- Main characteristics of a joke
- Brevity
- Playful function
- Surprise effect
- Social character
- Joke examples
- References
The characteristics of a joke are brevity, playful function, surprise effect, few characters and social character. These distinguish it from other humorous subgenres, making it one of the most popular.
A joke is a short story or short story that uses various resources such as double meaning or burlesque allusions to provoke laughter.
The joke is part of the oral culture of societies. The permanence of jokes in time depends on their transmission from person to person and their ability to generate laughter.
In this case, it is not a hysterical laugh, but one that responds to what is humorous, funny, or comical.
Main characteristics of a joke
Humor is deeply rooted in the culture and idiosyncrasies of each town. Thus, what is perceived as funny for one society is not for another. Even the attitude towards one's own humor can vary.
A clear example of this is the different perspectives that Western and Eastern culture have on humor. The former take it as a natural feature of life and use it where and when possible. Orientals have a more restricted vision.
However, in terms of jokes, certain common features can be mentioned.
Brevity
One of the main characteristics of a joke is its brevity. A joke should be concise and straight to the point.
Whoever tells a joke has to provide only the data necessary for the audience to understand the situation.
This kind of humorous discourse must seek abstraction, condensation of details and the exclusion of accessory elements. In this way, the product is made accessible to the interlocutors.
Playful function
The jokes fulfill a playful function. This means that they do not have a utilitarian purpose, but are used to produce pleasure through the exercise of imagination and fantasy. For this reason, the narrative does not necessarily appeal to logic or coherence.
Surprise effect
The number of characters in a joke is usually very small. In many cases they are stereotyped characters: the fat man, the naive, the stingy.
Social character
Beyond its communicative function, a joke is a social act. The joke counter and an audience participate in this social event.
The first chooses the appropriate time, place and situation. The audience also participates, approving or disapproving of this interaction with their laughter.
Joke examples
In the following examples you can see some of the characteristics of a joke.
-Can a kangaroo jump higher than a house? Of course, a house does not jump at all.
-Doctor: "I'm sorry, but you are terminally ill and have only 10 to live."
Patient: «What do you mean by 10? 10 what… months… weeks? »
Doctor: "Nine."
-Antonio, do you think I'm a bad mother?
My name is Pablo.
-My dog used to chase people on bikes. Things got so bad that I finally had to take his bike away from him.
-You know what life is like. One door closes and another door opens…
Yeah, great, but either you fix it or you give me a nice discount on the car.
References
- Vigara Tauste, AM (1999) The thread of discourse: conversational analysis essays. Quito: Editorial Abya Yala.
- Várnagy, T. (2017). "Proletarians of all countries… Forgive us!": Or about the clandestine political humor in the Soviet-type regimes and the delegitimizing role of the joke in Central and Eastern Europe 1917-1991. Buenos Aires: EUDEBA.
- Tam, K. (2017). Political Jokes, Caricatures, and Satire in Wong Tze-wah's Stand up Comedy. In K. Tam and SR Wesoky (Editors), Not Just a Laughing Matter: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Political Humor in China. Pennsylvania: Springer.
- Álvarez, AI (2005). Speak Spanish. Oviedo: University of Oviedo.
- Yue, X., Jiang, F., Lu, S., and Hiranandani, N. (2016). To Be or Not To Be Humorous? Cross Cultural Perspectives on Humor. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1495.