Posted on 07/19/2023 3:58:04 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A dark sense of humor doesn't make you a bad person—just a smart one
A man walks into a rooftop bar and takes a seat next to another guy. “What are you drinking?” he asks the guy.
“Magic beer,” the guy says.
“Oh, yeah? What’s so magical about it?”
Then the guy shows him: He swigs some beer, dives off the roof, flies around the building, then finally returns to his seat with a triumphant smile.
“Amazing!” the man says. “Lemme try some of that!” The man grabs the beer. He downs it, leaps off the roof—and plummets 15 stories to the ground.
The bartender shakes his head. “You know, you’re a real jerk when you’re drunk, Superman.”
Let’s ignore for a moment whether or not that poor rube survived his fall (if it makes you feel better, let’s say Trampoline Man was waiting for him on the ground). The real question is: Do you find dark jokes like this one funny? Sick? Maybe a little of both? Or do you prefer to stick to short jokes that are a little more wholesome?
What is a dark sense of humor?
If you laughed at that Superman joke, you definitely have a dark sense of humor. But what is dark humor, exactly? Psychologists have defined it as “humor that treats sinister subjects like death, disease, deformity, handicap or warfare with bitter amusement and presents such tragic, distressing or morbid topics in humorous terms.” If your reaction to those kinds of jokes is “that’s terrible, but I laughed,” then you enjoy dark humor. If you find yourself searching “dark humor meaning” to understand why people find the joke funny, or you react negatively to making light of difficult topics, then dark humor probably isn’t for you.
Does a dark sense of humor mean you’re smart?
According to a study published in the journal Cognitive Processing, your reaction to dark humor could indicate your intelligence. In the paper, a team of psychologists concludes that people who appreciate dark humor may have higher IQs, show lower aggression and resist negative feelings more effectively than people who turn up their noses at it. MOR To test this correlation between a dark sense of humor and intellect, researchers had 156 male and female participants read 12 bleak cartoons from The Black Book by German cartoonist Uli Stein. (One of them, which paraphrases a classic joke, shows a mortician reaching deep into a cadaver as a nurse muses, “The autopsy is finished; he is only looking for his wrist watch.”) Participants indicated whether they understood each joke and whether they found it funny, then took some basic IQ tests and answered questionnaires about their mood, aggressive tendencies and educational background.
What did the study on a dark sense of humor find? The results about a dark sense of humor were remarkably consistent: Participants who both comprehended and enjoyed the dark humor jokes showed higher IQs, and reported less aggressive tendencies, than those who did not. Incidentally, the participants who least liked the humor showed the highest levels of aggression and the worst moods of the bunch. The latter point makes sense when you consider the widely studied health benefits of laughter and smiling; if you aren’t able to greet negativity with playful optimism, of course you will feel worse.
But what about the link to intelligence? According to the researchers, processing dark humor jokes takes a bit more mental gymnastics than, say, processing a knock-knock joke—it’s “a complex information-processing task” that requires parsing multiple layers of meaning, while creating a bit of emotional distance from the content so that it registers as benign instead of hostile. That emotional maneuvering is what sets dark humor jokes apart from, say, puns, which literally pit your brain’s right and left hemispheres against each other as you process a single word’s multiple meanings but usually don’t force you out of your emotional comfort zone. Tina Fey sums up the difference pretty well: “If you want to make an audience laugh, you dress a man up like an old lady and push her down the stairs. If you want to make comedy writers laugh, you push an actual old lady down the stairs.”
The takeaway: Pretty much any joke that relies on wordplay will put your brain to work—dark humor jokes just require a bit more emotional control to earn a laugh. Give your brain a spin with these jokes proven to make anyone sound smart, or, if you do want to test your black humor cognizance, consider the following dark riddles from the Reader’s Digest comedy crypt to exercise your hardened funny bone.
“‘I’m sorry’ and ‘I apologize’ mean the same thing. Except at a funeral.” —Demetri Martin
Q: What has four legs and one arm? A: A happy pit bull.
“Cats have nine lives. Makes them ideal for experimentation.” —Jimmy Carr
Q: Why don’t cannibals eat clowns? A: Because they taste funny.
“I have a vest. If I had my arms cut off, it would be a jacket.” —Mitch Hedberg
Q: What did Kermit the frog say at Jim Henson’s funeral? A: Nothing.
“If at first you don’t succeed, then skydiving definitely isn’t for you.” —Steven Wright
Next, here are some jokes research proved to be funny.
Jimmy Carr must know Fauci.
It would have been incredibly funny back in the 70s. Now its so realistic that as I was pondering if humor was its true intent I clicked on another video. The commercial before the next video was one put out by Twin City Shriners. The kid in the commercial is in a wheel chair in one of those indoor courses for skateboarders doing tricks including somehow getting his chair to jump up and slide down a rail. Was that also humor or was that real?
It would at one time have been ridiculous and therefor funny but today “men” can “give birth” yet that is “NOT” absurd or humorous. Just as forty five or so years ago when Cleese said “You havent got a womb!” it was the height of comedy and today its hate speech.
We are at that that point in society where absurdity is cruelty just before the collapse and comedy re-zeros its foundation.
Hands down the funniest joke I’ve heard in years!
Tried telling wife and had a hell of a time getting tonto out!
That will go with me to my grave.
Cheers!
What did Jeffrey Dahmer say to Lorena Bobbitt?
“Are you going to eat that?”
There once was a lady from the Azores
who’s body was covered with syph sores
the dogs in the street
adored the green meat
that hung through the holes in her drawers.
Tell that one to people who are going to lunch.
What does Courtney Love and a pro hockey player have in common?
They both shower after 3 periods.
Celtic’s rallying cry that year...”Nobody gets Bias”
What did Helen Keller do when she fell in a well?
She screamed her hands off.
What did Helen Keller do when she fell down a mountain?
Nothing. She was wearing mittens.
Why does Helen Keller pleasure herself with one hand?
She uses the other hand to moan with.
How did Helen Keller burn her face?
Answering the iron.
How did she burn her face again?
They called back.
Why can’t Helen Keller have kids?
Because she’s dead.
That is a true dark joke
Pete
Joker: "How can you shoot women and children?"
Door Gunner: "Easy, you just don't lead them so much."
Disgusting and not even funny.
Gross humor is a different category imho
LOL - I’m betting everyone got above a 60% on the test. 😄
Dark to light is the direction our world is taking, not light to dark.
I would highly question the mental performance of anyone who celebrates darkness, starting with Brandon Specktor and his handlers.
Thank you. Don’t forget to tip your waitress.
Russell.
Why is Helen Keller’s pant legs yellow?
Because her dog is blind too.
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