Social protocol: bad jokes

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If someone tells you a bad joke, how are you supposed to respond?

I ask because a customer at work today told me a really bad joke. I didn't laugh and she assumed that I was stupid and didn't "get" the joke and tried to explain it to me. I don't want to come off as dense. On the other hand, my pretend laugh sounds ridiculous and definitely not believable, so faking might get me an even worse response. How am I supposed to respond to a situation like this?

I'd say something that quickly brushes it off...something along the lines of "that's nice..." or "hmm".

i'd say something to the effect of "sorry but that one just sailed right over my head. i failed totally. sorry."

I'm terrible at pretending to find anything funny and don't bother faking a laugh, I just ask them where's the punchline. It's for their benefit that they know they suck, otherwise they might go off and tell other people the same lame joke and they have to pretend it's hilarious...

With the jokes I get told, I tell people to get their minds, out of the gutter.

I laugh when I realise they are trying to tell a joke. If I miss it, I laugh as soon as I realise and pretend that I was a bit slow on the uptake.

I make a lot of (bad) jokes myself, so I appreciate it when people respond positively.

The only jokes I don't laugh at are very racist/sexist ones, especially if they are told by a 'professional' or to a group of people.

I respond with "I understand the joke, I just don't find it funny" + eyeroll sometimes (if they keep on trying to explain it). It is a rude response but they don't think I'm stupid, just very rude. I wouldn't suggest this response to anyone in the service industry.

i do not laugh at jokes whether they are good or bad.
i do not understand what makes a joke good or bad anyway, so i have no net reaction to them.

some jokes i understand, and they are like interesting alternative answers to puzzles.

like the joke :
Q: what is the similarity between an elephant and a bottle of milk?
A: they both come in pints.

i see the logic of the joke and i understand that it is an obscure comparison and i think "yes i see".
but it does not trigger my laughter mechanism.

i made up a joke today about my friend and it goes
Q: what is the similarity between you and a person who has had a cork in his backside for 4 days?
A: you are both full of sh*t.

it is not funny in a way that makes me laugh, but it is an obscure relationship between two otherwise unrelated circumstances.

i used to know a person who used to tell jokes that he had heard, and it seemed to me that he did not really understand the jokes he told, but he nevertheless laughed heartily at them

so i made some artificial jokes to tell him and he laughed uproariously at them even though they were nonsense.

example:
Q: why did the irishman remove the door from his oven?
A: because he was unable to walk his dog after 5 o'clock.

Q: why did the irishman buy seven quilted bed spreads?
A: because he put his wallet on a newly painted windowsill.

he laughed heartily at those types of nonsense jokes, and i laughed at him laughing at them.

so, i guess, if the joke is bad enough, i will laugh at the fact that the teller finds it funny, and the teller thinks i am laughing at the joke he told, and that can lead to breathless hysterical laughter by me.

if the teller of the bad joke starts to become serious and thinks "well it's not that funny", i may laugh even harder.

usually however, i do not see jokes as funny in themselves.

The other day I was having a quick chat with a softball umpire, and he made a comment about how the pitcher was doing so well, Ray Charles could do his job well.


I understood what he meant, I just didn't laugh. And then he had to tell me it was a joke. But he walked back to behind the catcher as the break between innings was ending. For another inning, it felt awkward - but mainly cause I didn't want to look like I didn't know who Ray Charles was.

And yet you made up a joke that was so funny and clever that I'm using it in real life.

This was your joke:

Why were the woods full of wrecked cars?

Because of the NTs who couldn't see the trees for the forest.



This is a brilliant joke and has made some of my friends laugh. (I only tell it to friends who have a family member with autism. Otherwise they don't know what "NT" means and don't get the joke.)

You baffle me sometimes. You make brilliant jokes but don't understand what makes a joke good or bad. But you must on some level. Otherwise you couldn't have made such a good joke.

I usually just try and laugh genuinely and say something along the lines of "Wow....That was pretty special..." Even if the joke was questionable, they still made me laugh, so they'll feel good.

Usually I go with "zing!". Let them know you thought it was clever, even if you don't laugh. Then people don't really mind. Most people. There is always a bad egg or two here and there.

I smile at the very least, even if it's a small one. I have a tendency to rub my chin as though I'm thinking it over as well. I also nod. Or say "Ha. Nice."

Sometimes I'm in foul mood and a bad joke will elicit an "Eh." from me. (Or something of that nature.)

I probably would have said something like "oh, that's just terrible, but don't worry I still like you", or some kind of sarcastic "oh, HAHAH, cute". I can't fake responses, it either comes out bluntly or sarcastically, but either way, it still comes out.

I laugh anyway if it's part of a conversation with my friends, cos we laugh hysterically at things that aren't particularly funny anyway, LOL.

I really like b9's idea of telling jokes that aren't really jokes to see what their response is, LOL. It reminds me of that hoax where David Bowie and some artists made up this fictional artist who was allegedly dead, and made him really well known in the art world, because the critics were so afraid of looking ignorant they wouldn't admit to never having heard of the guy .

i can create personal metaphors, but i can not understand externally offered ones.
i can create personal jokes but i can not understand most jokes that are said to me.
those that i do understand do not elicit laughter from me but mere acknowledgment.

the wrecks in the forest joke was just a joke in a series of attempts that i thought up for that thread.
i understand the programmatic coding for joke creation in a way, but i do not understand the emotional attachment to jokes that make people laugh.

if i make up a good joke, it is simply one that works to make others laugh amid a parade of other attempted jokes that do not makes people laugh. it was a fluke that the jungle debris joke caught your sense of humor.

i see a methodology in things that i try to understand, but i never have an instinctive flair for anything.


i can not laugh in symphony with other people because they are never thinking the same thing that i am when i laugh.


there is a potential problem with saying nonsense jokes, and that is if the other person honestly says "i do not get it. please explain".
that has not happened to me yet because most people think that the joke must be valid, and they laugh anyway to be correct in a social protocol.

i have thought that if anyone asks me to explain the joke (after they have laughed at it, and then scratched their head, and after i have laughed severely at them laughing at it with them thinking i am laughing at the actual joke and not at them) , then i would say "i do not understand what the joke means, but since you laughed at it, you verified that it was funny, and so i thought it was worth a laugh as well"
that would be a lie, but it is better than saying "i just made it up and it means nothing and i am sorry i made a fool out of you".
i am not that mean.

whatever i am not good at interaction.