Encountering Jokes

Everybody likes a good joke. Jokes are a form of verbal art that allow anyone to have an opportunity to express themselves. You don’t have to possess a unique talent to tell a joke and yet if your joke is good, you can feel like you’re on top of the world if only for a moment. The other day I heard a joke that got me thinking about jokes in general. The joke goes like this. “Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.” Now if you are not familiar with this new breed of Chuck Norris jokes, you will be completely lost right now. Chuck Norris is an actor who is famous for his martial arts ability as well as just being a rugged tough guy. Somewhere along the line, somebody decided to make up a couple satirical jokes poking fun at this. The jokes are meant to make Chuck Norris seem like a god among men and are mostly so unbelievable that they are funny. These jokes really got famous when Conan O’Brien would make fun of the show Walker Texas Ranger on his late night show. I heard this joke the other day from one of my friends. Me and a couple of my friends were hanging out and listening to music when somebody told a joke. It was funny, so somebody else had their go at it. From then on, we just rotated telling jokes for a while and it was a lot of fun. What I find interesting about jokes is their ability to spread so fast. The word of mouth is a powerful tool, and can turn some joke you just made up in your head into a plethora of similar jokes worldwide. The Chuck Norris fad is only a couple of years old and has spread to any place that knows of the amazing “talent” possessed by Chuck Norris. Once people heard these jokes about one celebrity, many jokes on other celebrities have risen as well. Now people tell jokes about anyone from Mr. T to Bob Saget that all have the same structure as the Chuck Norris jokes. This just proves my point that jokes have this type of “multiplying” ability that allows them to spread. This is my post for our 3rd Encounter Project.