Sunday 10 May 2009

HARD-CORE HUMOUR


In the same sort of way in which perverts become de-sensitised to pornography and seek greater levels of obscenity, I find that my sense of humour is harder to satisfy these days.

My view is that with both sexes, it can be the case that one's sense of humour develops so that things which you used to find amusing, no longer tickle your funny bone. We start to demand a greater depth of wittiness, a higher level of humour, in order to achieve the belly laughs which we used to enjoy so much and now crave. I don't just mean the 'normal' development from juvenile to adult humour. I believe that just as with intelligence, people have different levels of humour. I also believe that some adults 'stick' at the level of juvenile humour. In fact I know this is true.

I am not being a snob here. I do not feel superior to those with 'juvenile' humour nor do I feel inferior to people whose humour I realise to be at a higher level than mine. Exactly the same is true for my view of people who's level of intelligence is higher or lower than my own. For instance, I often felt that some of my special needs students (I.Q. 0-55) were far wiser souls than I.

I am one of those sources of funny emails. I send jokes to my friends knowing that if they find this tiresome, they will either tell me to pack it in or just not read them - so no harm done. The thing is though, that I have pigeon-holed each of them in terms of their level of humour.

The other day I received a dirty, toilet-humour joke which didn't amuse me but I knew who to send it to. He later told me that he had cried with laughter at it. Another friend, who I regard as at the same level of humour as me, has actually asked me to filter what I send to him using my own level of humour as a guide!

I suppose its all about not seeing the joke coming, but then again I can still laugh at some old jokes such as this one.

A new commander takes over at a lonely desert fort situated miles from civilisation and his aide explains that they have a system whereby they have a camel tethered just outside the fort for the benefit of the all-male troop who often feel sex-starved having no available women. That night the commander makes use of the facility using a nearby stepladder to mount the camel and then have intercourse with it. He is disturbed by the aide who has popped out for a smoke. 'Thought I'd try the camel out! Is that OK?' says the commander. 'Sure is Sir. But the men usually use the camel to ride into town where the women are'.

2 comments:

  1. Oh dear, I've got to pass this joke along to my SIL. This is the kind of humor he'll roll in the floor laughing about. LOL

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  2. OMG. I remember that joke. I nearly swallowed my soother laughing at it. I heard it around the same time as this one: Troop gets hopelessly lost in a the desert and, after days of marching with food running out, officer in charge decides to call a halt and send a scout ahead to look for supplies. Scout arrives back a day later and reports "The bad news is, there's nothing to eat out there but camel dung." "What's the good news?" "There's tons of it." Laugh? I nearly died.

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