If I have prior warning that I am being told a joke I try to focus on how the person telling the joke is trying to lift my mood with humour (and I suppose they are also possibly trying to lift their own mood). I find this can help with my reaction. I do not say, 'thank you for trying to lift my mood with humour', because I learned this to be an inappropriate response.
Without a 'heads-up', there are often what would be described as uncomfortable silences, while I try to analyse and reprocess what was said.
Sometimes I find myself laughing at a pun, or somebody making light of a serious predicament, but I have misjudged the situation.
My favourite comedian is Stewart Lee.
_________________
'You seem very clever at explaining words, Sir,' said Alice. 'Would you kindly tell me the meaning of the poem called "Jabberwocky"?'
BEST COMEDIAN EVER
Nick fluck blarney quando floo!! !!
Oh beautiful, for smoggy skies, Insecticided grain.
O'er strip-mined mountains, majesty, above the asphalt plain.
America, America, man sheds his waste on thee,
And hides the pines with billboard signs
From sea to oily sea!
Mr. Conductor, you are sorely missed.
Anyway... I find a lot of jokes to not be very funny. I understand them most of the time, but a lot of jokes I've heard are racist or "your mom" type stuff, and that kinda stuff just isn't funny. I love standup comedy, but I don't really like "so a guy walks into a bar" type jokes.
I prefer more the type of observational humor of George Carlin and Gallagher(that long haired dude from the 70s and 80s who liked to smash watermelons. He does A LOT more than that, and he's f*****g funny, but somehow everybody only ever remembers the watermelons...) Brian Reagan's pretty damn funny too. He likes to poke fun at his own stupidity a lot, and he also does some of the observational stuff. He's one of the few comedians that will make me bust my gut laughing without being dirty at all. Another great comedian is Eddie Izzard. He's a transvestite from England, and he talks about historical figures and events quite a bit and things like that. And Richard Jeni... Most of his comedy is about sh***y marriages and crazy s**t. I don't remember exactly what else, but he's hilarious.
ImAnAspie
Veteran
Joined: 15 Oct 2013
Gender: Female
Posts: 7,686
Location: Erra (RA 03 45 12.5 Dec +24 28 02)
auntblabby
Veteran
Joined: 12 Feb 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 113,735
Location: the island of defective toy santas
you're a connieseur of the greats.
George Carlin was major, up there with Jonathan Winters, and Richard Pryor, as an innovator in standup comedy.
Since we're on the subject Ive been meaning to ask you-who was that current comic you mentioned on another thread?
I think it was you. His name was "Andrew" something. A guy I work with mentioned someone named "Andrew...[something]" also. Meant to check him out on U Tube ( I do a public access radio show in which I play comedy records).