Actually, the reason that people tell jokes is that:
[list=1]
[li]Most people don’t have amusing, entertaining anecdotes to tell about themselves. Talking about drinking so much your freshman year in college that you vomited in your own face is neither amusing nor entertaining. Adding in the fact that you were such an inexperienced drinker then that you did it after two beers doesn’t make it entertaining or amusing, either.[/li][li]Expanding on this notion, the people who tell amusing, entertaining anecdotes about their lives are probably lying. Any good storyteller will, since the truth can often be improved on (for entertainment purposes) by omitting an inconvenient detail, or putting a timely remark into someone’s mouth. I fiddle with the truth myself (however, the story about my being in an East Side bar when an alligator ate another patron has no basis in fact whatsoever).[/li][li]As Zenster notes, telling a joke ain’t easy. Neither is relating a true experience. The two are actually related.[/li][li]You probably haven’t heard a joke. You’ve probably only heard bad riddles. Even listening to the office Dilbert recount his day would be amusing compared to that, I’ll concede.[/li][/list=1]
[Dale Gribble]Jokes start with “Knock-knock”. Or “Whaddya get when you cross a”.[/Dale Gribble]
Okay, I feel the need to step in on this conversation after reading all of the comments. I am a stand-up comedian. Professionally. I started in 1994, and have done both stand-up and improv. First of all, humor is probably the most subjective thing I have ever discovered. While it is true that some people use jokes to reinforce stereotypes, just as many people use it to turn those convential stereotypes on their ear. Case in point: Steve White, a very good black comic, has a joke structured where he discusses his name, mentioning that his middle name is “Ain’t.” I feel sorry for those people who either have no sense of humor, or have no idea that making people laugh is one of the hardest things to do. As much as I love comedy, it has its drawbacks. The travel can sometimes be overwhelming. Imagine being 1000 miles away from your family in a city you have never been to before where no one knows you. Imagine spending all of your time in a hotel room when you’re not at work. Imagine having to go to work every single week with an entirely new idea, or spin on an existing idea that no one has ever heard before. Imagine having to constantly prove yourself to bosses who change weekly (I mean the owners of the clubs here, though I suppose you could say the bosses change nightly, meaning the patrons). Imagine having to keep your job fresh every single day. Burnout is not allowed. When most people burn out, they can take a vacation to recharge. Or a weekend. If I burn out, I don’t get paid. Or I get bad word-of-mouth. And I work just about every weekend. Fridays, Saturdays, and sometimes Sundays. Two shows Fridays, three Saturdays. There’s no time to go out and see friends. They have day jobs, and I work nights when I’m in town. When I’m done working, they need to be going to bed so they can go to work. When they get home, I’m either sleeping, or preparing myself for what I do. Comedy is not as easy as it looks. It’s not just standing in front of a microphone and relating anecdotes. My mind works a little differently than most peoples’, and I can’t shut it off. I’m always searching for a punchline in everything (which aggrivates Supergirlfriend to no end). The nuances of a joke are important. If I misplace an inflection, or stumble over a word, it can ruin something that may have been absolutely brilliant. I can’t White-out and try again. I can only hope that the next show I get it right. It’s not like music, where radio gives people the benefit of being at least marginally familiar with your work. And I have to always be working. I can’t shut my brain off at 5. There’s no timeclock to punch. I have to keep my mind always looking for an angle on things that no one else has discovered. All that said, I love what I do. Those moments where you make the audience forget their troubles and laugh their asses off make it all worthwhile. It’s a hard job, but one that I find rewarding. But, like any job, there are going to be people who are at both ends of the spectrum. I apologize for all of the ones on the shallow end of the comedy pool flocking to you. I don’t claim to be diving off the board yet, but I at least know how to tread comedic water.
AP wire 6/14/2001: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has decided to take a double approach to the problems of electricity production in the Western states, most notably California. The first part of the plan calls for a study of further wholesale energy price controls. The second part of the plan calls for everyone in California to rub balloons on their heads for two hours a day.
I find a lot of the jokes I hear to be just plain dumb. Most internet jokes I get are juvenile.
I love telling jokes. Absolutely love it. Every time I’m with my friends, I say “hey, wanna hear a joke?” Most of the time they’ll groan, but they’ll always listen. 90% of the time, they’ll end up laughing. And that’s what a good joke can do. It brightens up the mood of the room and creates an ice breaker.
I have a very difficult time talking to girls. I don’t know what to say. I get flustered. But I met one girl once because she was hanging out with a group of us and she was captivated by the fact that I went up in front of friends and strangers alike and started telling jokes. She sat back and just watched me. I never would have had the balls to go up and talk to her, but I “introduced” myself to her in another way. And I made her laugh.
I have one joke that I tell about a guy who steals pennies. It’s a shaggy dog joke and I can tell it for around 45 minutes. 45 minutes! And the great thing is, my friends request to hear it again and again and again. Because the fun of the joke isn’t just how I tell it, but watching those that have never heard it listen and participate in the joke.
I have great respect for the comedians of the world. Comedy is difficult. I went to see Lewis Black a few weeks ago and he was worth the $22 tickets. He was worth the two drink minimum. He was worth the tacked on tip and the $6 parking charge because he made me laugh for an hour straight.
Superdude, if you’re ever in Kansas City, I’ll come see you.
See, that is the kind of joke I think is funny, because it is humor that comes out of the situation. If I had been your boss, I would have thought “That Zette is pretty clever to come up with that!” What I don’t like, and what I think the OP was talking about, is people who suddenly announce that they have a joke and recite something they read or heard somewhere that has nothing to do with anything that anyone was doing or talking about. It doesn’t help that few jokes are funny enough to remain funny when they are irrelevant and badly told.
**
I have a friend named Paul like that. Only the jokes are what he calls “monkey stories.” They’re these very long, drawn out stories with no punch line. You find yourself captivated by him telling them, though. Even though you feel a little jipped at the end, you start finding other people and making them listen.
Actually, I was in Kansas City, MO a few years ago, at a place called the Lighten Up Theater. I don’t remember exactly where it was, but they had a great house improv troupe. It was within walking distance of my hotel, which was on Washington Street. The HoJo (sometimes having a good memory is a good thing).
It’s been interesting to read the responses to my OP.
Thanks to all the people who agreed that jokes are boring and understood my basic point that tales about people’s lives are far more interesting than any shaggy dog story. I don’t agree that to tell an anecdote based on personal experience is akin to telling a joke - the first depends on you giving up something about yourself, maybe even laughing at yourself a little bit. We can all relate to someone who does that. The joke teller ignores all that and, in my experience, tends to tell jokes to cover the fact that he (yep, it’s still a he) has nothing to say about himself and no interest in anybody else either.
And so you sit there with a rictus grin in place and all conversation ceases while a totally irrelevant “funny story” is related. There’s a kind of fascism about joke telling, a bullying insistence on laughter and admiration that gets my goat. Maybe it’s because only loudmouths like to tell them… or is that me being prejudiced again? I’m sure Passerby will put me straight, he seems to know the rules pretty well.
In my experience. Passerby and others, the person who insists on recounting a joke in private company is invariably male. Maybe Passerby is married to Joan Rivers, who knows, but I’m willing to bet most people would agree with that perception. Thanks for the hyperlinks though, you must have been trawling the net for hours!
Finally, I have to mention the contribution made by the professional comedian whose account of his working life made The Grapes of Wrath look like Road Trip. And people keep telling ME to lighten up! Yikes…
I’m sorry…
But was that a joke?
Good shot Ender, you are definitely a candidate for the SDMB Class Clown.
Yes, and it ridiculed someone too; isn’t that one reason why jokes are bad?
No, nineiron, jokes are bad because they are simply not funny or the teller is maladroit. Racial put-down jokes aren’t funny if they go too far, but gently chiding any ethnic or religious group can be hilarious.
My favorite joke happens to be “the pig with the wooden leg”, perhaps because I’m an ex farm boy and we raised hogs at one time. But virtually anything can be funny if done well. And I think ridicule is too strong a term. I sniff the scarey scent of zero tolerance, combined with a mal-formed sense of humor.
Zenster and Endy, I’m with you, in what I suspect is a lost cause. No joke there.
Uh, I’m sorry if my sarcasm wasn’t obvious enough. Of course I don’t think jokes are bad; the original post, however, said they are, partially because they ridicule people. I love jokes and think that the whole topic of not liking jokes because they offend people is silly. Sheesh.
The “pig with a wooden leg joke” might, alas, be offensive to animal rights activists. 
I’ve never found any joke to be offensive in my life. Since I live in a very large Polish community, Polish jokes are always popular, and no, the Polish people (myself included) don’t get offended by them. They see them for what they are–jokes.
Jokes have been used as a way of protesting against totalitarian governments and make intolerable lives bearable.
http://www.russian-humor.com/contents.htm
How can you not have a brighter day having just seen Eddy Izzard or Billy Connoly ?
sorry nineiron:
You whooshed me, you demon. I wasted all that righteous anger.
Screw you and those animal rightists, too.(Not to mention the animal leftists).
::Rick hides under table, trying to think of funny comeback. Let’s see, how about the Pollock with a wooden leg. No, probably been done. Hmm…::
I’m going to go reread Crunchy Frog’s Halvsies thread. I just read that one and laughed. I didn’t post so I wasn’t humiliated or ridiculed as I was here.
I hate smilies so you’ll just have to figure out whether or not this is sarcasm on your own. Nyah!
Wow, you obviously don’t know me very well. Animals have a right to be delicious and that is all:
“A pig like that, you don’t eat all at once!”
Man, I LOVE JOKES!
(Unless, of course, ageless6 was indeed being sarcastic.) Regardless, I still love jokes. And meat. And smilies, when used in moderation.