Professor Sees Little Humor in Sick Jokes

BERKELEY — Seriously folks, Alan Dundes thinks he knows what makes people laugh at stupid jokes.

Dundes, a professor of anthropology and folklore at the University of California, Berkeley, is the author of “Cracking Jokes, Studies of Sick Humor Cycles and Stereotypes.”

“Jokes are often a disguised way of dealing with our fears and anxieties . . . or guilt and grief. We laugh to keep from crying,” Dundes said.

Take Jewish-American princess jokes. He said they aren’t anti-Semitic, they’re really a male response to the feminist movement.

Light bulb jokes, he said, became popular during the late 1970s at the same time as a surge in Americans being kidnaped and held hostage in foreign countries. They reflect fear of national impotence rather than incompetence, Dundes said.

Elephant jokes, he said, carried a veiled attack on blacks during the civil rights era and quadriplegic jokes were fueled during a disabled rights movement by the guilt of those who don’t have physical disabilities.

“I’ve analyzed jokes about AIDS, the Challenger disaster, Auschwitz . . . and some publishers have rejected them. They’re worried about offending people, that I’m just giving the racists and homophobes more ammunition,” he said.