I was reminded today of one of my pet peeves:
People who explain your jokes to you.
I was walking out of McDonald’s today and saw a guy leave a birthday party in the kids’ play area (aka bacteria heaven – don’t get me started). He was loaded down with pink gift bags, Dora the Explorer merchandising and a leopard print child’s purse. I don’t often initiate conversation with strangers in public places but I couldn’t resist.
Me: Oh, is today your birthday?
Guy: Uh…oh NO, it’s my youngest daughter, she just turned 4 and we had a birthday party for her.
Me: Yeah, I figured (pointed to his bags).
Guy: Oh…yeah, hey … that’s funny. Yeah, that’s funny cause I’m carrying this pink girly stuff and everything. (he laughs and turns to wife), Hey, he just asked if it was MY birthday cause I’m carryin’ all of this.”
Me: (thinking to myself – yes, I know why it’s funny, I’m the one who told you)
I realize I have some things in common with Michael Scott (not as many things as my student workers used to think). I fancy myself a workplace comedian. I’m not really a funny on the spot kind of guy, but I do okay with situational comedy (at least I think I do). I’m a fan of the art of comedy. Timing is everything. Explaining someone’s joke totally breaks the timing in a situational comedy setting. You don’t need to stop the rhythm of conversation to tell everyone it’s okay laugh. It’s like the lead car in a race slamming on the breaks to tell everyone it’s okay to go fast. In both cases everyone was already doing it … except you …and because of you, now none of us are.
I used to work with this lady a while back who would explain my jokes to me and my co-workers. She was a workplace comedian’s nightmare. She would get the joke about 5 seconds too late and would then explain to others why it was funny. By the time her lengthy explanation was over, everyone had awkwardly moved on.
There are two occasions when it is okay to explain someone’s joke:
1 – The joke was about you and you’re only rebuttal is to sarcastically explain the joke to others as a way of showing how “not funny” it was. i.e. “Oh yeah that’s funny because I’m fat and you called me Fat Mike. That’s a great joke, can I use that sometime?”
2 – It’s a part of your schtick (comedic persona) and you explain jokes (yours and others) as way of self-deprecating. i.e. no one laughed at your joke so you’re only save is to humorously explain the obviously not funny joke.
Other than that, just let it be. Hey, we’ve all been slow on the take before. We got a joke after the fact, no big deal. Just laugh it off even if you don’t know why. Explaining the joke to others only draws attention to the fact you didn’t get it the first time.
End scene.
OH MC MULLY