A fun joke

Question

Here is how the joke goes:It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose your own.I don't see why it is fun. Can you help?LCChang

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi,

Here is how the joke goes:

It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose your own.

I don't see why it is funny. Can you help?

It's playing with the fact that the word 'depression' can have two meanings here.

1. An economic meaning. (a period when the economy slumps).

2. A personal meaning (a person's emotions slump, they feel hopeless and sad).

Part of the humour is also that I take my job loss more personally than I take my neighbour's job loss.

Do people in your culture make jokes about serious topics, like losing your job or even death

? In my culture, we do. It is often called 'black humour', and it is hard to understand if it is not part of your native culture.

Best wishes. Clive

Lcchang · Answer

Clive
Hi,

Here is how the joke goes:

It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose your own.

I don't see why it is funny. Can you help?

It's playing with the fact that the word 'depression' can have two meanings here.

1. An economic meaning. (a period when the economy slumps).

2. A personal meaning (a person's emotions slump, they feel hopeless and sad).

Part of the humour is also that I take my job loss more personally than I take my neighbour's job loss.

Do people in your culture make jokes about serious topics, like losing your job or even death? In my culture, we do. It is often called 'black humour', and it is hard to understand if it is not part of your native culture.

Best wishes. Clive

Thanks, Clive. I think that a depression is more serious than a recession, and that is the main idea the joke brings up. By the way, I got to tell you I am a person with sense of humor too....seriously...uh...nope...I mean it.

LCChang

Clive · Answer

Hi,

Yes, the aspect you mention is also present in the joke.

Clive

BarbaraPA · Answer

It's not very funny.

A recesssion is a slow down of the economy. A depression is when the economy stays bad.

So when a bad thing happens to someone else, it's bad, but not terrible. When a bad thing happens to you, it's terrible.

Lcchang · Answer

Black humor, as mentioned by Clive.

Regards,

LCChang

Vorpar · Answer

It's like the Woody Allen (or is it Mel Brooks?) joke: Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when someone else falls into an open sewer and dies.

CalifJim · Answer

The humor revolves around the idea that we feel differently about the same situation depending whether it affects us or someone else. We express the difference in feeling by choosing different words.

There are many humorous "conjugations" formed on this principle. Not all of them are actually very funny -- mildly amusing, perhaps.

I am firm.
You are obstinate.
He is a pig-headed fool.

I am outrageously funny.
You are rather mordant.
He is contemptuously mocking.

I am outraged at my opponent's mean-spirited insults.
You are a bit sensitive.
He is a weak, wish-washy whiner.

I am consistent.
You are the slave of your own formulas.
He is a wornout hack.

I am sharply critical of my opponent's dogmas.
You are a tad belligerent.
He is hateful.

CJ

A fun joke

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