How many jokes are there in the world

The Office relied on never-ending, cringe-worthy speeches courtesy of Michael Scott often including several jokes in one chunk of dialogue , followed by tell-all visual responses from other office members, and verbal summations in front of the documentary film crew. On the other end of the scale, shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm and Frasier keep the audience waiting for the joke that they know is coming.

Animated shows like Family Guy and South Park rely heavily on satirical jokes. South Park , especially, dedicates each episode to skewering at least one current topic, in such intelligent and inventive ways that the audience is more inclined to marvel at the satire rather than laugh out loud, which is why the joke count stays relatively low.

Pacing, then, is crucial to comedy and, more specifically, to the type of comedy and the kinds of jokes used. It appears that the traditional sitcom, though rebottled and sold hundreds of times since I Love Lucy , will continue to reign as most popular, and this probably has something to do with the measured pacing.

In terms of my experiment, the most popular shows are those where the jokes per minute sit somewhere around the middle. Similarly, skip to a decade ago, and Friends was the highest-rated show on TV for the season. Though new genres of comedy have appeared in the last 10 years, trends have clearly remained the same.

There have been a few clever comedies along the way to skew this trend and bring the laugh count down, treating viewers more like intelligent beings rather than half-concentrating, half-chowing-down-on-frozen-TV-meals creatures. Projecting confidence in this way leads to higher status provided the audience has no information that suggests a lack of competence. We also found that people who violate expectations and norms in a socially appropriate way are seen as more competent and more intelligent.

This finding confirms our feelings about funny conversationalists: We admire and respect their wit, which raises their prestige. But the violating nature of humor is also what makes it risky. Although tellers of inappropriate jokes are still seen as confident, the low competence signaled by unsuccessful attempts at humor can lead to a loss of status. Finding the balance between a benign violation and an extreme violation can be tricky—even professional comedians routinely face criticism for overstepping—and it takes skill to get it right.

When we converse with others, we need to balance multiple motives simultaneously. We may aim to exchange information clearly and accurately, make a positive impression on one another, navigate conflict, have fun, and so on. The degree to which each motive is viewed as normative and socially acceptable varies from setting to setting. A certain joke may work dazzlingly well with one group of people but completely flop with another—or even with the same group in a different context.

Inside jokes are extremely common—our data suggests that almost everyone has engaged in or witnessed one. But how does insider talk, especially inside jokes, affect the dynamics within a group? We asked people to engage in a brainstorming task on instant messenger.

Each participant was teamed up with two of our research assistants posing as fellow participants. Did it matter whether what they missed was funny? Participants were more likely to believe that their partners thought of themselves as superior in the inside-joke condition than in the inside-information condition, and they reported lower group identification and cohesion when the secret exchange involved a joke.

Although levity is typically thought of as a behavior that binds people together, it can draw fault lines in a group, making some people feel awkward and excluded. Inside jokes have their place, of course. They can signal closeness or camaraderie, making people feel pleased to be in the loop. But the research on this kind of humor is clear: When group cohesion is important, tell jokes that everyone can understand.

In their study, participants either made or received sarcastic comments or made or received sincere ones. Participants in the sarcasm condition were significantly more likely to solve a creativity task assigned later in the experiment than those in the sincere condition. In a subsequent study, participants were asked to merely recall a time when they either said or heard something sarcastic or a time they said or heard something sincere.

Once again, creativity on the subsequent task was higher in the sarcasm condition. Why does this happen? Sarcasm involves saying one thing and meaning the opposite, so using and interpreting it requires higher-level abstract thinking compared with straightforward statements , which boosts creativity. The downside is that sarcasm can produce higher levels of perceived conflict, particularly when trust is low between the expresser and the recipient.

During his presidential campaign, John F. Kennedy faced accusations that his wealthy father was attempting to buy the election. Self-deprecating humor can be an effective method of neutralizing negative information about oneself. Research by one of us Brad and Maurice Schweitzer found that individuals are seen as warmer and more competent when they disclose negative information about themselves using humor than when they disclose it in a serious manner. When they add humor to a disclosure, counterparts view the negative information as less true and less important.

There are limits to the benefits of self-deprecating humor, however. Among lower-status people it can backfire if the trait or skill in question is an essential area of competence. For instance, a statistician can more safely make self-deprecating jokes about her spelling than about her statistical skills. So when discussing core competences, another form of humor might serve the purpose better.

An exception worth mentioning is when being self-deprecating about a core competence is the only alternative to disclosing the information in a serious way. You should also avoid using humor to reveal your failures in situations where levity would be seen as inappropriate such as if you are testifying in court or when the failure is perceived as so serious that joking about it would be in poor taste. Nope, no weapons over there…maybe under here?

In the second of two debates during the U. At age 73, Reagan was already the oldest president in American history, and he was perceived as being fatigued during the first debate.

Mondale later said it was the moment he knew he had lost the election. It's like, 'See if you can blow this out. Death is No. Does that sound right? This means, to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you're better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.

I can't smell it, can't eat it, can't taste it. The end of the show they hold it up to the camera, 'Well, here it is. You can't have any. Thanks for watching. Thanks a lot. Do you really want music in the shower? I guess there's no better place to dance than a slick surface next to a glass door. Laurel and Hardy. They offered me half a million dollars plus funeral expenses.

After the show, all the Gentiles are saying, 'Have a drink. Want a drink? Let's have a drink! Want a piece of cake? Let's have some cake! If you don't like it, go in the other room. I think it's disrespectful and sort of has a bad connotation to it. So I was making love to this woman in the ass He said, 'I've hurt my arm in several places. One was drinking battery acid, the other was eating fireworks. They charged one and let the other one off. The doctor said, 'I haven't seen you in a long time.

I've been ill. I ordered everything in French, surprised everybody; it was a Chinese restaurant. I said to this Chinese waiter, 'Look, this chicken I got here is cold.

I said I said it twice, I said, 'He's got one leg shorter than the other. And he brought me this lobster. I said, 'Just a minute, he's only got one claw. Watching it unfold was like watching my father being molested by a clown. I knew it was going to affect me, I just wasn't entirely sure how.

Man City? We're off to Man United. And a bit later we're off to the MEN Arena. Both his arms were completely broken. Which is what gave me the courage to do it.

So I sent them a letter back. I said, "If you'll remember, I fastened my return with a paper clip, which according to your very own latest government pentagon spending figures will more than make up for the difference. All sorts of reasons. I shouldn't imagine that's official military advice.