Exaggeration
Slippery slopes make for the funniest of simple jokes. On Tool Time, for example, Tim Allen is fretting about his oldest son Brad (and again, I paraphrase). He says to his wife that if Brad doesn't go to college, he'll never get a degree, and if he doesn't get a degree, he'll have to move back in, and if he moves back in, Tim and his wife will have to baby-sit the whole new family of Brad, Brad's wife, their kids, etc., when they are in walkers'.
The Truth
Funny jokes are based in truth'somebody's truth. This is unfortunately how racist jokes have survived, too, as they are based in a common understanding of what is a truth (which is in fact an ignorant mythological, collective truth). But since we can get away with humor about an ethnicity if we are of that ethnicity (and known for our people's sense of humor, ahem), let's pull off a mild one here:
What's a Jewish dilemma? Free ham.
Self- and Other-Effacing Funny Jokes
Telling the truth about oneself is safe. And the more ridiculous the better. David Sedaris is superb at pointing out his own inanities and idiosyncrasies:he writes of having the booze-drinking, cigarette-smoking, aproned housewife mother who has a coffee clatch neighbor over for a visit one morning, and how he, with OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder), is still compelled to carry out his necessary rituals, no matter how bizarre, no matter that an outsider will witness them. So he walks to the doorway of the kitchen where his mother and their neighbor are chatting, and he steps to the wall near the door, to the light switch. He begins his imperative licking of the light switch. The neighbor is stunned and staring. The mother just rolls her eyes and says something casual, like, 'David, stop licking the light switch and come say hello to Suzie Q.'[note: paraphrased from memory]
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