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sfb comments on The Orange Head Joke - Less Wrong Discussion

18 Post author: Anatoly_Vorobey 25 January 2011 08:33PM

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Comment author: sfb 25 January 2011 09:40:45PM 1 point [-]

See also this bit relating to Christmas Cracker bad jokes:

He [Professor Richard Wiseman] thinks the key to the success of modern cracker jokes is precisely because they're not funny. 'If the joke is good and you tell it and it doesn't get a laugh, it's your problem. If the joke's bad and it doesn't get a laugh, then it's the joke's problem. My theory is that it's a way of not embarrassing people at Christmas.' So they're not jokes at all? 'In a sense, they're just a way of binding people together. Given the diversity around your average dinner table, it would be extraordinarily difficult to come up with a joke that everyone found funny. The kids won't get it, or someone will find it offensive. Even if you did, the delivery would be difficult. Women don't tell jokes to one another, so they're not used to doing it. Blokes do, but it's done in a particular context, not around the family table, and it's quite stressful to try and deliver a funny joke, so it would be a disaster.'

Comment author: Nisan 26 January 2011 03:48:46AM 2 points [-]

Is it really true that British women don't tell jokes?

Comment author: [deleted] 30 January 2011 10:54:52PM 3 points [-]

No. That seems to be more to do with Wiseman having sexist attitudes than anything else.

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