Wordjot - Metahumor

Wordjot - Metahumor

“What’s the difference between Plato and Playdough? One’s so pliable you can mold it into whatever the hell you want. The other’s blue.”

Humor relies on the subversion of expectations. That’s why the Plato joke is funny. You have a normal situation: Wise Plato and putty Playdough. Then it’s suddenly reversed. But it only works because it taps into another expectation: that Plato is frustratingly vague in a lot of ways and easy to use to support anything. The punchline wouldn’t work as “One’s so pliable you can mold it into whatever the hell you want, the other FISH FISH FISH FISH FISH.” Your subversions are subverted. It’s still stupid.

I’ve recently been fascinated with another form of subversion: the metajoke. These play on your expectations of what a joke is. Some examples:

“How many people of a given stereotype does it take to change a lightbulb? N+1, 1 to change it and N to act in a stereotypical manner.” This points out the general template of the joke. This form is pretty common.

“A man walks into a bar. He’s an alcoholic. It’s destroying his family.” Antihumor, which subverts the expectation that there’s actually a joke.

“A rabbi, a priest, and a lawyer walk into a bar. The bartender asks ‘Is this some kind of joke?’” These directly call attention to the fact you’re hearing a joke.

“What’s the difference between a telephone pole and a motorcycle? 24, because a camel has two humps.” Possibly the most common type I’ve encounter, which derives it’s humor from the fact it makes no sense. Often called ‘Monkey Cheese’. I hate this kind.

Recently I’ve been really interested in another form, the joke dependent on another joke. Here’s one example:

“There are 10 types of people in this world. Those who know binary, and those who don’t. And those who know ternary.”

Not a great example, but still. It takes your expectation that this will be the common, heard-this-a-million-times-before joke on binary, and then plays on that. I’ve found these types really funny. They’re not that funny to most people, but since I’m really into humor theory I absolutely love them. That probably doesn't speak well about my sense of comedy.