I was at my friend’s place some time ago, years back, and he told me a joke that made me laugh rock solid for about 5 minutes. It was the funniest joke I had ever heard.
The next day he told it to another friend of mine, while I was listening, and when he said the punchline, I again laughed, but this time it was just a “hahaha… hahaha… hehe… hehe… hmmm.”
Now when I tell the joke to my friends I get nothing but a smile from myself whenever I say it.
Why is it that things become “less” funny the more that we are exposed to them?
What was there before that is no longer there now?
There are some theories, but one is that humor is funny because it’s unexpected. A joke sets up a situation with an unexpected result. For example, in the joke:
Bill came into the bar to see his friend Joe sadly crying over a beer, so he came over and asked him what was wrong. “My wife just ran away with my best friend.”, Joe replied. “But Joe, I’m your best friend”, Bill answered. Joe looked at him and said “Not anymore”
the humor results from the realization at the end of the joke (the “punch line”), that Joe, far from being upset at his wife’s leaving, is actually happy, going so far as to make the man she ran off with his “best friend”.
In this case, repetition makes the joke less humorous, because the suprise isn’t there.