This may be better suited for GQ or GD, but here goes.
In this column cecil offers: Remind me to explain the concept of a “joke” to you someday… (at the end, in the ‘TEEMING MILLIONS GET HUFFY’ section).
No better time than the present, right?
I’ve heard explanations of humor ranging from social cohesion-- we laugh and make others laugh to establish relationships and we understand humor only as well as we understand relationships (I think this misses something in that we often see humorous events that we don’t share with anyone)-- to simple expectation-- something akin to cognative dissonance takes place when we expect a certain outcome and are presented with an alternative. To some, the latter explanation is borne out by the tendancy to laugh when people behave outside expected norms.
But why should we laugh at the idea that a President would bring about the deaths of millions of people becasue he didn’t get his way?
In other words, what is this thing called joke?