01-22-2019, 12:00 AM
Thinking in jokes. Hmm. Thinking *of* jokes involves looking at the current situation and being struck by an inspiration that reverses it. (Sometimes the inspiration comes first, and you have to hunt around for a situation where it would be funny, or edit reality to fit.) This can be darned useful if you do it all the time: when things are going well, or seem to be, think of how the tables could be turned. This can lead to sound investments, good passwords, and so forth, but also paranoia. After all, in a universe of surprises they *are* all out to get you.
To me, it also seems that the best jokes (maybe all of them that are actually funny, if "actually" has any constant value) have a moral component. The cop reveals that it's *his* car he just stopped, dashing the car thief's hope of escape. The cop explains that he didn't know the guy he stopped was an a$$hole until he opened his mouth. The guy who ties a lit stick of dynamite to a coyote... which promptly runs under his new pickup truck and hides. Theft, bad manners, cruelty get their just reward.
So thinking in jokes can be aggressive (I'm smarter than you, I know the punchline) but also prophylactic (knowing the patterns, I avoid actions and situations that make me the butt of a joke). On the moral side, this means I avoid being the villain and try to act, if necessary, like the guy who turns the tables. Telling jokes on yourself is also a fine thing: it shows humility... and if you can fake that, you've got something to be proud of!
To me, it also seems that the best jokes (maybe all of them that are actually funny, if "actually" has any constant value) have a moral component. The cop reveals that it's *his* car he just stopped, dashing the car thief's hope of escape. The cop explains that he didn't know the guy he stopped was an a$$hole until he opened his mouth. The guy who ties a lit stick of dynamite to a coyote... which promptly runs under his new pickup truck and hides. Theft, bad manners, cruelty get their just reward.
So thinking in jokes can be aggressive (I'm smarter than you, I know the punchline) but also prophylactic (knowing the patterns, I avoid actions and situations that make me the butt of a joke). On the moral side, this means I avoid being the villain and try to act, if necessary, like the guy who turns the tables. Telling jokes on yourself is also a fine thing: it shows humility... and if you can fake that, you've got something to be proud of!
Non-practicing atheist