Jokes from strangers aren't funny

Ciaran187 · 03-02-2010 06:19PM #1

Anyone else noticed this? If you're with a group of people who don't know each other (smoking area for example) and someone tells a joke, people don't seem to find it funny.

Was out for a smoke the other day, the above happened and there were some "I'm just being polite" chuckles. I personally thought the joke was rather funny (not funny enough to remember right now though!), but everyone else there just wanted to get away from the guy as quick as they could.

Are we programmed to not find strangers funny? If you're on the bus / train home and someone beside you tells you a joke, you're going to make an awkward laugh-type noise and then try to read a book / do something to avoid any further interaction with said stranger. Why?

MagicMarker · 03-02-2010 06:22PM

How do you annoy an archeologist?

Give him a used tampon and ask him which period it came from.

ejmaztec · 03-02-2010 06:23PM

Ciaran187 wrote: »

Anyone else noticed this? If you're with a group of people who don't know each other (smoking area for example) and someone tells a joke, people don't seem to find it funny.

Was out for a smoke the other day, the above happened and there were some "I'm just being polite" chuckles. I personally thought the joke was rather funny (not funny enough to remember right now though!), but everyone else there just wanted to get away from the guy as quick as they could.

Are we programmed to not find strangers funny? If you're on the bus / train home and someone beside you tells you a joke, you're going to make an awkward laugh-type noise and then try to read a book / do something to avoid any further interaction with said stranger. Why?

Was the stranger called Tommy Tiernan?

Kiera · 03-02-2010 06:24PM

I dont agree with this at all. I've met loads of funny people when out.

phasers · 03-02-2010 06:25PM

MagicMarker wrote: »

How do you annoy an archeologist?

Give him a used tampon and ask him which period it came from.

eewww :mad:

genericguy · 03-02-2010 06:25PM

ejmaztec wrote: »

Was the stranger called Tommy Tiernan?

"and the child with down's syndrome looked different to other children, hahahahahahah"

"they're not laughing, i better shout louder"

awful cnut that fella.

Ciaran187 · 03-02-2010 06:27PM

Kiera wrote: »

I dont agree with this at all. I've met loads of funny people when out.

On a night out that's fine, you're expecting to meet different people, plus the alco-mo-hol makes you more relaxed etc.

But in daily life situations, work, shopping, bus etc. Can you honestly say you wouldn't feel the least bit awkward if you were sitting on the bus or at a bus stop on your way to work and some guy you've never met before comes over and tells you a joke?

jd007 · 03-02-2010 06:28PM

Maybe the joke was just shit.

AnonoBoy · 03-02-2010 06:30PM

Most people who insist on going "here I've got a joke for you, you'll like this...." to people they've just met are the type of people who tell unfunny jokes normally.

I've found plenty of strangers funny but more in a general banter kinda way because they weren't annoying pr*cks who were trying desperately to be comedians and making everyone shut up so they could tell their hilarious jokes that their borderline racist uncle texted to them earlier that day.

genericguy · 03-02-2010 06:31PM

Ciaran187 wrote: »

On a night out that's fine, you're expecting to meet different people, plus the alco-mo-hol makes you more relaxed etc.

But in daily life situations, work, shopping, bus etc. Can you honestly say you wouldn't feel the least bit awkward if you were sitting on the bus or at a bus stop on your way to work and some guy you've never met before comes over and tells you a joke?

i would love that to happen to me. i just seem to be a magnet for gobshytes though. it's just that irish clique-ish mentality that makes many people assume that all strangers are hostile until proven otherwise.

i find people from the countryside are much worse than city people in this regard, and that donegal in particular is full of "you're man's not from around here hi" arseholes.

arybvtcw0eolkf · 03-02-2010 06:41PM

and some don't.

Or as is said "some people say tell funny stories and others tell stories funny".

stevoslice · 03-02-2010 06:44PM

How do you kill a circus?

Go for the juggler.

magma69 · 03-02-2010 06:45PM

MagicMarker wrote: »

How do you annoy an archeologist?

Give him a used tampon and ask him which period it came from.

I once asked an archeologist how the Red Sea was formed.
"Over a long period", he told me.

ejmaztec · 03-02-2010 06:45PM

genericguy wrote: »

i would love that to happen to me. i just seem to be a magnet for gobshytes though. it's just that irish clique-ish mentality that makes many people assume that all strangers are hostile until proven otherwise.

i find people from the countryside are much worse than city people in this regard, and that donegal in particular is full of "you're man's not from around here hi" arseholes.

That calls for a revenge joke e.g. How do you confuse a Donegal man? Stand him in a barrel and tell him to piss in the corner.

That'll teach em.

Prof.Badass · 03-02-2010 06:55PM

Whether or not you laugh at a joke depends a lot on what you think of the person saying it.

In college (when i used to be part of a big class) some male lecturers could randomly throw in a really tame and unoriginal reference to sex and there'd be an eruption of laughter in the room. The weird thing I noticed was that this laughter was always mostly female

.

MaybeLogic · 03-02-2010 06:57PM

My father, an amateur comedian, would tell me jokes and have me in convulsions of laughter and then I'd try the same jokes on my mates and get blank stares.

I decided not to choose comedy as a career.

we'llallhavetea_old · 03-02-2010 07:01PM

i disagree, if someone tells me a funny joke, i'm gonna laugh. simple/

Atavan-Halen · 03-02-2010 07:01PM

What did the traffic light say to the car?

Don't look, I'm changing!

To answer the question though, I tend to just laugh out of politeness, don't know why.

Tommy_NDX · 03-02-2010 07:03PM

Delivery man droppin stuff off where i work a few months ago, calls me over takes out his phone "here listen to this. What do you call a group of nuns in a field full of dildos??..............Sqautters"

MaybeLogic · 03-02-2010 07:05PM

It's all in the maths, apparently.

weldoninhio · 03-02-2010 07:42PM

Ciaran187 wrote: »

On a night out that's fine, you're expecting to meet different people, plus the alco-mo-hol makes you more relaxed etc.

But in daily life situations, work, shopping, bus etc. Can you honestly say you wouldn't feel the least bit awkward if you were sitting on the bus or at a bus stop on your way to work and some guy you've never met before comes over and tells you a joke?

If someone i've never met came up to me at a bus stop/on a bus and started talking to me i'd aske straight out "Why are you talking to me, I don't know you" Then i'd turn my ipod up.

Son Of A Vidic · 03-02-2010 07:47PM

Kiera wrote: »

I dont agree with this at all. I've met loads of funny people when out.

But were they laughing with you?, or at you?

AnonoBoy · 03-02-2010 07:54PM

weldoninhio wrote: »

If someone i've never met came up to me at a bus stop/on a bus and started talking to me i'd aske straight out "Why are you talking to me, I don't know you" Then i'd turn my ipod up.

.....and then they'd rob your iPod.

efb · 03-02-2010 07:58PM

Speaking of maths...
What does a maths teacher do when he's constipated?
- work it out with a pencil

Ciaran187 · 03-02-2010 08:55PM

Ok, spoke to a few people about this since first posting. People are generally saying that they wouldn't really be listening to the guy, they'd be thinking hard about who he is, do I know him, why is he talking to me, do one of the others know him, is he telling a joke, oh god - he's telling a joke and I wasn't listening, I'll just laugh when everyone else does!

Then they'd leave as quickly as they could and brand the guy a weirdo.

Social experiment - strike up a conversation with a stranger and post your results here! Not when you're in a pub etc, but just randomly in a shop or on the bus / train. See if you can get a proper conversation out of them. If nothing else, it'll pass the time on the way home / to work tomorrow & if you seem like a weirdo, you'll never see that person again & probably have an empty seat beside you for the rest of the trip giving you plenty of room to spread out!
Any takers?

Riddle101 · 03-02-2010 09:13PM

It depends on the person telling the joke, rather someone just telling a joke. For instant, a guy who is naturally funny could tell a joke and he'd have everyone around him in stiches, but if another guy who wasn't as funny told the same joke he'd get blank stares and polite laughes. It all goes down to personality. I'm not a funny person so I refrain from telling jokes, I just stick to my Dr Cox(from Scrubs) attitude.

Ciaran187 · 03-02-2010 09:19PM

Riddle101 wrote: »

It depends on the person telling the joke, rather someone just telling a joke. For instant, a guy who is naturally funny could tell a joke and he'd have everyone around him in stiches, but if another guy who wasn't as funny told the same joke he'd get blank stares and polite laughes. It all goes down to personality. I'm not a funny person so I refrain from telling jokes, I just stick to my Dr Cox(from Scrubs) attitude.

Buzz Killington?

By the way - how do you add pics in AH? Can you?

Wazdakka · 03-02-2010 09:22PM

People I don't know are always laughing at me..

Wait..
awww

biko · 03-02-2010 09:28PM

"And her husband was one of those blokes - the sort that only laughs at his own jokes"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4v8VJ0LRgA

sorrywhat · 03-02-2010 09:42PM

But if someone says something funny you will laugh. Regardless of whether you know them or not. I laugh at stuff on here all the time and I haven't a clue who any of ye are.

I even thank ye for saying funny sh!t.

CrazyRabbit · 03-02-2010 09:48PM

MaybeLogic wrote: »

My father, an amateur comedian, would tell me jokes and have me in convulsions of laughter and then I'd try the same jokes on my mates and get blank stares.
I decided not to choose comedy as a career.

Maybe it's logical to find your parents funnier?

Jokes from strangers aren't funny

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