{"items": [{"author": "Ken", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/432721063431125?comment_id=432721410097757", "anchor": "fb-432721410097757", "service": "fb", "text": "It is beyond my ken how anyone could find such jokes funny.", "timestamp": "1348746315"}, {"author": "Danner", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/432721063431125?comment_id=432722710097627", "anchor": "fb-432722710097627", "service": "fb", "text": "If it's obvious, sometimes I'll ask what the best one they've heard is. Same deal with the unicycle - you might think you're being clever, but yes, I know I'm missing a wheel, I get reminded by every clever person on the street.", "timestamp": "1348746570"}, {"author": "Jordy", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/432721063431125?comment_id=432742526762312", "anchor": "fb-432742526762312", "service": "fb", "text": "I'll usually say \"you probably get ____ all the time.\" And y'know, nine out of ten times the person is like \"You're the second or third person ever to say that.\" I'm always astonished when people don't notice some pretty obvious thing like that. For example I had a customer (white woman) named Siri Gillespie, and I muttered in a dripping tone \"Any relation to Dizzy? Sorry you probably get that all the time.\" \"No actually you're the second one ever to say that.\" I was a little baffled. Either way she was one of my favorite car customers ever.", "timestamp": "1348750062"}, {"author": "Danni", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/432721063431125?comment_id=432747353428496", "anchor": "fb-432747353428496", "service": "fb", "text": "This rule applies 10 times more if you are white and the person whose name you think is funny is a person of color.", "timestamp": "1348751359"}, {"author": "Robert", "source_link": "https://plus.google.com/117732328885787456164", "anchor": "gp-1348756972976", "service": "gp", "text": "Heartiiy agreed", "timestamp": 1348756972}, {"author": "BDan", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/432721063431125?comment_id=432778443425387", "anchor": "fb-432778443425387", "service": "fb", "text": "This also goes for deliberate mispronunciations, which barely even qualify as jokes.", "timestamp": "1348757737"}, {"author": "Taviy", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/432721063431125?comment_id=432819000087998", "anchor": "fb-432819000087998", "service": "fb", "text": "I think it depends on how clever and carefully thought out the pun is. I submit that if one is sensitive about the implications of one's humor (particularly if punning names, see Jordy's example) you might just give the other person a good chuckle. That includes racial boundaries: One morning i was in Dunkin Donuts and a black worker asked me how i wanted my coffee. I told them \"just black\" and then i said, \"but when i'm not awake yet my brain does strange things. I resisted asking for an African-American coffee.\" The worker cracked up laughing.
Humor, like beauty, depends a lot on the beholder, and the humorist's ability to read their audience and project a certain sense of respect and compassion even when making jokes based on audience characteristics (such as a person's name). Personally i wish my name was better pun material.", "timestamp": "1348766753"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/432721063431125?comment_id=432824323420799", "anchor": "fb-432824323420799", "service": "fb", "text": "@Tavi: I agree reading your audience is key to humor. The issue is with names we're at a disadvantage: the person we're talking to has been in far more situations where their name has been salient, far more cases where someone might have decided to make the same joke. So you have to judge not only how generically funny your joke is, but also how likely the person is to have heard it before given that it's prompted by something about them.", "timestamp": "1348768110"}, {"author": "Danni", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/432721063431125?comment_id=432825420087356", "anchor": "fb-432825420087356", "service": "fb", "text": "Tavi, I feel like the situation you described is totally different from making a joke about someone's name. In the situation you described, you were basically making fun of YOURSELF. The thing that was funny about what you said wasn't really about race or about members of that race, but about how your brain involuntarily responded to that particular situation, and that made the situation funny rather than racially charged.
Making a joke about someone's name creates a different dynamic -- names are very personal to an individual and often carry strong family and/or cultural significance, and when you make fun of someone's name it creates a situation where you may be insulting that person's family or culture by doing so. Yes, some people might sometimes think it's funny and laugh, but it's also possible that the person is just laughing to be polite and is actually quite offended. I think in the case of someone's name, it's not worth the risk.", "timestamp": "1348768389"}, {"author": "Phillip", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/432721063431125?comment_id=432852713417960", "anchor": "fb-432852713417960", "service": "fb", "text": "@Danner, my reply has always been what do think my brother is riding (in my case my three brothers)?", "timestamp": "1348774601"}, {"author": "Taviy", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/432721063431125?comment_id=432856330084265", "anchor": "fb-432856330084265", "service": "fb", "text": "@Jeff, i like the way you phrased it in reply. It becomes less about whether or not it's socially acceptable to pun other people's names, but about assessing the risk/reward of doing so before you speak. @Oliver, my point being that it's all in how the joke is phrased. Even a joke involving someone's name can be phrased in such a way as to place the brunt on oneself. It just takes a bit more creativity, and that tends to eliminate the possibility the person has heard their name punned that way before or the possibility of offending them. I guess what i'm trying to say is that the mere potential of offending or annoying people shouldn't put entire sectors of humor off-limits, it should just make us more judicious about using them. But i'm feeling lazy. I get all trembly when Jake is around.", "timestamp": "1348775473"}, {"author": "Jordy", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/432721063431125?comment_id=432865950083303", "anchor": "fb-432865950083303", "service": "fb", "text": "I have to agree with ^ Tavi whole heartedly. I have heard far too many people, albeit with good intentions and in the interest of being PC, call x, y or z \"OFF LIMITS!!\" , when really it just takes more of a deft eye/ear/mouth/brain to tell it. It reminds me of the way many laws are written in that they HAVE to blanket everyone, else the be considered unfair. The world is not black and white, thus there are those who may in fact be able to nimbly stride where others stumble (especially in humor).
I will also say I am finding the art of punning -names largely- but all sorts included, to be something of a slowly dying art. Such as my customer Ciri Gillespie, no one had really related her to Dizzy Gillespie (the jazz trumpeter). Not that everyone has heard of him, but I find that many of what I would consider to be all-too-low-hanging-pun options to go unpicked and often completely unconsidered. What is the world coming to??", "timestamp": "1348777491"}, {"author": "Ron", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/432721063431125?comment_id=432868016749763", "anchor": "fb-432868016749763", "service": "fb", "text": "http://www.livescience.com/6569-good-bad-baby-names-long...", "timestamp": "1348777825"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/432721063431125?comment_id=432869546749610", "anchor": "fb-432869546749610", "service": "fb", "text": "@Tavi: While I don't think punning on names should be strictly \"off limits\" or anything, I do think it's a place you need to be careful. For example, while I don't know how Jake took your pun, I think there's a good chance he's heard enough people play with his name in that specific pair (tremblay -> trembly) that it's less funny to him than anyone else.", "timestamp": "1348778192"}, {"author": "Jordy", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/432721063431125?comment_id=432872160082682", "anchor": "fb-432872160082682", "service": "fb", "text": "Hey Jake, why does everyone get so TREMBLY around you?? ...oh wait have you heard that one before?", "timestamp": "1348778812"}, {"author": "Jordy", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/432721063431125?comment_id=432872400082658", "anchor": "fb-432872400082658", "service": "fb", "text": "So Danner, does your name mean you're more Dan than any other Dan?", "timestamp": "1348778864"}, {"author": "Jordy", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/432721063431125?comment_id=432872630082635", "anchor": "fb-432872630082635", "service": "fb", "text": "Hey Jeff Kaufman, are you a MAN who COUGHS a lot??", "timestamp": "1348778899"}, {"author": "Jordy", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/432721063431125?comment_id=432872790082619", "anchor": "fb-432872790082619", "service": "fb", "text": "man these are so good. Punning GOLD I tell ya.", "timestamp": "1348778949"}, {"author": "Jean", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/432721063431125?comment_id=432873383415893", "anchor": "fb-432873383415893", "service": "fb", "text": "Every now & then I still get \"Hygiene...hahaha....you've probably heard that before, haven't you?\" If I were really on the ball I'd say to the guy (it always is a guy) \"You're only allowed to make that joke if you can spell it.\"", "timestamp": "1348779082"}, {"author": "Jordy", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/432721063431125?comment_id=432873690082529", "anchor": "fb-432873690082529", "service": "fb", "text": "^ Better would be if you said \"hi\" to someone and they replied \"Good 'hi', Jean.\"", "timestamp": "1348779166"}, {"author": "Taviy", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/432721063431125?comment_id=432874426749122", "anchor": "fb-432874426749122", "service": "fb", "text": "because Jake is both fabulous and awesome... he's basically my little brother... and i figured that, despite arguing to the contra-ry, i'd be large-minded and prove Jeff's point just for the hell of it. Jake has probably heard that so many times it's actually funny again by now, like a family guy joke. Danner is not simply MORE Dan than others - he is, in fact, the maker of Dan. The Danner. Thread-pirates unite!
In all seriousness, though, the man who coughs a lot makes a good point. Which we've now proved.", "timestamp": "1348779268"}, {"author": "Jordy", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/432721063431125?comment_id=432874733415758", "anchor": "fb-432874733415758", "service": "fb", "text": "No one can be Dan without Danner making it so. I like that", "timestamp": "1348779334"}, {"author": "Andrew", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/432721063431125?comment_id=432968706739694", "anchor": "fb-432968706739694", "service": "fb", "text": "Corollary: jokes about where people are from. When I tell people where I'm from, I've started adding \"I've heard all the jokes\" preemptively, to save them from embarrassing themselves.", "timestamp": "1348804533"}, {"author": "Taviy", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/432721063431125?comment_id=432970473406184", "anchor": "fb-432970473406184", "service": "fb", "text": "but Andrew, you're far from Normal....", "timestamp": "1348805087"}, {"author": "Andrew", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/432721063431125?comment_id=432977256738839", "anchor": "fb-432977256738839", "service": "fb", "text": "I'm actually IN Normal at the moment...", "timestamp": "1348807758"}, {"author": "Jordy", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/432721063431125?comment_id=432981033405128", "anchor": "fb-432981033405128", "service": "fb", "text": "Well that is neither here Nor mal.", "timestamp": "1348809200"}, {"author": "Chris", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/432721063431125?comment_id=434326186603946", "anchor": "fb-434326186603946", "service": "fb", "text": "I don't understand how the Gillespie thing is a pun. It seems like a reasonable question, and we all like to make a connection to someone who is famous to us. When I met Audrey, I was pleased as punch to meet someone related to Donald Knuth. Now of course I know her as Audrey, and that's even cooler than someone related to DK.", "timestamp": "1349151870"}, {"author": "Jordy", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/432721063431125?comment_id=434326316603933", "anchor": "fb-434326316603933", "service": "fb", "text": "The gillespie thing was a joke because she was clearly not related to Dizzy.", "timestamp": "1349151942"}, {"author": "Andrew", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/432721063431125?comment_id=434327193270512", "anchor": "fb-434327193270512", "service": "fb", "text": "Wait, is Audrey actually related to Donald Knuth?", "timestamp": "1349152231"}, {"author": "Andrew", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/432721063431125?comment_id=434329446603620", "anchor": "fb-434329446603620", "service": "fb", "text": "This thread came up in conversation this weekend at YDW, where I met a charming woman named Amazing. (She asked to be tagged so she could read it.) I had the good sense not to try (and fail) to make an original joke, and she didn't seem to take it the wrong way when I asked if she found that to be a lot to live up to. (At the very least, she is--ahem--an amazing dancer. Fortunately my hometown didn't come up in conversation.)", "timestamp": "1349152988"}]}