A guide to making obvious jokes
Jan. 21st, 2010 06:07 pmSuppose someone is carrying a large and incongruous object. Or has something strange painted on their face. Or their full name is "William Shakespeare". Or they have a new haircut. You instantly think of an obvious reaction, something like "Ha! Won the 100L koala cuddly toy lottery, eh" or "Hi! I'm Anne H." or "Oh-ho! You've got yourself a new haircut, eh? Eh?"
I've probably been more often the person trying to bite their tongue than the one being annoyed. But I was brainstorming some obvious guidelines for this common and slightly awkward situation.
1. Normally try not to comment. For the first twenty minutes, they're very conscious of their appearence, and if you're their spouse or best friend, you're probably the first to see it. Otherwise, they've probably heard the most obvious comment to make, and something that's witty once often turns out to be the same thing everyone else says.
2. If you do feel the need to comment, say what it is you're commenting on. If they've been carrying this ginormous stuffed toy over their head all day, they've normally forgotten about it, and will misinterpret whatever you say, and it will horribly fizzle.
3. Conversely, if you get stuck half-way between saying something and not, just say it. Try something mildly positive and neutral like "Oh, cool, you got your hair cut. Do you like it?" That's just like starting a conversation with "how have you been keeping" or "what do you do" -- not original, but a polite, straight-forward and useful way of entering a conversation, and it doesn't waste any time, because if they're bored, they can give a brief aknowledgement "Yeah, thanks. Did you hear, pineapples don't grow on trees?" and if they're not they can say "Wow, yes, it's lovely, I thought no-one was going to notice!"
4. If it's obvious, saying "I bet everyone says X" is normally no better. Not even "I bet everyone says 'I bet everyone says X'"
5. Conversely, some of the time people _do_ have a good sense of when a comment actually adds something, and isn't just fulfilling the "predicatable humour" phase of the conversation. If you, really, really want to say something, stifling yourself is bad. So about one time in ten, blurt something out. Or, if necessary, wait and tell someone by email later. If it still seems funny, it's worth saying, and if not, it would have been out of place to start with.
I've probably been more often the person trying to bite their tongue than the one being annoyed. But I was brainstorming some obvious guidelines for this common and slightly awkward situation.
1. Normally try not to comment. For the first twenty minutes, they're very conscious of their appearence, and if you're their spouse or best friend, you're probably the first to see it. Otherwise, they've probably heard the most obvious comment to make, and something that's witty once often turns out to be the same thing everyone else says.
2. If you do feel the need to comment, say what it is you're commenting on. If they've been carrying this ginormous stuffed toy over their head all day, they've normally forgotten about it, and will misinterpret whatever you say, and it will horribly fizzle.
3. Conversely, if you get stuck half-way between saying something and not, just say it. Try something mildly positive and neutral like "Oh, cool, you got your hair cut. Do you like it?" That's just like starting a conversation with "how have you been keeping" or "what do you do" -- not original, but a polite, straight-forward and useful way of entering a conversation, and it doesn't waste any time, because if they're bored, they can give a brief aknowledgement "Yeah, thanks. Did you hear, pineapples don't grow on trees?" and if they're not they can say "Wow, yes, it's lovely, I thought no-one was going to notice!"
4. If it's obvious, saying "I bet everyone says X" is normally no better. Not even "I bet everyone says 'I bet everyone says X'"
5. Conversely, some of the time people _do_ have a good sense of when a comment actually adds something, and isn't just fulfilling the "predicatable humour" phase of the conversation. If you, really, really want to say something, stifling yourself is bad. So about one time in ten, blurt something out. Or, if necessary, wait and tell someone by email later. If it still seems funny, it's worth saying, and if not, it would have been out of place to start with.