Laugh at Bad Jokes, It’s Healthy

A good joke is a god send.  It can force someone out of a bad state of mind and make them laugh.  It disengages the seriousness of whatever the prevailing thought in their mind is.  Enough of it, it can even shift your brain chemistry.  It is for this reason comedy is a core aspect of the arts in many of the most historically significant cultures in the world. 

But what is the significance of a bad joke?  I think it dials down to two factors.  A good joke has more to do with the comedian.  A bad joke has more to do with the audience or the receiver.  You see, with a good joke, it is eliciting a response in the receiver that is involuntary.  In fact, the better the joke the less control the receiver has as how to react to it. 

But laughing at a bad joke is entirely in the hand of the receiver.  The reaction actually reflects on who the receiver is.  Tell me, have you ever heard a bad joke and laughed out of politeness or just because of how stupid it was?  How about laughing because it was cheesy?  In my opinion, these are signs of a healthy individual. 

I think most people would argue that laughing at a bad joke is arbitrary and unrelated to ones mental health but I premise this theory with a question.  Someone tells a bad joke, one person laughs cause it’s cheesy.  But you think it’s beneath you.  It was a stupid joke, and the person who said it was stupid.  Cool Cool.  So here’s my question?  Why does someone else have to work so hard for you to be happy?

Yeah sure, a good joke will land and make you laugh.  But that’s not by your choice.  What is by your choice is how you react to a bad joke.  You think the joke is beneath you and that you are better than laughing at that drivel.  But if you are above this, then why are you the only miserable fuck in the room?

The ability to laugh at a bad joke is indicative of the ability to shift your mood into a positive one.  In other words, being able to laugh at bad jokes is a sign of a healthy mind.  A mind that when given the choice between negatively reacting and positively reacting, will chose to be positive.  The joke doesn’t matter.  Laughing or not laughing has no meaning or purpose that would shift your life favorably in the immediate future.  So when a healthy brain chooses to laugh, it says, “yeah it’s stupid, but I could sit here in a negative mood.  Or be in a positive mood.  So why not enjoy myself.” The best part, a bad joke is a poor external stimuli.  So the ability to laugh at it indicates that your brain can manifest positive emotion by internal means.  That’s an infinite energy source. 

There will always be a place for good jokes and bad jokes.  But if we were to wish to learn about ourselves, it is in bad jokes that we could discover who we are.  Choose to laugh or not.  You are the only one who benefits or loses.

All the best,

Andreas

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