Bad joke may prove deadly for teller

MOSCOW: There's a ground comedians
call it "dying on stage". Research by a Washington State University linguist
establish that people who assure bad jokes often persist an astonishing outpouring of
hostility from the listeners.



"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 tied a solid punch to the limb," said
investigator Nancy Bell. We're not talking about jokes that contain dysphemistic
material, or the type of slurs unleashed by former �Seinfeld' star Michael
Richards. The joke that Bell used in her inquiry was: "What did the big chimney
say to the little chimney?


Nothing, chimneys can't babble out."



The
responses to this infantile riddle included insults, glares, silence or even
blows. "The preponderating verbal reaction to failed humour in our study was
oriented exclusively toward attacking the speaker," Bell
said.



Reasons for the solid responses are many. First, such tinned
humour a great deal disrupts the natural current of conversation. And jokes that miscarry to
deliver humour are a infraction of a social contract, so punishing the cashier can
discourage similar conduct in the future.


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