# How is joke formed? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 22, 2021, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-joke-formed/938438 "2021-03-22T15:21:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-joke-formed/938438/41 "2021-03-23T02:14:21Z")
> [@naita](#): > > I believe the traditional human male way to prove they are not a corporation is to transmit a genital rendering. I shall do this. No, no, corporations have plenty of dicks, that’s not a great way to disprove you aren’t one. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-joke-formed/938438/42 "2021-03-23T02:29:39Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > No, no, corporations have plenty of dicks, that’s not a great way to disprove you aren’t one. Corporations also have plenty of humans, so how can I prove I’m not one such human doing the corporation’s bidding in participating in this “messaging board”? ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-joke-formed/938438/43 "2021-03-23T02:37:16Z")
There should be a Turing test for corporations. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-joke-formed/938438/44 "2021-03-23T04:06:43Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > Where’s the spoon? Do not try and bend the spoon, that’s impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth…there is no spoon. Then you will see it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-joke-formed/938438/45 "2021-03-23T20:23:09Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Mark Twain allegedly said, “Humor is tragedy plus time.” Probably not [https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/06/25/comedy-plus/](https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/06/25/comedy-plus/) It doesn’t really sound like Twain. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-joke-formed/938438/46 "2021-03-23T20:26:51Z")
You remind me of my husband. I always tell him, “Stop ruining my funny stories with the truth!” ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-joke-formed/938438/47 "2021-03-23T21:27:35Z")
I accidentally bought nose-cancelling headphones and now my glasses just slip right down my flat face. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-joke-formed/938438/48 "2021-03-23T22:31:31Z")
Cum on feel the noze Girls rock your Bose ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-joke-formed/938438/49 "2021-03-23T22:34:58Z")
How did you know which brand they were? Are you surveilling me? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-joke-formed/938438/50 "2021-03-24T12:36:10Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > You remind me of my husband. I always tell him, “Stop ruining my funny stories with the truth!” Sorry about that. My suspicion is aroused any time I see a quote attributed to Mark Twain, Dorothy Parker, Abe Lincoln, Plato, or other such folks famed for their epigrams. A lot of the time the quotation doesn’t even seem close to their style. I gotta add, though, it’s not as if I’m spoiling a joke “Humor is tragedy plus time” isn’t , by itself, funny. I don’t even think it’s really true. Something tragic from a long time ago doesn’t become funny just because of the passage of time – it’s still tragic. It’s just that you can get away with joking about it after the sting of familiarity has lessened. People were making jokes about the Johnstown Flood by the 1920s, less than forty years after the fact. But the jokes consisted of more than just stating facts about the tragedy. ---
**Author:** ![Daithi\_Lacha](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daithi_lacha/32/5430_2.png) [@Daithi\_Lacha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daithi_Lacha)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-joke-formed/938438/51 "2021-03-24T14:16:37Z")
My late mother and I used to get into arguments about the nature of humor. She held that humor was the result of ‘delighted surprise’ whereas I held that humor was a form of uncritical disappointment: If presented with scenario A + B (man, banana peel) you can expect C to follow (man slips on banana peel). When D happens (man is hit by falling piano before he can step on banana peel), we are disappointed but not in a way that arouses ire. This is why obvious puns and telegraphed jokes are met with derision and impatience – the payoff becomes expected; there is no room for disappointment. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-joke-formed/938438.md?page=2)