Humour lies in the heart of the recipient

Like beauty being in the eyes of the beholder, humour is in the recipient of the joke. It is said that the world is made up of a percentage of funny people and another of people who are just objects of humour. This explains why some people can never make a funny joke but what they do and what they are causes laughter. Some people are born humorous while others cannot tell a joke to save their lives. Humour is a complex phenomenon. There is no general definition of what it constitutes. What one finds hilarious, another might find boring. Humour is definitely a question of subject. When someone shares a joke, we all think that they must have a sense of humour. But when one doesn’t get the joke they are deemed ‘humourless’. President Barrack Obama knows this only too well after his appearance on NBC’s “The Tonight Show.” During the interview, Obama told host Jay Leno he’s been practicing bowling but wasn’t happy with his score of 129. The host complimented Obama on the score, Obama then said, “It was like the Special Olympics or something,” which prompted laughter from the audience at the time. This however did not go well with many viewers who felt that he had disrespected people living with disabilities who participate in the Special Olympics. His joke was considered inconsiderate and lacking in good humour. Sometimes what we term as ‘humour’ offends our audience because they might not be able to find humour in the same thing we do. Hence for us to be considered humorous we then have to make sure that we don’t offend those we want to share our jokes with. Humour is also a question of context some people find obscene, explicit jokes worth of laughter others just get offended. Knowing your audience makes one a great comedian. The greatest humour is one that is shared among those present. Sometimes someone hurting themselves can be funny but only if the victim takes it to be so. It is said that humour is an art itself, and is not just constituted of joke. There are good joke tellers and bad joke tellers. It is all in the way things are said and the circumstances under which they are told. Developing humour is generally having something funny to say about the topic or individual under discussion. Humour is a result of creativity and great imagination. Any situation given the right elements for humour can make us laugh. Some people seem to be lacking in this arena although some posses humour only once in a while. Some people get paid for it others just pay for it but humour is definitely something we all need once in a while. Email pgathoni@gmail.com

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Humour lies in the heart of the recipient