Why do we laugh at many jokes involving some kind of cruelty?

Here's one i picked up on Answers: A blind man walks into a store with his seeing eye dog. All of a sudden, he picks up the leash and begins swinging the dog over his head. The manager runs up to the man and asks, "What are you doing?!!" The blind man replies, "Just looking around."





If this actually happened it it would not be funny and would start some serious violence and police. But on paper, on screen or stage, it is funny to many people. Always has and always will be. What is the psychological trigger?|||That's true... if it was real it would be awful, but if you're watching it on tv or reading it like that, you know it's not real.





There may be some subconcious trigger that makes you laugh because, somewhere in your mind you think, "At least that guy (or, in the joke, dog) has it worse than I do!" I don't know if that's true or not, but my health teacher is convinced that that's why people watch the news...





Hope this helps!|||I don't do you?|||I laugh at someone who has a continence issue with urine and semen..sounds funny, but is humilliating for the guy with a problem.|||Well I didn't find this particular joke funny. But the humor is here is in the irony: a blind man saying "just looking around" the dog swinging around is just the set up for the question "what are you doing?" I mean these kind of jokes are done to poke holes in so-called "politically correct" manerisms. You know the "it's not polite to..." and the jokes are sometimes funny- in a ironic way. Of course if these jokes happend in reality they would NOT be funny at all. These jokes can be pure stress releasers as well. I mean we ALL laughed at Eddie Murphy's car wreck joke, and his father naming his kids after cereals jokes.|||it is the absurdity of the story and the punch line.. it conjurs up and image in the mind of the listener who imagines the dog being swung around and around.. and the mind quickly analyzes the question as to why would anyone do such a thing.. the punch line explains the absurdity.. and the laughter follows..|||sometimes people laugh because they are uncomfortable.








look at some of the old "Far Side" cartoons. there was one called "Bobbing for Poodles." i love dogs and poodles, but it was funny. anyway, if you look at a lot of old Far Side cartons, you might get insight into some human behavior.|||because it is not real on the stage and the audience knows it. I do not think it is the kind of humor I would laugh at and I do not believe all the people in the audience would either|||Check out V. S. Ramachandran on this subject.|||it hurts less to laugh|||I agreed. It's sad really. Mostly people that have never been in that position are the ones to laugh. Might be different if the shoe was on the other foot!|||"happiness is the misfortune of others"


german saying





simple fact is most hummor is derrived from peoples misfortune|||Laughter is an audible expression or appearance of merriment or amusement.


Modern neurophysiology states that laughter is linked with the activation of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, which produces endorphins after a rewarding activity.





Research has shown that parts of the limbic system are involved in laughter[citation needed]. The limbic system is a primitive part of the brain that is involved in emotions and helps us with basic functions necessary for survival. Two structures in the limbic system are involved in producing laughter: the amygdala and the hippocampus[citation needed].





The December 7, 1984 Journal of the American Medical Association describes the neurological causes of laughter as follows:





"Although there is no known 'laugh center' in the brain, its neural mechanism has been the subject of much, albeit inconclusive, speculation. It is evident that its expression depends on neural paths arising in close association with the telencephalic and diencephalic centers concerned with respiration. Wilson considered the mechanism to be in the region of the mesial thalamus, hypothalamus, and subthalamus. Kelly and co-workers, in turn, postulated that the tegmentum near the periaqueductal grey contains the integrating mechanism for emotional expression. Thus, supranuclear pathways, including those from the limbic system that Papez hypothesised to mediate emotional expressions such as laughter, probably come into synaptic relation in the reticular core of the brain stem. So while purely emotional responses such as laughter are mediated by subcortical structures, especially the hypothalamus, and are stereotyped, the cerebral cortex can modulate or suppress them."|||A joke is a joke, its to make people laugh for Christs sake, loosen up.|||The same reason we laughed at Monty Python and nailing a dead parrot to a perch!!It's so sick it's funny!! As long as it's a visual in the mind thing and not factual it's OK !! It's all about not being real ! Like you said if it actually happened people would be up in arms over it!!|||well it really depends on the person. i didn't find that joke funny. being blind is the worst thing in life. i didn't find that funny at all.|||I have never heard that "joke" and really find no humor in it. In fact I find it offensive. I heard this one, "A horse walked into a bar and the bartender said, why the long face?", that would be humorous and harmless in nature but would not make me laugh.





Cruelty jokes have been around for a long time. The are mostly directed at people, animals, races or culture. I am not beyond a laugh at a good joke, but if it is at the expense of another; it most likely is not funny.





I question why black comedians can get away with saying the "N" word; yet white comedians are not afforded the same right. I think jokes should be funny and not about something that implies hate, hurt or profanity.





Great question - thank you...|||since i have lost my leg due to medical reasons i do not laugh at those. we you are one of those people that the jokes are about you learn how bad that hurts.