The joke’s on us

That little detonation of breath begins a lifetime of laughter, more often than not triggered by personal or cultural tension.

Just as jokes are little exorcisms protecting us from things that embarrass. When collecting thousands of examples for  The Penguin Book of Australian Jokes  it became obvious that most were attempts to deal with notions, issues and areas that cause concern – like sex, race, religion, mothers-in-law, politicians and lawyers. It was hard to find a joke that did not originate from a form of anxiety. Or even horror. Which is why even tragedy – especially tragedy – triggers jokes in response. Within minutes of each Space Shuttle disaster, bad, brutal jokes were bouncing around.

What sets us apart from other creatures is our awareness of mortality. We seem to be alone in knowing that we die. This cruel joke of God’s leads to insanity, suicide, cruelty, religion, science, art and, yes, the sense of humour that is the sense and essence of human. We laugh because it helps us cope.

At the same time humour, and particularly jokes, can be utterly inhumane. Many of those we collected for Penguin were appalling in their sexual, religious and racial hostility. Anti-Jewish jokes, and a great many aimed at “Abos” and “reffos”. Collectors, not censors, we grew weary with answering angry letters complaining about the racist jokes we’d included – many of which had been bouncing around for centuries, with regular changes to settings or dramatis personae. (I remember telling Paul Keating that we’d tracked jokes attacking him back to jokes attacking Hitler, just as Irish jokes had previously targeted Poles.) The big joke is that we are born to die. What a punchline! The un-funniness of that simple fact can drive us mad. Better to laugh it off. Along with fantasies of faith, where death is just a doorway to an eternal life, a notion some of us find hilarious, it’s evolution’s way of dulling the pain. A pity that it sometimes means increasing the pain of others.

Sex continues to inspire a juggernaut of jokes. Infinite variations on jokes about generative members, cuckoldry, farmers’ daughters and recalcitrant nuns, dating back way before Shakespeare and Chaucer. Homophobia and misogyny abound, with jokes alleging Irish or Polish stupidity reappearing as attacks on blondes. About the only ancient text without bawdy sexual humour seems to be The Bible, where fear of women is very unfunny – Jezebel, Salome, Lot’s wife, etc. In fact, there are very few intentional laughs at all in the Testaments, Old or New (leaving aside the rib-tickling story of Eve’s creation, of course). Just lots of approving references to God’s ethnic cleansing and genocides. Odd, given the Jewish authorship.

Despite the dark side of humour’s moon it is, in the end, a great boon. As a response to whatever foments your fears or frustrations it’s far cheaper than drugs or psychotherapy.

Verily I say unto you, he (or she) who is without humour is a worry. Beware anyone in public life who is devoid of self-ridicule. Note the sad lack of humour among right-wing pundits. Shun the company of those who would make political correctness compulsory. Let us throw them in the air … and fail to catch them.

Better the kookaburras than the crows.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/the-jokes-on-us/story-e6frg8h6-1226580224844?sv=6322cab2b54d4282d1ff225b35509676