Study: Why Telling Bad Jokes is a Bad Idea     

Clara Moskowitz, Special to LiveScience,

LiveScience.com

Bad jokes really can cause social harm. New research

found that failed attempts at humor can provoke  surprisingly rude responses, with the harshest reactions

coming from friends and family.

To test the effect of off-pitch humor, Nancy Bell, an

applied linguist at Washington State University, used a

real doozy:

"What did the big chimney say to the little chimney? 

(Nothing. Chimneys can't talk.)"

"I found it on the internlauet by Googling 'bad jokes,'" Bell

told LiveScience. "We piloted this joke to make sure it

was really bad."

Bell and her assistants watched 186 people as they were

told this joke by strangers, friends or family. They found

that many people didn't hold back in expressing their

displeasure at the lame humor, responding with phrases

ranging from the mild, "That's not funny," all the way to

downright offensive and profane retorts. And the worst

offenders were close friends and relatives of the bad-joke

teller.

Twist the knife

Bell said she was surprised by the rudeness of

responses. "I thought, well, everybody's had the

experience of trying to be funny and having it not be

funny," she said. "I wouldn't expect that people would twist

the knife and make you feel even worse."

But that's exactly what many did.

People responded with insults, sarcasm, fake laughter 

and a host of other comebacks. These harsh responses

might stem from the fact that jokes are usually an

interruption to normal conversation, Bell said. When a

joke is actually funny, listeners don't mind the disruption

because there is a payoff: humor. Without the humor,

listeners may become annoyed at the lame crack.

Another reason listeners may get angry is that a bad joke

implies an insult to the audience's sense of humor, if the

joke-teller really thought the listener would appreciate the

bad joke.

"It's offensive to them," Bell said. "It means, you think I'm

an idiot, huh?"

Self-protection

As for why people save their worst bile for those they

really love - it may be to protect themselves from more

bad jokes. If someone you spend a lot of time with has a

penchant for annoying humor, it is in your own self-

interest to nip that in the bud so you don't have to be

subjected to more in the future, the thinking goes.

"You have a long term investment in that relationship, so

you want to shut that down," Bell said.

The new research confirms how complicated and subtle

the social sphere of humor is. For example, there may be

times when bad humor can actually serve a useful

purpose.

"Maybe telling a bad joke could present you as someone

who is approachable, not all high and mighty, or perhaps

show that you have confidence," Bell said.

These intriguing results are one reason why Bell thinks it's

important to study not just successful humor as a means

of communication, but also failed attempts.

"You can't have a complete theory of humor without

understanding how it fails also," she said. "The study of

humor in general was neglected for a long time - it wasn't

thought of as serious academic work. But it's another

important part of interaction."

Bell's research is set to be published in the Journal of

Pragmatics.

·           Video: Humor and the Sexes 

·           10 Things You Didn't Know About You 

·           Humor at the Office is Serious Business 

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090127/sc_livescience/studywhytellingbadjokesisabadidea;_ylt=AsAb89YSkbNyqH9IXXR7smIbr7sF