We had a thread the other day started off about why people sometimes get hot under the collar when they don't think something is funny and someone else does.

Anyway it got deleted - I gather because some trolls moved in and started using it to post nasty stuff, and someone requested the whole thing be deleted.

However the thread as it was going set me thinking about a few things.

We talk about things being funny as if it was an objective condition. But then we find out different people have different ideas of what is funny and what is not funny.

However we aren't happy leaving it at that, because if other people are laughing and we don't think its funny joke we feel excluded and angry. Or maybe we feel embarrassed, and make as if we did share the same sense of humour. And when we want to attack someone, this issue of lack of humour (or, from the other side, of being flippant). is a killer accusation. It can turn an amiable discussion vicious, just likem that.

So, what's funny? And what isn't? And who decides?