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by AuthenticAng11

Question by anonymous: What portion of the population does not understand self depricating humor?
I know the question is subjective, but, what portion of the population would you estimate does not understand self depricating humor?

I am not talking about young innocent children, and some of them do understand it…I am talking about adults.

I love humor, no one gets out of this world alive, mineaswell make light of it, and self depricating humor is the least likely to offend, when you are not in the company of folks who you know well enough to cut loose with ANY kind of humor, no matter how dark, strange, or inappropriate. But when not in that company, you are less likely to offend grandma with a joke at your own expense.

But over the years , I cannot count how many people I have seen pile on a self depricating joke where the teller of the self depricating joke, whether myself or someone else, implied their own stupidity in a joke, only to have some moron think it is an actual confession of Stupidity AND permission to just start relentlessly insulting the stupid guy. Even thinking themselves clever by retelling the same joke back at YOUR expense. I assure you I am not misinterpretting friendly fire. I am talking about lines being crossed because of the lack of good will from the joke interloper.

I think frequently they are the same people who cannot detect sarcasm.
Any Opinions?

Best answer:

Answer by JoAnn
There are plenty of people who are concrete thinkers and have difficulty with abstractions. I think that’s the population that can’t understand self deprecating humor and sarcasm.

Concrete thinking involves description of every day facts and objects. Abstract thinking involves concepts that don’t exist in a particular time and space but which describe a type or an idea. A concrete thought would point to a particular crime. An abstract thought would be about justice in general. One of the things that education is supposed to do for people is to help them access abstract thought and apply it.

Habitually concrete thinkers have a hard time distinguishing between concrete and abstract thoughts, so often discount abstract thinking. Abstract thinking requires a more substantial mental process than concrete thinking because to think abstractly you must connect a lot of dots. Since concrete thinking is simpler than abstract thinking many people get stuck in the concrete, so to speak.

Self deprecating humor and sarcasm require connecting dots to make sense. If you are not in the habit of mentally making connections in the abstract then you will miss nuance in the humor.

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