I knew that bad jokes were a conversation killer, but I had no idea that they could be a conversationalist killer. A new study reported by the AP shows that making bad jokes in conversations can make people the focus of astounding amounts of hostility. A linguist sent her students out to tell a particular bad joke, and when the students got the joke into conversation:
“An astonishing 44 percent of the reactions were classified as ‘impolite,’ intended to deeply embarrass the joke teller. The toughest responses came from people who knew the joke teller well, she found.”
Yikes. Just imagine if they’d made a bad pun.
This research reminds me a of a chapter in The Marvelous Land of Oz. In the chapter, Old Mombi Engages in Witchcraft, The Woggle-Bug, Tin Woodsman, Scarecrow, Saw-Horse, Jack the Pumpkinhead, and Tip are traveling together. The Woggle-Bug, who is Highly Educated, starts making puns. After a brief conversation on the suitability of such things, the Woggle-Bug makes a very bad pun and is warned by the Tin Woodsman:
“‘We are not very particular,’ added the Tin Woodman; ‘and we are exceedingly kind hearted. But if your superior culture gets leaky again — ‘ He did not complete the sentence, but he twirled his gleaming axe so carelessly that the Woggle-Bug looked frightened, and shrank away to a safe distance.”
Make a bad pun, get threatened with an axe!
