Is That Funny?
Mood:  cheeky

Is That Funny?

When one considers why comedy is funny, it is a very open question, but one that can be quickly narrowed down. One might ask; Who is the audience, who is the comedian, and what is the subject matter. One common element can be derived from all these questions—Where is the stereotype? A better way to word that question to encompass all the above three questions would be; how does the teller/writer stereotype his audience’s mind set, how is the comedian’s personality stereotyped by both his fans and his critics, and of the punch line and subject of the joke, are there any qualities that are stereotypical.

A writer or teller of the joke needs to know his target audience, as in any form of successful writing. The above sentence could be reduced to the comedian must stereotype his audience correctly to make them laugh. You can rephrase most jokes to make it appeal to a different crowd. A joke that would have to be reworded slightly to appeal to the stereotypical “jock” as well as the stereo typical “computer nerd” about a “jock” being a “hacker” may be viewed as follows; the “nerds” would be expected to find the humor that a “jock” would have the intelligence to be a “hacker” whereas the “jocks” would find it funny that a football player would waste the time trying to be a “hacker”. Some jokes, such as toilet humor, no matter how the wording was changed, would not be openly accepted in some circles, such as church.

The comedians’ personality and telling style becomes instrumental in the telling of the joke. You would not expect Sam Kennison, Richard Pryor, Rodney Dangerfield, and Andrew Dice Clay, just to name a few, to tell the joke “why did the chicken cross the road?” the same. Whether it would be adding colorful cuss-words, yelling, or talking about respect, the comedians’ style will modify the joke so that you get a new twist on an old joke and the twist should be along the comedian’s personality stereotype.

The largest category of stereotyping in jokes, is the subject and its punch line. Many words have a stereotyped meaning, and this can be seen in the recent school lawsuit where the word “dynamic” in a job advertisement for a teacher was considered by a woman’s group to imply a male or masculine role. These same styles are used in comedy. Objects are also targeted with stereotyping, such is the case with computers and errors/problems when any knowledgeable computer user knows 98% of computer problems stem from programming errors or user errors. Actions, habits, and idiocycrancies are also stereotyped, and this list can be extensively long, a short example list of typically widely accepted stereotypes are; wearing glasses signifies wisdom, high school drop outs are stupid/losers, men are meaner, women are more erratic, and rednecks are poor/ignorant. Animals also are stereo typed, for example; owls are wise, cats are lazy, dogs are loyal, and pigs are sloppy. A prominent figure is also a joke’s stereo typing target, another short list of the thousands of examples are; Bill Clinton a liar, Hillary Clinton an inside trader/crook, Newt Gingrick a political overlord, and Rush Limbaugh a right-wing extremist. Jobs are another topic of comedic stereo typing, and a short list of these would include; lawyers are greedy, farmers are poor/honest, politicians are crooked, TV and sports stars are rich, and military people are anal retentive. The stereotypes we attach to things, people, and actions are far more extensive than this list and the scope of this thought stream, but with the above suggestions you can quickly elaborate more for your self.

Any thing can be stereotyped, in the general sense, but most people simply don’t use the word stereotyping for it because stereotype itself has a negative stereotype. When thinking of any thing we have key words that help us remember them, and in a sense these are stereotypes—Any generalization about something is a type of stereotype and playing with these in one way or another is how our comedy is made and how it entertains us.