism. Instead of having anguish overloading the emotional centres, the brain reconstructs these sensations to funny ones. Even when the anguish may get through subsequently, now you have a buffer to brace yourself.

[David Simmons]

Originally posted by rjung
I use a lot of sarcasm these days, does that count?

Not just these days.

Way back in the 1920's, Dorothy Parker, a mordant wit if there ever was one, said, "If all the sorority girls in the country were laid end to end - I wouldn't be a bit surprised."

Mark Twain often leaned on sarcasm and irony. In The Innocents Abroad he wrote of an escapade on the French Riviera. The ship was not allowed to dock in either Nice or Cannes because of a quarantine so some of the passengers sneaked ashore. Twain wrote that after dressing themselves in their best and "... donning the Grand Cordon of the Legion of Honor so as to render ourselves inconspiculous, we went ashore."

And Shakespere was often sarcasitc. In Henry IV, when the Welsh leader, whose name escapes me (Glendowen, Glendower?) says, "I can summon spirits from the vasty deep." Hotspur responds, "Why, so can I, or so can any man, but do they come when you call them?"

[ParentalAdvisory]

Originally posted by Johnny Bravo
Does that mean they don't tell light bulb jokes?


Right. Because there is no light in dark humor.


Perfect time for a dead baby joke, but the non-intelligent may get offended. :p

[SwimmingRiddles]

There was something in one of my psychology texts which applys (I'd grab it for a cite, but it's at home, and I'm at work...). They did a study of the observational skills of people with major depression, and your average, healthy person. The people with depression were slightly more observant, but far more ACCURATE in their observations.

I found this amusing. It's as proof that the people who sit around mumbling "the world is a piece of poo," do so because they are the ones who truely see the world for what it is, and judge it accordingly.

In my life, I've noticed that the witty people and the depressed people oftentimes are one and the same. Just a thought.

[ultrafilter]

Originally posted by SwimmingRiddles
There was something in one of my psychology texts which applys (I'd grab it for a cite, but it's at home, and I'm at work...). They did a study of the observational skills of people with major depression, and your average, healthy person. The people with depression were slightly more observant, but far more ACCURATE in their observations.

"For life's a piece of shit/when you look at it." -- Monty Python, Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life

[Lisa-go-Blind]

I consider myself pretty intelligent (although I do not show it on these boards), and I'm a fan of "Murder Most Horrid," "The Kids in the Hall," and Edward Gorey. Like LifeOnWry, however, I also enjoy other types of humor--wordplay and obscure jokes particularly, but pretty much anything but bathroom humor (and I can appreciate that if it is done well).

[Tigers2B1]

Originally posted by SwimmingRiddles
...It's as proof that the people who sit around mumbling "the world is a piece of poo," do so because they are the ones who truely see the world for what it is, and judge it accordingly.

Sorry, but I just don’t buy that. The World is nothing if it isn’t ‘choices.’ As I understand, depressed people don’t see it that way --- whether the depression is temporary (“I’ll never find another like him/her) or permanent. Whether its bad thinking habits or bad genes – it’s my understanding that depressed people see themselves with limited choices -- with those who commit suicide seeing only one.

[Lord Ashtar]

I've been told that I'm intelligent. I've also been told I have a dark sense of humor.

Do whatever you will with this information.

[LadySybil]

I'm of above average intelligence (for my age group, anyway). Got yelled at recently for suggesting the following quote* for my senior quote in the yearbook:
I used to hate weddings. Old ladies would come up to me and say, "you'll be next." They've stopped doing that since I started doing that to them at funerals.
Most of the people I suggested it to (including two of my teachers) rebuked me for "telling poor little old ladies that they're going to die.":eek:
Snicker.
*courtesy of Bash.Org (http://www.bash.org)

[LadySybil]

I'm of above average intelligence (for my age group, anyway). Got yelled at recently for suggesting the following quote* for my senior quote in the yearbook:
I used to hate weddings. Old ladies would come up to me and say, "you'll be next." They've stopped doing that since I started doing that to them at funerals.
Most of the people I suggested it to (including two of my teachers) rebuked me for "telling poor little old ladies that they're going to die.":eek:
Snicker.
*courtesy of Bash.Org (http://www.bash.org)

[LadySybil]

Whoops. Could a mod please delete the double post?:smack:

[Saint Zero]

I'm so intelligent, I'm above this ancient debate. :)

[MidnightRadio]

Originally posted by ParentalAdvisory
Perfect time for a dead baby joke, but the non-intelligent may get offended. :p I think there's a difference between dark humor and humor that's gross just for the sake of being gross, although I do love a good dead-baby joke now and then. Not that I think they're all that funny on their own. The real pleasure of a dead-baby or similarly disgusting joke (Sandpaper Sally, anyone?) is the reaction of the poor, unsuspecting soul on the receiving end. I've gotten some great reactions out of the worst dead-baby joke known to man (I think); I even reduced someone to tears once. She was laughing at the same time, though, which was odd.Originally posted by DreadCthulhu
Well, I tend to test quite high on IQ test, and I do have a pretty twisted sense of humor, that has gotten me pitted here once. Do you have a link? If not, tell us the joke (or statement) that got you pitted, if you don't mind.

[pasunejen]

Ditto the (at least appearing) higher than average intelligence/twisted humor thing. And most of my friends seem to follow the pattern. One or two people I know are true sick bastards, and scare me from time to time.

Example: (and I like a good dead baby joke from time to time, don't get me wrong) One of my friends, when visiting a couple who had just given birth to a son, decided it would be great to tell them a dead baby joke with a punchline that was their son's name (Russell, in case anyone's curious).

They were horrified, and rightly so in my opinion.

But anyway.

[Mofo Rising]

I consider myself fairly intelligent. . . wait. I've been told I'm pretty smart. . . um, never mind. . .

I think it may be that one has to be fairly bright to "get" the somewhat convulted understanding of why a horribly bleak joke is funny. Nobody is really going to laugh about an old lady getting run over by a truck. However, if you remove yourself one step from the situation you can laugh at the cruel absurdity of the whole thing.

I think it's the sense of the absurd that really makes an "intelligent" person laugh. Goes hand in hand with my theory that it takes an intelligent person to laugh at something truly stupid, ie. Conan O'Brien, Sam Henderson's "The Magic Whistle" comic, or the movie TROLL 2.

How many Vietnam vets does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
You don't know! You weren't there!

[cletus]

Originally posted by pasunejen
Example: (and I like a good dead baby joke from time to time, don't get me wrong) One of my friends, when visiting a couple who had just given birth to a son, decided it would be great to tell them a dead baby joke with a punchline that was their son's name (Russell, in case anyone's curious).

They were horrified, and rightly so in my opinion.

But anyway. Hmm, maybe I should have modified my question to "Witty people have a dark sense of humor?" AND don't know when to keep their mouths shut? :) I think all of my intelligent friends would qualify.

[DreadCthulhu]

Originally posted by MidnightRadio
Do you have a link? If not, tell us the joke (or statement) that got you pitted, if you don't mind.

Well, I laughed in a thread about someone's cat dieing. Then made a joke about the time I accidently stepped on a kitten. I guess I really deserved that pitting.

[Yumblie]

I, like everyone here, consider myself intelligent. I mean, obviously. I wouldn't say I have a "dark" sense of humor, because jokes like dead baby jokes that are basically just obscene for the sake of being obscene don't make me laugh (though I don't really get offended by them). Bathroom humor I dislike, unless it's well told or clever, or parodying itself.

What really makes me laugh hysterically is the really absurd. Stuff that doesn't make sense. Stuff that someone would normally say "That's wierd" or "Huh?" to. It's sometimes awkward in social situations when someone will be telling jokes and I'll lightly chuckle or smile, and later start laughing hysterically at something else while everyone else just looks at me strangely.

[Blonde]

Originally posted by DreadCthulhu
Well, I laughed in a thread about someone's cat dieing. Then made a joke about the time I accidently stepped on a kitten. I guess I really deserved that pitting.


Damn straight you did. That was a while back, DreadCthulhu - I'm sure you've adopted kitties since then. ;)

The best way to walk on the dark side can be found in the literature of Edgar Allen Poe - Woody Allen or George Carlin for the witty stuff.

[Cervaise]

Originally posted by Mofo Rising
Nobody is really going to laugh about an old lady getting run over by a truck.What kind of truck is it?

[Matchka]

1920s style sorority girls?

I once took this IQ test on the internet, and it told me I had me a 131 IQ. Then it attempted to introdce me to some ladies of about my age with similar IQs. From that experience I decided I shouldn't go around bragging about my 131...especially since I noticed the moron in the cube next to mine had exactly the same IQ score from the same test...and was REAL excited about his blossoming social life.

I equate high intelligence with the ability to view a situation or object with reference to increasingly higher numbers of concepts or memories. For instance, if you see a bit of roadkill and the only way you can relate to it is "ewww," that's only one link so, probably not a whole lot of brain power. Thus the conclusion that people without a sense of humor are stupid (I subscribe to this opinion). But if you can look at the roadkill and relate to it as, "ewwww" + "Frisbee" + "Awesome Possum for the RK Cafe" + "Possum pie" + ... then the potential to hit on something funny is much greater.

As for dark humor, I love it because it rubs shit in the blue noses of the mentally single-level prudes who insist on imposing taboos on the rest of society. "You can't laugh at killing big eyed kittens because they're so sweet and their death is a tragic loss of cuteness." Which is true, but if you can get over the unfortunate demise of the kitten and link the action to say, slipping on dog crap or a banana peel, well, the link is unexpected and just damn funny.

I DO have the depression thing going on, but I don't consider my outlook on life as particularly negative. I just have no time for people who can't find humor in life. I believe they must be limiting their intelligence on purpose in order to adhere to someone else's rules, and I get mad at them because, hey, we've enough problems in this world that could be solved by a little extra thought effort on everybody's part. I feel the need to persecute them somehow, and feel best when I can do it in the presence of another smarty pants, in the presence of the victim, and without the victim's knowledge. And I don't do this to be mean or to build myself up by tearing someone down, I do it to see if I can awaken the victim and get him thinking again. If my victim hears my remark, and sees someone else laugh, then the victim has to engage the old noodle and try & figure out the joke.

Or maybe I'm just a dick.

[Matchka]

[B]Cervaise[B/], EXACTLY!

[Blonde]

Matchka - there is a major difference between having a dark sense of humor and being sadistic.

[Black Train Song]

Who doesn't consider themselves intelligent? C'mon!

That's what makes life so funny. Everyone thinks they're smart.
Ohhhhh, that makes me laugh just thinking about it.

[ParentalAdvisory]

Originally posted by Matchka

But if you can look at the roadkill and relate to it as, "ewwww" + "Frisbee" + "Awesome Possum for the RK Cafe" + "Possum pie" + ... then the potential to hit on something funny is much greater.


Or, if you're like my friend. You look at the road kill and think to drive over it, back up on it, do a burn out on it, and then the reaction from on lookers is "ewwww". Here the situation is, my friend was being a sadistic bastard, but the reaction from the people watching was funnier than hell!

[Johnny L.A.]

Well, I haven't read the entire thread, but...

The last time I took an IQ test was... Well, let's just say it was in Omni magazine. Quite a while ago. I scored 142. I'm fairly well-read, and have lots of interests. I consider myself intelligent, and friends and co-workers have often been amazed at the things I know. I also have a rather morbid sense of humour.

[Johnny Bravo]

Originally posted by Cervaise
What kind of truck is it?

The Oscar Meyer Weinermobile.

[Dawne]

I wouldn't say I was bitter and I'm not overly sarcastic but black comedy is my absolute favourite (and I remember that thread about the kitten.. I'm quite ashamed to say that I also found it funnier than i perhaps should have).

About a year ago a fluffy white bunny rabbit got ran over by a lawnmower outside my English room and i didn't stop laughing for about a week, there was fur everywhere (heehee)

I wouldn't say i was morbid though.

100th post!

[DreadCthulhu]

Originally posted by Blonde
Damn straight you did. That was a while back, DreadCthulhu - I'm sure you've adopted kitties since then. ;)


Actually, I have adopted several kittens from the local shelter. I mean, how else am I supposed to make kitten stew?

[SpectBrain]

I think that Dr. Spooner would refer to all of us as shining wits!:D

[Fnoonf]

Originally posted by Cervaise
So either you bewail the injustice inherent in an unstructured universe, or you cultivate a dark sense of humor as a coping mechanism. By contrast, if you think the world is a warm, comforting place that takes your personal needs and feelings into account, then it makes sense that you'd find big-eyed kitten greeting cards to be the height of good humor.

I find this very interesting, because I find myself kinda caught on the fence in this situation. Upon reading the OP, I realized that it rang true in a very real way; plenty of the people I know who are above-average in the IQ dept. do indeed have very dark senses of humour. I myself, however, while generally testing in the 134-142 range, don't consider myself to have the requisite darkness needed to fit the description. My sense of humor is concurrent with many of the assumptions drawn in this thread; that people of above average intelligence are able to see the world in a funnier light because they can penetrate the veneer of everyday life and see something real there; something the "big-eyed kitten greeting cards" crowd isn't able to see. In my case, though, rather than translating to a love of all things dark and humorous, it has translated into a love for the zany, weird, off-beat things, the things that can make human interaction into the world-class comedy it often is.

I'm much more likely to laugh at the fact that Bob's relatives didn't quite know how to behave with Bob's gay lover and his friends at the funeral than I am to laugh at the fact that Bob died before his time, even though it's implicit that since I'm laughing at something that took place at the funeral, I'm laughing, in a sense, at Bob's tragedy. I think the question here may lie in distinctions. Smart people aren't necessarily more eager to laugh at the nasty, dark things; maybe they're just less eager to let the "taboo"-ness of the nasty dark things dissuade them from laughing at situations that arise in their wake.