Perils of Pokerfaced Pleasantry

Joke Type 1: The Slapstick Comedy
Situation 1:
This guy with a small toothbrush moustache makes a lot of contortions on his face and wears a tattered costume and falls down flat on his butt.
Response:
Ha ha ha ha !!!

Situation 2:
This guy runs around a big guy, keeps falling and getting beaten.
Response:
ROTFL*… Ha ha ha ha !!!

Situation 3:
Situation 1 and 2 continue for about half an hour with just changes in the background.
Response:
ROTFSCAL*… Ha ha ha ha !!!


Joke Type 2: The community based jokes
Situation 1:
This sardarji/tamilian…
Response:
Ha ha ha…

Situation 2:
This sardarji/tamilian naa what he did you know…
Response:
Ha ha ha… ho ho ho

Situation 2:
Arre baba, listen to the joke naa… This sardarji/tamilian, naa what he did you know blah blah blah blah
Response:
ROTFL… Ha ha ha… ho ho ho… Hee hee hee…


Joke Type 3: PJs
Situation 1:
Q: What is big red and goes ding ding ?
A: A fire engine
Response:
:)

Situation 2:
Q: What is big red and goes ding ding ?
A: An apple. Big and ding ding were given to confuse you.
Response:
:)

Situation 3:
Q: What is big red and goes ding ding ?
A: A book. The data was given to confuse you.
Reaction:
:-|


Joke Type 4:
Situation 1: dry punchline jokes
A great story --> a great build up --> appropriate voice modulations --> one great punchline
Response:
So…

Situation 2:
A great story --> a great build up --> appropriate voice modulations --> one great punchline higlighted
Response:
Ok, so is the joke over already ?

Situation 3:
A great story --> a great build up --> appropriate voice modulations --> one great punchline explained
Response:
Is that what everyone calls a PJ ?


Now I am thoroughly frustrated… what happened to the world of witty and dry humor ? I just love those great punchline jokes… slapstick comedy used to interest me once but I remember getting annoyed with it when I was around 10yrs old… well tom and jerry still amuses me sometimes but then the head banging with saucepans only invoke a smile (very very rarely am I ROTFL).

And what is this with the surd and tam jokes doing the rounds… in fact you can put anyone there – gujju, mallu, northie, southie, Gandhi, little Johnny, George Bush, lawyers, doctors, engineers, software guys… just anybody and you could form a series of jokes around them. It is as if only these people can do all those comical blunders that they do… in fact once I had a fight with my friend over whose "ticketless traveller" joke was better – the one involving lawyers or the tamilians, though essentially the plot and the words were the same.

The PJs are very person specific… they appear funny only to the person who tells them and the person who is actually in the mood to listen… usually a couple of jokes evoke a pleasant smile, but if you overdo it, the listeners may actually get aggressive and change their smileys. But then they have their audiences too and there are far too many books written about them.


(Now the author would like to put in some research theories of his own. He dares you to disprove any of them.)

Slapstick comedy seems to be the joy of people who are overworked. No need to think, an on the spot humor, instinctive. Kids enjoy them because they don’t have the mental maturity to go in for long story based jokes. Those adults who engage themselves in watching slapstick comedy are usually in a state of mind where they don’t want to think to laugh. Which is the spontaneity aspect of this brand of humor.

The ethnicity jokes just generate a trigger based on the person. People just think the joke is funny because the image they have created upon the character. Even though there are some people who say that branding people into the jokes is not good and we are actually degrading them. I would disagree as long as everything is done in good humor. In fact it is usually the other way round of seeing things, as in someone really intelligent doing something stupid as in the joke would appear rather funny, like the Einstein/Newton jokes. See what I mean, these jokes are virtually substitutable and there is no necessity for any community to take offense.

And PJs… why would anyone in their right frame of mind like PJs… like the one that my friend always does – he adds a "pun intended" at the end to tell us that we got to appreciate the “joke”. As if we didn’t know his intentions; what are friends for (also with friends like us he does not need enemies). But the truth on PJs is that it is very situational… people relate to something at the spur of the moment some remark or comment countering a profs statement or some weird play of words that the joker thinks to be funny.

Anyways now it is time for me to crib… why is it that not many tend to appreciate wit in the jokes that are dry and straight faced ? Is it because the straight face does not provide the cue to listeners as to when the joke is over. Isn’t that the whole idea of straight faced humor… Or is it because they require that little bit of intelligence and concentration to appreciate these jokes?

The other day I was reading through Sidin’s posts and was laughing my head off. My roomie was bugged with my happiness and asked me to read out the joke despite my warnings… so I went on

“There was this football game between the polish and the english. Both teams walked out to the pitch. The english were soon warming up while the polish coach went around reminding his players to use no hands and that biting and head butting was not to be done, as far as possible.

Coin tossed. Whistle. And the game is afoot. However soon the english complain of rough play and walk off the pitch. The game continues. Twenty minutes later the Polish score a goal and win the match. “

Response: A blank expectant stare with a pitiful gaze (that was evoking no sympathy from me). I was planning to land him a new punchline – one from my fist to his nose… but being a roomie and him being bigger and stronger and persistent I had to give in to his requests and repeat it again this time highlighting the punch line:

“There was this football game between the polish and the english. Both teams walked out to the pitch. The english were soon warming up while the polish coach went around reminding his players to use no hands and that biting and head butting was not to be done, as far as possible.

Coin tossed. Whistle. And the game is afoot. However soon the english complain of rough play and walk off the pitch. The game continues. Twenty minutes later the Polish score a goal and win the match.”

He still didn’t get it. And I am not explaining it again.


PS. For those who didn’t get the title, it was my attempt at straight faced humor.

*Glossary:
ROTFL => Rolling On The Floor Laughing
ROTFSCAL => Rolling On The Floor Stomach Clutched And Laughing