Jokes can sometimes lead into a battle of wits. While normal jokes can be represented as a straight kick or punch, puns act as the roundhouse or the hooks or uppercuts. All can be block if they known or prepare. But there’s one genre of joke many dub as “distasteful”. Dark humour, a sucker punch, illegal moves to some. It is not the jokes themselves are funny it’s is the reactions of those in the receiving end which make the jokester burst with laughter. To some dark humour is like food, some don’t get it. -- Anon Guest
Laughter is universal. Comedy is not. -- A reminder on the Galactic Traveller's Essential Information FAQ.
There's a reason why slapstick is reserved for trained professionals. The root of this is in how vastly different varying cultures' ideas of physical comedy are. Slap a person with a fish, and an Englishman laughs. Collapse the bed under the amorous couple, and a Frenchman laughs. Blow up the outhouse, and an Australian laughs. That's just the Terrans.
Physical comedy has to be aimed.
Verbal comedy has its ups and downs, as some species are more literal than others, and a well-thought-out set-up joke requires way too much preparation to pull off in a pack-bonding situation. This leaves pranks, which are not appreciated in pack-bonding situations. By the time pranks become appropriate, the pack-bonding is mostly done.
Therefore, most introductory humour in a new pack-bonding environment, consists entirely of current events and memes based off of current events. This involves remarkably little research beyond a tour of social media, which both sides of the meet-and-greet appreciate. This, in turn, leads to some inexplicable conversations between new packmates.
It begins, of course, with an enquiry, to make certain all players are at the same level of understanding. For example, "Hey, you've heard about the Paerlwyg debacle, haven't you?"
The response, either positive or negative, is welcome, it gives the initiator a direction in which to steer the conversation. If positive, the initiator can go directly to the memes. If negative, then the resultant infodump can catch the other party up and stretch the initiator's mental memetic muscles in combination with their stand-up skills.
News sometimes travels at the speed of a punchline. Even the news that should cause tears of woe. The catastrophic collapse of a fascist plutocrat through inevitable self-sabotage is always good for a laugh. Not always that great for the people who suffered under their reign, but the power of schadenfreude is strong, even for the survivors.
Once the memes are established, the comedy follows on shared cultural ground.
But, if all else fails, most Humans are all right with being the joke. There's nothing like Human idiosyncrasies to cause mutual mirth in all concerned.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / Spanishalex]
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