Humorous Anhedonia
The inability to find something funny. A tragic condition resulting in people who are incapable of identifying jokes.
One of the most unlucky, hidden conditions to be born with is musical anhedonia. This is where the afflicted individual cannot enjoy music. They can identify what music is, they can play instruments and recognise that others like music but are unable to derive pleasure from it themselves. Through no fault of their own one of life’s greatest pleasures is deprived of them. When I hear music I am compelled to start moving to it. Music is universal, spanning across cultures and time, and it seems hard to believe some people who don’t feel the same way exist.
Studies show that this is around 3 - 5% of the population.
You may not have heard about musical anhedonia because of the attached social stigma. At some point in these people’s lives, they discovered they do not find joy in music. Meanwhile, everyone around them finds great pleasure in these carefully constructed sounds. This creates external pressure to pretend they enjoy music.
I was shocked to learn this is a real condition. I can’t imagine what it would be like not to get anything out of music and I would be intensely curious if I were to meet someone with this condition. This only builds on the social stigma and a reluctance to discuss it.
Humorous Anhedonia
I’m still unsure if I 100% believe this, or if this is just a belief I hold for entertainment purposes, but I’ll lay it out there. I’m coining the term humorous anhedonia. Borrowing from our definition of musical anhedonia, these people do not find pleasure in jokes and therefore, I argue, cannot identify humour. I’m torn whether this is true because it seems so absurd that someone can’t have a sense of humour. But… I also found it unbelievable that people don’t enjoy music.
Indeed there are studies which back up my claim, however, it falls under the broader term of social anhedonia:
I take it a step further: some people literally do not have a sense of humour.
It is a terrible crime for God to have placed upon these people. At least with musical anhedonia, they can identify what music is because it’s instruments playing. They may not find joy in it, but they can’t mistake it for anything but music.
The problem with those with humorous anhedonia is that jokes in their most raw form are words - it’s people talking. Which, when stripped of context and intent, makes it indistinguishable from someone saying something.
I’ve seen this play out online, usually when someone makes an edgy joke. The intention is to make people laugh, not to disparage someone. Those with humorous anhedonia assume the person telling the joke is serious. Jokes are comprised of words, since they cannot find what they said funny, it, therefore, must be a serious statement.
They’re not the ones you want to be inviting to parties.
Case in point:
This video is unambiguously intended as a joke. I will bet my life he is not being serious. Yet so many are taking this at face value, they think he is out there literally giving out fake money to have homeless people arrested.
The reason I think it could be humorous anhedonia is that they aren’t saying they don’t find this funny, they’re indicating they sincerely believe this person is committing these acts. They are unable to comprehend this might be an attempt at humour. Whether this is their biases speaking and they’re just trying to score political points, or they can’t see this as an attempt at humour, it’s extremely sad.
It turns out, the funniest part isn’t the joke itself, but the reaction it garnered. They’re getting upset over something that didn’t happen.
When pointing out that it’s a joke, the response is always ‘How is this a joke?’ ‘Blah blah blah, what’s funny about putting homeless people in prison?’ Again, I want to reiterate - he’s not doing this. He’s joking about doing it. There’s a difference between doing a thing and joking about doing a thing. Their minds cannot comprehend this.
Let’s try to dissect something else that’s funny which is not quite as reactive and we’ll see what we discover when we keep asking the question ‘How is this funny?’
A Lesson in Humour
It’s funny, right? So the joke is he only has two shirts. But… that’s not funny. A guy only having a couple of isn’t a punchline.
So why is this funny? It’s how the joke is told, especially because you have to dig a little to figure out what happened. Imagine if the last line said, ‘he’s wearing the second shirt again, he must only have two shirts’. This doesn’t give you the same reaction as the original does. A good joke makes you work for it. It’s a key element in humour.
But this only begs the question of… why is that funny? Why does working to connect the dots yourself, give you an uncontrollable reaction of laughter? If you continue to analyse you won’t uncover a satisfactory conclusion.
What you’ll discover is that it just is.
So… Don’t They Have a Point?
Yes and no. In the same way that I can describe why a song sounds good, how the bass syncs up with the guitar to create a crescendo on the 4th beat with the drum fills in between, I can describe why a joke is funny. I can describe the contrasting nature of a joke, how it usurps our expectations or the outrageous logic behind it, but none of that tells us why it’s funny, I’m just describing the joke. Keep asking ‘why is that funny’ to anything you find humorous, and you’ll hit an unbreakable brick wall.
They have a point in that when we diagnose jokes there is no adequate answer as to why it’s funny. But this doesn’t mean there’s no such thing as a joke. So when people with humourous anhedonia ask ‘How is that funny’, it indicates one of two things. Firstly, they’re being dishonest. They know it’s a joke, but will do their best to score political points by asking how it’s funny, knowing it’s impossible to explain.
The second explanation is these people do not understand why something is funny. They may genuinely be asking because they don’t see it. And I’m pretty sure both these people exist - it’s just difficult to tell which is which sometimes.
Although they have a point when they enquire why a joke is funny and the explanation being inadequate, this doesn’t diminish the intention of the joke-teller. It was intended to be funny, no one was serious. If you didn’t find it funny - that’s okay! Humour is subjective.
We don’t have to all laugh at the same thing for something to be considered a joke. And just because some internet weirdos do not possess the capacity to find something funny, it doesn’t mean that what was said should be taken with 100% sincerity. I want to reiterate, no - that guy was not giving out fake bills to have homeless people arrested. It is a waste of time to report this to the authorities - as some suggested.
No one has ever laughed at a joke after it was explained to them. It doesn’t matter how hard you try, they’re either dishonest hacks or they can’t comprehend humour. Either way, it’s futile.