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.
