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Why do some people have absolutely no sense of humor? It seems like this is becoming more common.
Years ago, you could play a practical joke on someone and most likely they would laugh it off. Nowadays, prank someone and you're apt to get shot or sued.
Back when I was a kid in the 70's, my father and my sister would tease me and do stupid stuff like you're talking about. I have always been a very serious type person, not to say I don't have a sense of humor, but it's individual to me and I don't always laugh just because someone else thinks something is funny. I love parody humor and the kind of observational humor like Ellen DeGeneres delivers. I don't think it's funny to lie to someone or make them look foolish or hurt and humiliate them. I'm not into excessive cussing as some kind of auto-laugh button (like when someone says "beer", people feel this automatic need to cheer. Kind of like when Emeril mentions garlic, too.)
The kind of pranks that are harmless and actually pretty funny are shown on a Canadian show called Just For Laughs. I don't know what kind of practical jokes you're talking about, but those I do find funny a lot of the time.
It's not that people don't have senses of humor, it's that people have expected more hurtful things to be accepted as "funny." I think it's the hallmark of the "joker" not trying hard enough and going for the obvious and lame choice to "force" people into laughing or else they get branded humorless. So it's more of a bullying situation and not truly about being simply funny. Find this funny or else I'll say you're humorless, and you don't want that so do as I say and LAUGH.
If you make light hearted jokes, rare people would want to sue you. Instead poking fun of someone and bullying them by wrapping it as a "joke" is rude and not funny at all. When you make jokes leave peoples personality away of it, don't poke fun of their mistakes etc. and you should be fine.
Mocking is not joking
I always figured that real humor is being able to see the incongruities that are all around us in our lives, and being skillful in pointing these out to other people. It's also self-depracating, ie, being able to poke fun at oneself. It's also true that you have to know your audience well, as they will tend to find humorous that which they can identify with.
I have never thought making fun of a vulnerable person, or practical jokes, were humorous.
Practical jokes are usually humorous by those doing them. Now a days they just can be mean. Hate when a certain late night hosts want parents no less to tell their children they ate all there trick or treat candy then film them while they sob and cry. Any parent who would do what I call mean spirited or sadistic pranks on their children deserve a smack upside their heads.
I think we're just more aware of things like empathy anymore. Practical jokes are often mean-spirited or based on making someone else look foolish, which is unkind.
My best friend and I played a "practical joke" on our other best friend. We told her we were getting her a really special gift for her new apartment and that we'd really saved our money and put a lot of thought into getting her this gift. It was, in reality, a hideous sculpture that we'd picked up from the dollar store (two cherubs riding a giant goldfish - not kidding). We wrapped it up like it was something very fragile and proudly presented it to her, and I basically fell completely apart when she took it out of the box.
She didn't have any expectations of us, so we didn't raise any hopes. And we did get her very nice gifts that year. The three of us have used that as our prank gift for almost a decade, adding decorations as we go. You never know when it's going to show up.
But when you do something like put saran wrap under the toilet seat or draw a dick on someone's face while they're sleeping.... that's just juvenile. And if you actually cause someone fear or pain, it's cruel. When the victim of the prank isn't laughing, it's unkind.
Will agree it was funny and cute. If it had been me probably would have actually used it for a time.
Will agree it was funny and cute. If it had been me probably would have actually used it for a time.
We've generally used it as a housewarming gift. Typically it is kept as a decoration for the back of the toilet. It's currently been with me because I was the last person to buy a house, and I have to refurbish it for the friend who is looking for an apartment. I'm thinking of replacing one of the cherub's heads with that of a velociraptor and redoing the glitter on the base.
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The problem is NOT a lack of a sense of humor. It's that not all forms of "humor" are morally defensible. In other words, some people apparently have a difficult time distinguishing between legitimate humor and cruelty and degradation.
Humor clearly intended to embarrass or degrade the dignity of a person, especially if it's meant to encourage others to devalue the very personhood/dignity of the butt of the "joke" -- that isn't legitimate humor, that is cruelty. I put Borat in that catetory, and in earlier decades Eddie Murphy's Raw. But by no means does it have to be as drastic as either of those.
Totally aside from the fact that a "great sense of humor" is the most overrated trait there is (even regarding truly legitimate forms of humor), the "you can't take a joke" or "you're humorless" is just used reinforce the notion that certain types of people deserve whatever disrespect come their way, regardless of whether that person deliberately hurt or degraded others. And hurt is the correct word for enduring such "jokes"/"humor".
Let me put it this way - I would rather have a repeat of the worst physical injuries I've had in my life than to be singled out for jokes intended to embarrass, degrade, or humiliate me for someone's entertainment. BTW, those two injuries were:
(a) having very hot, high-pressured car radiator water spew onto my forearm and
(b) a 4 inch by 4 inch by 20 feet cast iron bar smash into one of my fingers (I almost passed out when I tried to sit up off the floor - that's how badly it hurt. Amazed to this day that I didn't have to have stitches).
The reasons I prefer the physical injuries to the emotional injuries are:
(1) The said physical injuries were not accompanied by a conscious and deliberate attempt to degrade the value of my personhood/dignity,
(2) There is no tendency for many in the audience to think at least slightly lowly of you for being the target of the "humor", even if many in the audience do recognize the "humor" as actual cruelty
(3) Emotional injuries are often far more slowly to heal than physical ones and far more damaging to one's ability to think of ways to recover from - for the given amount of pain and suffering a physical vs psychological injury causes.
Last, but certainly not least, people who make cruel "jokes" at others expense almost always would respond with aggressive anger at anyone who pulled the same "joke" or other kind of "humor" on them. In effect, they're trying to have it both ways - claim the butt of their "humor" is just being weak and oversensitive yet would never tolerate anything generally considered by society to be equally "humorous" being aimed at them.
No, those "humor" arguments are just shields to deflect accountability from themselves. That is why political correctness is needed. To repeat what I said above, some people have a difficult time distinguishing between legitimate humor and cruelty and degradation.
If someone breaks into your house to play a prank on you, it doesn't make sense to shoot them, unless it's because you think they might be an armed burglar. If the prank is even the slightest bit funny, you should never shoot to kill. Avoid vital organs. Depending on how funny the prank is, if you absolutely insist on shooting the person, maybe you should shoot them in the funny bone.
I don't like pranks because I don't think anyone should ever give anyone an excuse to shoot them. The kind of humor I like is for example when someone is following the instructions for a gadget to iron a shirt without an ironing board. The instructions say to pull the shirt tight on the hanger, then use the gadget on it, which steams it while it's tight on the hanger. But if the shirt comes off the hanger when they try to pull it tight, then you can make a joke about it. They didn't pull it tight, they pulled it loose. Or a joke about people who hate snow so much they want to see its downfall. No shooting is needed when you have that kind of punishment.
I think it's funny. I sure some on the forum will be offended.
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