BS: What's funny?

Subject: RE: BS: What's funny?
From: GUEST,lox
Date: 18 Dec 06 - 05:14 PM

I've sat down with people from other countries with whom I've shared not one word in common. People from China, India, Lithuania, Ghana, Mexico to name but a few and made connections with those people during which time we have been creased up with laughter based on mutual understanding of things where we knew of each other that we both "got it".

Likewise, I have tried to explain to people who have the same first language as me, and who are equally as proficient in it as I am, why I find something funny and the understandng has simply not been there.

Humour transcends every rule, and it breaks down every barrier - eventually - well ... nearly every barrier then ...

It builds trust, it calms down arguments, it starts friendships, and it makes sorrow and hardship easier to bear.

So go stick your head in a pig!

Subject: RE: BS: What's funny?
From: Lox
Date: 18 Dec 06 - 05:36 PM

Oh yeah, and it also makes people paranoid, starts fights, and cn turn a bad time into a complete nightmare.

And if you disagree I'll irrigate your colon.   ~:~

Subject: RE: BS: What's funny?
From: autolycus
Date: 18 Dec 06 - 05:55 PM

Also, I got into Mudcat in the first place because of
a thread about the 3 minute egg. I nearly hur myself
laughing reading that thread, one of the funniest things
I've read in years. So many thanks again to its contributors.






       Ivor

Subject: RE: BS: What's funny?
From: GUEST,lox
Date: 18 Dec 06 - 06:39 PM

humerus or not?

A bone of contention!

Subject: RE: BS: What's funny?
From: JennieG
Date: 18 Dec 06 - 06:59 PM

A sense of humour can be a very odd thing; some folks got it, some don't. I'm sure some people have had theirs surgically removed, or perhaps it was never given to them in the first place.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: BS: What's funny?
From: Lox
Date: 18 Dec 06 - 07:05 PM

Depends on the radius

Subject: RE: BS: What's funny?
From: Lox
Date: 18 Dec 06 - 07:05 PM

Ach! I'm only ribbing you ...

Subject: RE: BS: What's funny?
From: Lox
Date: 18 Dec 06 - 07:06 PM

Who dares call me spineless!

Subject: RE: BS: What's funny?
From: Lox
Date: 18 Dec 06 - 07:06 PM

You're telling fibia's

Subject: RE: BS: What's funny?
From: Lox
Date: 18 Dec 06 - 07:07 PM

ouch ....









... my funny bone

Subject: RE: BS: What's funny?
From: Lox
Date: 18 Dec 06 - 07:33 PM

tee hee ...









... my funny boner ...


(I'll get my coat)

Subject: RE: BS: What's funny?
From: Bill D
Date: 18 Dec 06 - 09:31 PM

(it's about time!) ;>)

(What is NOT necessarily funny is every possible pun or play on words that can be wrenched out of a situation....it can be 'interesting' to see who can find the most twists, but 'funny' twists are harder to come by.)

Subject: RE: BS: What's funny?
From: bobad
Date: 18 Dec 06 - 09:38 PM

minds ignorant of stern miraculous
this every truth-beware of heartless them
(given the scalpel,they dissect a kiss;
or,sold the reason,they undream a dream)

ee cummings

Subject: RE: BS: What's funny?
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Dec 06 - 09:47 PM

Faced with putting on a happy face for the Olympics a goverment committee were told that clean streets ere not enough. It seems only 2% of of the average Chinese will smile or acknowledge a stranger in a friendly manner.
To remedy this, a group of 40 people went out to educate the people on the street of Beijing by smiling and hugging people in order to explain the need for a more friendly continence for the upcoming Olympics.
Within 20 minutes they were all arrested by the police.

Subject: RE: BS: What's funny?
From: bobad
Date: 18 Dec 06 - 09:50 PM

"Within 20 minutes they were all arrested by the police."

That would probably be the same reaction in New York City.

Subject: RE: BS: What's funny?
From: Big Mick
Date: 18 Dec 06 - 10:19 PM

Ever heard of Irish Alzheimers?

We forget everything but the grudges.

Now that is funny...........

Mick

Subject: RE: BS: What's funny?
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 18 Dec 06 - 11:37 PM

Years ago, I read an interview (I think it was with Benny Hill who was popular in Europe as well as Britain at the time) where he explained the difference between British humo(u)r and German humo(u)r.

'The British find it funny if a man dressed as a little old lady slips on a banana peel and falls down.
In Germany, it has to be a real little old lady!'

Seamus

Subject: RE: BS: What's funny?
From: Lox
Date: 19 Dec 06 - 09:21 AM

I'm a bit twisted that way   ='O

Subject: RE: BS: What's funny?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 19 Dec 06 - 10:20 AM

We say "That's funny, that's not funny" when what we really mean is "I find that funny, I don't find that funny".

Rather similar to the way we say "You are annoying me" when what we mean is "I am getting annoyed with you.".

Or to stretch it a little further: "Men at some time are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves.
........................
Try that smiling and hugging in London and you probably wouldn't be arrested, because there wouldn't be any police around to do it. But you'd probably get thumped, if you were a bloke anyway.

Subject: RE: BS: What's funny?
From: Lox
Date: 19 Dec 06 - 02:17 PM

Yeah - any lasses up for smiling and hugging passers by around where I live need have no concerns about eliciting animosity from me!








Nor lads    8^"

Subject: RE: BS: What's funny?
From: Wolfgang
Date: 19 Dec 06 - 02:41 PM

for McGrath:

The objective of this study was to estimate how much of an individual's appreciation of humour is influenced by genetic factors, the shared environment or the individual's unique environment. A population-based classical twin study of 127 pairs of female twins (71 monozygous (MZ) and 56 dizygous (DZ) pairs) aged 20-75 from the St Thomas' UK Adult Twin Registry elicited responses to five 'Far Side' Larson cartoons on a scale of 0-10. Within both MZ and DZ twin pairs, the tetrachoric correlations of responses to all five cartoons were significantly greater than zero. Furthermore, the correlations for MZ and DZ twins were of similar magnitude and in some cases the DZ correlation was greater than that of the MZ twins. This pattern of correlations suggests that shared environment rather then genetic effects contributes to cartoon appreciation. Multivariate model-fitting confirmed that these data were best explained by a model that allowed for the contribution of the shared environment and random environmental factors, but not genetic effects. However, there did not appear to be a general humour factor underlying responses to all five cartoons and no effect of age was seen. The shared environment, rather than genetic factors, explains the familial aggregation of humour appreciation as assessed by the specific 'off the wall' cognitive type of cartoons used in this study. (from: Twin Res. 2000 Mar;3(1):17-22.)

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: BS: What's funny?
From: Ebbie
Date: 19 Dec 06 - 03:14 PM

Speaking of genetics, my daughter's father tended to be poker faced (He's less so now, as he's gotten older). I laid it to the fact that his mother had died when he was three years old and he was reared by a series of relatives. I thought that he had developed a noncommittal expression in self defense.

However, by the time our daughter was four years old it alarmed me that her face resembled his inexpressiveness. She had not lived with her father since she was a baby- we had divorced early on- so she wasn't consciously copying him.

There was no way I wanted her to live with that face so I bought a bunch of small inexpensive toys I knew she'd like and then one by one I gave them to her, telling her things like: Now say, For me?! Thank you! How pretty!

You get the idea. I did this a couple of days in a row. She still remembers the drill.

I don't know if it is what did the trick but you couldn't find a more expressive, demonstrative person anywhere!