Non-literal definitions for words

[WooHooMan]

Fantastic post, Chase, but it may be worth noting that this isn’t a thread about comedy.

 

[Chasejxyz]

The original point of the thread has kinda wandered all over the place lol. The last few posts were about "offensive"/stereotype jokes so it fits in with that.

Additional to my previous post: one of the issues with making in-group jokes is that people not in that group might not get it at all. Such as "I'm gay I can't do math." Obviously being gay literally does not prevent someone from doing math, I know a ton of gay engineers, it's just one of those weird stereotypes within queer spaces. My roommate is cishet and we were talking about something that required math and I said "I'm gay, I can't do math." She didn't understand, I tried to explain, she mentioned "Alan Turing is one of the world's most famous mathematicians and he was really gay." Same deal when another cishet person asked me what kinda crafting a friend does and I wanted to say "oh, she's a trans woman, so you know" because no, they wouldn't have known. (the answer is electrical engineering/computers with a smattering of wood/machine shop type stuff).

If your joke hinges on something that is only known to a select group and your piece of media is aimed to a wider audience, then it might not work. You can make it one of those "this is a off-hand comment meant for the parents in the audience" kinda joke for those who Get It. Or present it in such a way that the answer is unambiguous, but writing jokes isn't my forte, I am simply just a meme machine.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

The original point of the thread has kinda wandered all over the place lol. The last few posts were about "offensive"/stereotype jokes so it fits in with that.

Additional to my previous post: one of the issues with making in-group jokes is that people not in that group might not get it at all. Such as "I'm gay I can't do math." Obviously being gay literally does not prevent someone from doing math, I know a ton of gay engineers, it's just one of those weird stereotypes within queer spaces. My roommate is cishet and we were talking about something that required math and I said "I'm gay, I can't do math." She didn't understand, I tried to explain, she mentioned "Alan Turing is one of the world's most famous mathematicians and he was really gay." Same deal when another cishet person asked me what kinda crafting a friend does and I wanted to say "oh, she's a trans woman, so you know" because no, they wouldn't have known. (the answer is electrical engineering/computers with a smattering of wood/machine shop type stuff).

If your joke hinges on something that is only known to a select group and your piece of media is aimed to a wider audience, then it might not work. You can make it one of those "this is a off-hand comment meant for the parents in the audience" kinda joke for those who Get It. Or present it in such a way that the answer is unambiguous, but writing jokes isn't my forte, I am simply just a meme machine.

U-hauls. Just sayin'.

But seriously, that's a very accurate summation of how jokes sometimes don't land outside of the in-group. We write dark urban fantasy with a lot of humor, and it's a fine line to tread. There are human jokes, and preternatural jokes, and we have teenagers of all sorts, so sometimes the jokes punch down a bit... and then the young character in question gets into a situation that makes them reevaluate their humor as inappropriate.

 

[Chasejxyz]

U-hauls. Just sayin'.

Now we're talking