It all depends on how you take it—there’s dark humor and light humor. You can choose to laugh at a joke or not. Personally, I love bad jokes. The best part is telling them and watching people not laugh. Honestly, it’s more of a joke for me than for anyone else.
In Spanish, for example, there are jokes that follow a specific structure—usually a short conversation between a son and his mom. Like this:
Son: Mom, Mom, at school they call me shampoo.
Mom: Don’t worry, Johnson & Johnson... no more tears.
(Yeah, jokes lose their punch when explained, but just to spoon-feed it: the punchline is that his name is Johnson & Johnson, which is a shampoo brand.)
I love ruining jokes by explaining them in long, unnecessary ways—that’s the REAL joke.
Here’s one of My favorites:
Son: Mom, Mom, at school they call me the juggler.
Mom: Why is that, son?
Son: Well, one time I was juggling really well and my friends were impressed, so they nicknamed me "The Juggler."
Mom: Oh wow! I didn’t know you could juggle. Where’d you learn?
Son: On YouTube. I can teach you sometime.
Mom: I’d love that. Thanks, son.
Son: Love you, Mom.
Mom: Love you too, son.
By the halfway point, people slowly stop smiling. That’s when I start laughing—because that’s the joke. There is no punchline. And it works every time.
When people get offended, that’s the worst—because they ruin the fun for the whole room. It all depends on the opinion of the majority. That’s why some comedians “bomb” and others are loved. It always comes back to how people feel about these kinds of things.
Also, if someone doesn’t like the person telling the joke, they might not laugh, even if it’s genuinely funny. Or they might laugh at a boss’s terrible joke just to avoid seeming rude—or getting on their bad side.
The world would be a much better place if people could be honest and blunt without hurting each other’s feelings or offending anyone. And this doesn’t just apply to comedy—it applies to everything. Some people are easier to manipulate than others. Some are more gullible. That’s just human nature.
There’s a movie called The Invention of Lying that made me think about all this. In that world, no one had ever lied. People believed everything they were told because lying didn’t exist—they didn’t even have a word for it. They just called it “saying something that isn’t.” The main actor is Ricky Gervais. He’s not my favorite, but he’s a pretty funny comedian. I don’t agree with everything he says—and that’s exactly the point.
No two people will agree 100% on anything. You might think someone is the perfect friend or partner because you have so much in common, but it’s never exactly 100%, and people don’t always realize that.
Language has shifted so much over time that now you have to say things like “literally” or “no cap” to convince people something is completely true. Humans want things to be 100% one way because it’s easier. It’s easier to file a thought away like, this person likes red.
So if I say my favorite color is red, people remember it. Every time a birthday comes around, they’ll say, “I got you this—it’s red, so I thought of you.” And that’s fine. But imagine someone decorating their whole house in red because of that. Red walls. Red mugs. Red plates. Red silverware. Red everywhere. It can get overwhelming.
People prefer to have a sense of closure and certainty—just because it’s simpler.
But life isn’t simple. Neither are people. And that’s what makes it all so funny.