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Study: Tell Bad Jokes at Your Own Risk

Breaking social contract with unfunny humor a good way to elicit 'impolite' response

By Drew Nelles, Newser Staff

Posted Aug 22, 2008 4:02 PM CDT

(Newser) – What did the researcher say to the reporter? Bad jokes are a good way to lose friends. A Washington State University linguist found lame humor tends to trigger serious hostility, the AP reports. The researcher had her students slip a bad joke into 207 conversations with friends, and 44% of the responses were considered, ahem, “impolite.”

"These were basically attacks intended to result in the social exclusion or humiliation of the speaker, punctuated on occasion with profanity, a nasty glare or even a solid punch to the arm," Nancy Bell says. She speculates that bad jokes get such extreme reactions because they disrupt conversation, violate the expectation that humor be funny, and insult the intelligence of the listener.

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Nancy Bell, left, a Washington State University applied linguist, uses a key as a prop as she tells a student a deliberately bad joke. (AP Photo)

Television and radio personality Ryan Seacrest, right, tells a bad joke as Comcast CEO Brian Roberts listens. A researcher has found that bad jokes often get unexpectedly hostile reactions. (AP Photo)

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"Bad Jokes" from Prairie Home Companion, featuring Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly. (billpayer2)

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Being selected as an appropriate audience for a stupid joke suggests that there is something amiss with the hearer's sense of humor. - Nancy Bell, Washington State University Linguist

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Study: Tell Bad Jokes at Your Own Risk