That's Insulting!

As I have explored in earlier posts, corny jokes tend to be overly sentimental in nature, and in fact an element of sentimentality is often what marks a joke as corny. By this, I mean that corny jokes work by evoking a predictable emotional response with a clichéd prompt. Moreover, corny jokes are generally less offensive in nature than most jokes that people would consider to be truly funny. Often, the “worst” or corniest jokes do not have any identifiable butt of the joke for the laughter to be directed at, and this is what makes people consider them to be bad jokes. Consider the following two jokes:

What do cows do for entertainment?

--They rent moovies !

Why are pirates terrible at the alphabet?

--They always get lost at sea/C!

            In each of these corny jokes, the butt of the joke is not easily determined. They do not belittle any specific person or group and do not appear to derive their humor from making any derogatory stereotypes. On the other hand, many jokes that people generally do not classify as funny fall into the categories such as racial or political jokes. These types of jokes generally work by making a demeaning statement about another person or group of people, and the listener finds this statement funny in some way. Perhaps the fact that these two jokes do not say anything demeaning about cows or pirates is what makes them less funny than a joke that aims at insulting something.

            So what does it say about our senses of humor if we classify those jokes that do not belittle someone or something as corny? Perhaps this can be explained by the fact that we need to direct our laughter at something, and corny jokes do not provide this. I do not think that it is necessarily the insulting factor of racial or political jokes that makes them inherently better jokes than corny jokes, but rather the fact that they provide something for us to laugh at. This is a key element of laughter that corny jokes lack, and can explain why the lack of a “butt” of a joke dooms it to being labeled as corny. 

You'd Better Laugh!

People generally do not tell corny jokes to their friends at random times hoping for genuine laughter. Thinking about the occasions that are most prone to bad jokes brings to mind several awkward situations such as beginning a speech or meeting new people.  Why do these uncomfortable situations lead to unusually high levels of corny jokes? Think about telling a group of friends an extremely bad joke that they do not think is funny. Most likely, they will not feel obligated in any way to laugh, and will simply groan or openly express their dislike of the joke. However, in a setting where you tell a corny joke to a group of strangers, they most likely will laugh politely because not laughing would be rude and socially unacceptable. In awkward situations, laughter can help to relieve the tension, and telling a corny joke is often the best way to get a laugh out of people you do not know because they are socially obligated to laugh.

Last year, my dad was responsible for giving a speech at our synagogue that was intended to ask people to pledge money to the synagogue. It is an uncomfortable speech to give because it is not easy to get up in front of a group of people and ask them for money. I vividly remember watching him get up in front of everyone, and although everyone was expecting a serious speech about why it is important to be generous, the first thing my dad said was,

Yeshiva University decided to field a crew team. Unfortunately, they lost race after race. They practiced for hours every day, but never managed to come in any better than dead last.

The chief rabbi finally decided to send Yankel to spy on the Harvard team. So Yankel shlepped off to Cambridge and hid in the bushes off the Charles River, from where he carefully watched the Harvard team as they practiced.

Yankel finally returned to Yeshiva. "I have figured out their secret," he announced. "They have eight guys rowing and only one guy shouting."

Everyone in the room laughed. There was no uproarious laughter, but light chuckling filled the room and everyone settled in to listen to the speech. I am not exactly sure what relevance the joke had to the topic of the speech, other than the fact that the audience was Jewish, but it was a successful tactic for diffusing an awkward situation with laughter.

My dad had told me this same joke the night before without telling me that he was planning on using it in his speech, and I just groaned and told him that it was a pretty bad joke. I did not have any social pressure to laugh at my dad’s corny joke, and there was no tension to relieve, and as such my groan was the appropriate response. Yet in the synagogue, the fact that it was an awkward situation combined with the fact that it is polite to laugh at a stranger’s joke created a moment where the ability to draw laughter from a corny joke relieved tension.

A Little Pick-Me-Up

Is there an airport nearby or is that just my heart taking off?

Are you a parking ticket? Because you've got fine written all over you.

Do you have a raisin? How about a date?

          Trying to get a girl’s attention is awkward. But what better way is there to acknowledge that awkwardness than with a corny pick up line? The corniness in the above pick up lines is apparent. When I Googled pick up lines to use for this post, I did not come across a single one that I would not consider corny in some way. One line that I found, “Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?” seemed more sweet than corny at a first reading, yet I think even this pick up line could be considered corny. As I’ve stated earlier in this blog, sentimentality and triteness are key indicators of corniness, and this heaven pick up line has both elements. The fact that pick up lines are almost universally corny can also be seen in the way that the term “pick up line” has become almost synonymous with a “corny line”, and they are used more for humor than for actually attempting to pick someone up.

            The corny nature of pick up lines might have developed to relieve the awkwardness involved in striking up a conversation with someone new. By making light of the situation with a corny joke, the person using the corny pick up line attempts generate a laugh from the joke’s recipient in order to relieve the tension. Often a corny pick up line sends the message that the person using the line does not take himself or the line too seriously, making a potentially awkward situation feel more relaxed and humorous. Additionally, the lighthearted nature of these pick up lines implies that the person using the lines does not necessarily expect a serious answer. A laugh would be a perfectly acceptable response to these lines, which makes them good icebreakers instead of inquiries. The person using the line, “do you have a raisin? How about a date?” hopes to obtain a laugh and does not actually expect an answer to his question about a date.

            Of course, the corny nature of pick up lines makes anyone who uses them extremely vulnerable to rejection. The fact that these lines have been used countless times before takes the wit away from them and in most cases makes them entirely ineffective. So using corny pick up lines is a risk. On the one hand, they can relieve the tension by displaying a lighthearted attitude, but they can also indicate a lack of originality, ending the conversation before it even had a chance to begin.

Delivery!

Consider these two jokes:

                                            “What is brown and sticky? … A Stick!”

                “What is a ghost’s favorite fruit? … Boo-berries!”

These jokes are equally corny and rely on silly puns to make the listeners laugh. Yet, the logic behind these jokes is so basic that the jokes themselves cannot be wholly responsible for the laughter. Often what makes a corny joke funny is not the joke but how it is delivered and how the person telling the joke acknowledges the silliness of the joke. These two videos display very different, but I think equally effective ways of delivering corny jokes to maximize their humor.

I were to tell you the joke about the stick as if I thought that it was the most hysterical joke I have ever heard, much of the humor in the joke probably would have been lost. The delivery of the stick joke involved playing up the contrast between the silliness of the joke and the seriousness of the setting. The guy telling the stick joke used a very stern tone of voice, and the setting leads one to expect that he is going to say something intellectual and serious. The book and fireplace make the ridiculous punch line come as even more of a surprise because it goes against the listeners’ expectations of an intellectual comment. In this way, the delivery of the joke amplifies the surprise that the listener feels when hearing the punch line and elicits more laughter as a result.

In contrast, the person telling the ghost joke takes the opposite approach and plays up the ridiculousness of the joke by wearing a sheet over his head and using silly sound effects. These added elements to the delivery emphasize the fact that the joke-teller does not take the joke seriously, and this makes the listeners more receptive to the stupidity of the joke. Acknowledging the corniness of the joke is an effective way of eliminating the possibility of listeners feeling awkward because they find themselves questioning whether or not the joke was meant to be silly. By matching his delivery of the joke to its absurdity, the person delivering the joke makes his listeners feel more at ease.

            Consider this a warning. If you want to add these two jokes to your repertoire, definitely take into account the fundamental role that the delivery plays in how your listeners will receive them before attempting to stir up any hysterical reactions.

I'm Better Than That Joke!

For most people, referring to a joke as “corny” simply characterizes it as “bad” or “stupid”; however, the word corny has much deeper implications. We should look at the word more closely to better understand what laughing at a “corny” joke not only says about the joke, but also reveals about us.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines corny as “rustic or unsophisticated; hackneyed, trite; inferior”. While each of these definitions would make for an interesting analysis, I would like to draw your attention to the last definition.  The word “inferior” resounds with the idea that a “corny joke” is a “bad joke”, but the difference between “inferior” and “bad” highlights a key distinction in our analysis of corny jokes. While defining a joke as bad simply casts it in a negative light compared to other jokes, the term inferior suggests a feeling of superiority that the person hearing the joke feels while hearing a corny joke. Let me tell you a joke:

“How do you stop a rhinoceros from charging?”

“Take away his credit card!”

            Let’s pretend you laughed. It is possible that you are laughing at the extreme level of humor present in that joke, or even at my incredible wit, but most likely this is not the case. Few people would argue against the claim that this is indeed a corny joke, and therefore an “inferior” joke. In most cases, the reason a person tells a joke is because he or she finds it funny and assumes that the listeners will find the joke funny as well. By calling a joke corny, or “inferior”, the listeners indicate a feeling of superiority over the person telling the joke. They see themselves as being superior to the person telling the corny joke because their level of humor, intellect, or taste is at a higher level than the person who believes the joke to be funny. The listeners could also view themselves as superior to the joke itself, because they feel that the level of the joke is beneath them. Additionally, after hearing “how do you stop a rhinoceros from charging?” most people would not immediately think of “taking away his credit card” as a response, and would start thinking of more complex solutions to the problem. However, once the punch line has been stated, the obviousness of the answer might make a listener feel superior to their former self that was floundering for a solution to this now easily-answered question. 

            Each of these forms of superiority could explain the tendency to laugh at such corny jokes without drawing on any sort of humor within the joke itself. By suggesting that we understand the meaning of “corny” to be “inferior”, the Oxford English Dictionary has provided us with the possibility that we laugh at corny jokes not because of their inherent funniness, but because of a feeling of superiority over the joke, the person telling the joke, or our former selves.