Joke Cycles

A joke cycle is a folk process in which a group of short jokes, typically in riddling or one-liner format, are circulated and told as a group rather than as individual items. The topics of joke cycles often are those that are socially forbidden in polite conversation, such as ethnic and gender stereotypes. They also emerge in the wake of topical news stories, especially those dealing with tragic or catastrophic events. Some of these jokes remain popular for several years, but the life span of most cycles is quite short, often only a few months or even weeks. Because they often appear to present offensive or callous opinions, they are often seen as “sick” or at least a sign of sociopathic attitudes among those who tell them. Academic studies, however, suggest that their popularity signals a more complex psychological reaction among those who circulate them.

The common factor in this form of humor is that the jokes gain significance by being told as part of a larger group of items. That is, they are both presented and understood as being part of a larger whole rather than for their individual value as humorous statements. Although one especially popular joke may often lead off the humorous exchange, its effect relies on it being part of a larger corpus of humor, presumably from many other sources, all of which treat the common topic in a flippant way. Thus some jokes in a cycle may be shocking in their (apparent) opinions or images. But these are circulated along with others that use much less pointed plays on words and are seen as simply clever. Scholars have noted that the common forms of such jokes, and even their punch lines, are often recognizably recycled from previous cycles, making their appearance a kind of predictable ritual. All of these factors reduce the individual's responsibility for the putative content of any individual joke, as does the frank admission by both the teller and audience that the jokes are “sick.” For this reason, scholars have tried to identify common themes that underlie the majority of jokes in a cycle and have looked at the demographics of the group circulating them to identify the social functions this form of humor might carry out.