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From: donn@hp-dcd.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.jokes.d
Subject: Jokes that hurt - (nf)
Message-ID: <2508@hp-pcd.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 22-Nov-83 03:57:35 EST
Article-I.D.: hp-pcd.2508
Posted: Tue Nov 22 03:57:35 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 25-Nov-83 09:25:58 EST
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#N:hp-dcd:26600001:000:914
hp-dcd!donn    Nov 13 10:59:00 1983

On potentially offensive jokes.

Puns don't generate the same kind of laughter that "ordinary" jokes do.
(Groans, snickers, etc., but not guffaws.)  Puns are not offensive
(in that sense). A good one line summary of the distinction.

	"We laugh because it hurts."
	   -- "Mike Smith"
	   -- Robert Heinlein in *Stranger in a Strange Land*.

"Hurt" is certainly what makes situation comedies (un)funny.  Possibly
a look at the "hurt" level, and who is hurt, will help people
understand when a joke is funny, and when it would appreciated.  A joke
ceases to be funny if the pain level is too high, or if you see the
pain as too high for someone else.  (You've all seen the reaction to a
joke that that is known to be potentially offensive to someone in the
audience who doesn't find it funny, and the relief when (s)he does find
it funny.)

If it (might) hurt too much, ROT13 it.

Donn Terry
...!hplabs!hp-dcd!!donn