Small doses, joking. Large doses, serious.

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jc6chan
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25 Jan 2011, 7:40 pm

Are any of you ever confused of how people would laugh about something when they talk about the thing to a minor degree but no one laughs when the same idea is talked about to a large degree? In fact, people take it seriously?

There was an incidence once when I was washing the dishes with my brother and I told him how in grade 7, someone in my class who got bullied a lot made a list of people he wanted to kill. I'm not sure what happened but the vice-principal found out and she called each person on the list down to the office. I told my brother the story in a laughing manner and he was like "whats so funny? There's nothing funny about it." Then I realized that I shouldn't have laughed.

One theory I have about why I laughed was because if the person who got bullied wrote a list of people he'll kick in the groin, then it MAY BE funny. If he wrote a list of people he wanted to kick in the shins or slap in the face, then it would have been really funny.

But seriously, I understand that assault and murder are 2 very different things, but why would one be funny and the other not?

Why do people go "oooooooooohhhhhhhh!! !! ! That hurts!!" in a happy manner when someone gets hurt but no one laughs when a person dies? I mean, purposely hurting someone and killing someone is both a crime.

Or why do people "boast" about how fast they drive on the freeway saying "I've done 50 over the limit!" but when its 100 over the limit they say "thats criminal man!! These people need to be pulled off the streets!!"?



Bluefins
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25 Jan 2011, 7:51 pm

Isn't laughing also an expression for scary / uncomfortable thoughts? So with just a bit of scary it can be laughed off, while with a lot of scary laughing isn't enough.

The boasting I think is just trying to make themselves look better / feel important / right / something like that. No matter what the subject is, what the person talking does is great, while doing more or less is terrible.



tall-p
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25 Jan 2011, 8:14 pm

Bluefins wrote:
Isn't laughing also an expression for scary / uncomfortable thoughts? So with just a bit of scary it can be laughed off, while with a lot of scary laughing isn't enough.

The boasting I think is just trying to make themselves look better / feel important / right / something like that. No matter what the subject is, what the person talking does is great, while doing more or less is terrible.

There is an aphorism by Nietzsche that sums this up for me... "A joke is an epitaph on the death of a feeling."


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25 Jan 2011, 8:30 pm

This is one of the hard things about reading emotions. People will often laugh and smile when they're scared or angry. One of the running themes in the Ren and Stimpy cartoon is that Ren will often be smiling or laughing when he's angry or up to something mischievous.


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25 Jan 2011, 8:34 pm

jc6chan wrote:
Why do people go "oooooooooohhhhhhhh!! !! ! That hurts!!" in a happy manner when someone gets hurt but no one laughs when a person dies? I mean, purposely hurting someone and killing someone is both a crime.


Have you heard of the Darwin Awards? Or 1000 Ways to Die? People get a lot of entertainment from other people dying in a particular context (especially being able to make them responsible for having died).



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25 Jan 2011, 8:44 pm

jc6chan wrote:
There was an incidence once when I was washing the dishes with my brother and I told him how in grade 7, someone in my class who got bullied a lot made a list of people he wanted to kill. I'm not sure what happened but the vice-principal found out and she called each person on the list down to the office. I told my brother the story in a laughing manner and he was like "whats so funny? There's nothing funny about it." Then I realized that I shouldn't have laughed.


i think the issue may be with the specific topic. school shootings are way too sensitive a topic, most people do not find that or similar subjects humorous in the least.

there has already been a school shooting this year, and we arent even 4 weeks in yet.


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jc6chan
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25 Jan 2011, 9:02 pm

Another issue is why people laugh about things under certain contexts.

For example, people tend to laugh when someone mentions about "potheads" or "crackheads" in a conversation but when the topic is specifically about drug addiction, it gets serious and no one laughs.

Or people make fun of pedophiles in their attraction towards kids but no one laughs when it happens in real life. I mean, people still laugh at the fact that in real life pedophiles prey on children, its just that it gets serious when it comes up in the news.



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25 Jan 2011, 9:05 pm

Because getting kicked in the groin is something you can recover from completely in a few weeks, and getting slapped in the face is something you'll recover from completely in anywhere from several minutes to several days. You don't recover from getting killed.


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Mindslave
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25 Jan 2011, 9:22 pm

People will laugh if they think you are joking. If they think you are serious, they will be serious. People get all bent out of shape over things like school shootings because its one of many things that are blown out of proportion, along with bullying, global warming, etc. Anything else, it depends on how serious you are perceived to be.



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26 Jan 2011, 6:25 am

DandelionFireworks wrote:
Because getting kicked in the groin is something you can recover from completely in a few weeks, and getting slapped in the face is something you'll recover from completely in anywhere from several minutes to several days. You don't recover from getting killed.


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26 Jan 2011, 6:36 am

Hmm, I do not typically see bullying or global warming blown out of proportion. Usually I see them minimized or denied entirely.



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26 Jan 2011, 7:10 am

jc6chan wrote:
Are any of you ever confused of how people would laugh about something when they talk about the thing to a minor degree but no one laughs when the same idea is talked about to a large degree? In fact, people take it seriously?

There was an incidence once when I was washing the dishes with my brother and I told him how in grade 7, someone in my class who got bullied a lot made a list of people he wanted to kill. I'm not sure what happened but the vice-principal found out and she called each person on the list down to the office. I told my brother the story in a laughing manner and he was like "whats so funny? There's nothing funny about it." Then I realized that I shouldn't have laughed.

One theory I have about why I laughed was because if the person who got bullied wrote a list of people he'll kick in the groin, then it MAY BE funny. If he wrote a list of people he wanted to kick in the shins or slap in the face, then it would have been really funny.

But seriously, I understand that assault and murder are 2 very different things, but why would one be funny and the other not?

Why do people go "oooooooooohhhhhhhh!! !! ! That hurts!!" in a happy manner when someone gets hurt but no one laughs when a person dies? I mean, purposely hurting someone and killing someone is both a crime.

Or why do people "boast" about how fast they drive on the freeway saying "I've done 50 over the limit!" but when its 100 over the limit they say "thats criminal man!! These people need to be pulled off the streets!!"?

That's a good way to understand social interaction. I have always done retrospection like these and they led me learn what I believe the two aspects of socializing, what I call local language skills and mind reading/social interaction skills.
If you want to learn about local language skills please see the link in my signature.
I will be posting a thread on the other aspect of socializing, believe there are two aspects to it, that is mind reading and social skills.