Sunday, December 21, 2008

Things They Should Invent: divide "sense of humour" into two separate concepts

"A good sense of humour" can mean either of two things. It can mean that the person finds things funny easily, or finds a wide variety of things funny. (This is the definition that Laughlab used when comparing different countries, and it was the definition used in that study a while back that determined that women don't have a good sense of humour.) It can also mean that when the person tries to make a joke, it ends up being a good joke that makes most people laugh.

These two concepts are not interchangeable, and can even be incompatible. If you're in the audience watching a stand-up comedian, you want them to be able to make up good jokes. However, you don't want them to be the kind of person who finds things funny extremely easily. If they find things funny too easily, they'll just stand there on stage and say "Dude, I farted!" and expect a laugh.

If you're listening to the joke, your idea of a good sense of humour in your interlocutor is a very high standard of what's worthy of a laugh. If you're telling the joke, your idea of a good sense of humour in your interlocutor is a very low standard of what's worthy of a laugh.

These really need to be two separate concepts with two different names, because they aren't really interchangeable.

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