A joke is a story that is told with the purpose of making a specific audience laugh. Typically, this is an anecdote, comment or play on words.
However, an image or sequence of images may be designed for the purpose of making people laugh, such as comic strips.
Apparently, the word comes from the verb “chistar”, which in turn comes from the interjection “chist”, which is used to attract attention when someone wants to be heard. Indeed, a joke requires the audience’s full attention so that they can follow the anecdote.
Jokes, like speeches full of humor, can use different resources, such as wordplay, irony, mockery, parody, etc. Depending on the resources and topics used, it responds to different typologies. Let’s see.
See also Humor.
Types of jokes
Psychology has extensively studied the phenomenon of jokes, since they constitute an important symbolic phenomenon of social representation.
Sigmund Freud, in fact, classified them into two large groups: innocent and tendentious jokes.
Innocent jokes would correspond to those whose sole purpose is to make people laugh.
The biased would correspond to those that contain a certain level of hostility, obscenity, aggression or eroticism.
Thus, innocent jokes are what are popularly known as white jokes. The rest can be considered biased jokes. Namely:
White jokes: They are those jokes that can be heard and understood by all types of audiences, whose sole purpose is to entertain and relax. They often use word games.
Black jokes: It refers to those anecdotes that deal with cruel topics such as death, illness, misfortune or discrimination.
Red, red or green jokes: They are those who have sex and eroticism as their main theme.
Double meaning jokes: These are anecdotes or stories that hide a second, non-apparent meaning, masked in ambivalent words. Most of the time, these types of jokes allude to some erotic element, but not necessarily.
Jokes about stereotypes: They are those that are based on gender (sexist jokes), race (racist jokes), origin (region or nationality) or occupations (jokes about lawyers or politicians). Stereotypes will depend on each culture.
Examples of Jokes
—Sorry, my cat hurt your dog.
—But my dog is a Pit Bull.
—Yes, and my jack is hydraulic.
What does a gardener say to another?
Let’s be happy while we can.
Where do superheroes hang their capes?
On his coat rack
Do you know what a compass is?
It’s the one that flies on the broomstick
See also Dark Humor.